Rise of the Living Forge 5 characters

Also known as Ifrit, the Hero of Lian

Appears from the start

The former Hero of Lian, presumed dead since the explosion that ended a secretly staged war, now living in Milten behind the mask of the smith Ifrit and leading the guild Menagerie from Lillia's tavern. He carries the unique Living Forge class and a curse, the Hungering Maw, that forces him to devour magic to survive; his smithy is the sentient Infernal Armory and his hammer, Caldera, an evolved living weapon. As book 5 opens he attends the Adept Proving Grounds only as a spectator, unable to fight for fear of recognition, while two teams he equipped compete.

Also known as the Demon Queen

Appears from the start

The former Demon Queen, stripped of her old power by the same explosion that felled Arwin, now hiding in Milten as the innkeeper of the monster-themed Devil's Den. She carries the unique Hearthkeeper class, which grows stronger through the guests she feeds and lodges, and her tavern is bonded to her as a powerful familiar. Arwin's partner and a founding member of the Menagerie, she keeps the guild's home base thriving while the tournament proceeds far away, and despises needless killing.

Appears from the start

A former street thief of Milten and full member of the Menagerie, carrying the unique Warden class built on restraint and control rather than killing. Guarded and shaped by a hard childhood, she is fiercely loyal to Arwin and a lifelong expert sneak. At the Proving Grounds she serves as his eyes, using an item he made to walk through walls and move unseen while she scouts the competing teams.

Appears from the start

A scarred, battle-tested warrior and full member of the Menagerie who lost her right arm years ago and now fights with a cursed wooden replacement that augments her strength and hungers for death. Loyal and quietly proud, she competes at the Proving Grounds as the third fighter for the allied guild Phoenix Circle, carrying the private weight of a personal Challenge tied to her lost arm.

Also known as the drunkard, Koyu the Lost

Appears from the start

A centuries-old lich, long known on Arwin's street only as a harmless blue-eyed drunkard before revealing himself as its silent guardian of some seven hundred years and the source of the neighborhood's ghost rumors. Allied to Arwin, he helped forge the core of the Soul Guardian and awaits the new body Arwin promised him. He senses that the world itself is slowly starving.

Appears from the start

A dwarven master smith and Arwin's informal mentor, a purist steeped in the dwarves' craft and their long trade in weapons and materials. Gruff but genuinely fond of Arwin, he is one of the few who knows something of the smith's methods, and Arwin turns to him for guidance as he pushes his craft toward ever more ambitious work.

Appears from the start

A steady warrior in heavy plate and founding member of the Menagerie, married to the healer Anna. Once a genuine paladin who lost his holy class, he now fights as an ordinary man-at-arms and serves as the guild's tactical mind. Behind the scenes he runs an extensive network of street informants, and his intelligence work repeatedly proves decisive in guarding the guild against threats others cannot see.

Appears from the start

A kind, forthright healer and member of the Menagerie, married to Rodrick. An ordinary healer rather than a battle-mage, her power is limited by her own energy, yet she is the guild's lifeline through its hardest fights. Her guarded past includes a rare command of poisons and a history with the Secret Eye that she keeps closely held.

Appears from the start

The elderly, archaic-mannered proprietor of a cluttered curiosity shop who secretly deals in cursed items and can sense a person's greed. Her shop can open its doors to almost any location, letting her bypass ordinary travel controls. Eccentric and prone to demanding odd payments, she has attached herself to the Menagerie and its projects, though she operates under rules of her own that she rarely explains.

Also known as Kien of the Twin Blades

Appears from the start

An extremely powerful adventurer once renowned as Kien of the Twin Blades and a former solo champion of the Proving Grounds, whose magic and strength were stolen by his own brother, Hein, through an enchanted dagger. Left powerless, he earned a new class and now fights with a soul-imprinted weapon that is, outwardly, a plain broom. He competes for the Menagerie-backed Thornhelm team alongside Art and Vix, intent on finding and killing Hein, who has entered the tournament wielding his stolen power.

Appears from the start

Duke Aleric's teenage son and reluctant heir to a declining noble house in Thornhelm. Born with a malformed leg, he cannot fight and walks with a crutch, but he is a formidable strategist who keeps detailed intelligence on people in a deck of illustrated cards. He competes at the Proving Grounds beside his sister Vix and Kien, the family's last hope to win a prize that might cure her, and has become a close ally of the Menagerie.

Appears from the start

Art's sister and the fighting strength of Duke Aleric's house in Thornhelm, an elite but visibly ailing warrior dying of a congenital heart condition with only a few years left. She competes at the Proving Grounds alongside her brother and Kien, staking everything on the tournament's prize as her family's last chance at a cure and at restoring their standing.

Appears from the start

A bandaged, reserved fighter of the struggling guild Phoenix Circle, wrapped head to foot in cloth and evasive about himself, who partners with the Menagerie for the Proving Grounds. He fights beside Olive and his close companion Maeve, and leaves the impression of being something other than he appears.

Appears from the start

A tall, masked, mute fighter of Phoenix Circle, introduced as Elias's companion and never far from his side. Armed with daggers and unusually strong, she keeps her true strength deliberately held back and is not human. She fights beside Olive and Elias on the Menagerie-partnered team at the Proving Grounds.

First appears in chapter 6

An observer for the Secret Eye, the body that ranks guilds and runs the Proving Grounds. Carried from the Menagerie's earlier dealings, she brought the guild into the tournament and continues to watch its teams and Reya's movements from among the event's staff, weighing the Menagerie as she would any other competitor.

First appears in chapter 9

Kien's estranged younger brother, competing alone at the Proving Grounds while flanked by two silent cloaked attendants. He carries an enchanted dagger that harms only through bare flesh, the same blade with which he stole his brother's magic and strength, and he keeps his true power hidden. Kien has entered the tournament to find and kill him.

First appears in chapter 13

An operative of the Setting Sun, the numbered organization tied to the late assassin Twelve. Sleep-loving and reluctant, she is sent by her superior One to scout the Proving Grounds for potential recruits whose classes can be 'sun-set.' Watching from a rented viewing room, she is unsettled by the lethal power of the gear the Menagerie's fighters carry and begins studying the guild in earnest.

First appears in chapter 18

A mysterious master smith, treated as the rival dwarven soul-smith the Secret Eye warned Arwin about. His durable soul-forged armor turns up equipping the Starforge team at the Proving Grounds, but his identity, methods, and true purpose remain unknown.

First appears in chapter 52

A merchant and Arwin's metal supplier, and secretly a vampire. Once a soldier in Lillia's old army, he recognized his former queen and swore himself to her service. Formal and theatrical but quick to violence when crossed, he keeps the smithy stocked and, as the guild's fame and takings surge during the tournament, helps move its growing fortune to safety.

First appears in chapter 71

An untrained noble boy of about fifteen, second in line to the wealthy House Blacktongue, whose parents mean to purchase him a powerful class through a paid delve into an expert-tier dungeon. An obsessive researcher who has studied the Menagerie closely, he is odd, humble, and sharp, and he has calmly calculated that he will not survive the delve. He becomes the Menagerie's escort charge.

First appears in chapter 85

A Dwarven Master Smith, trained by and daughter to the Dwarven Council member Indrana, who arrives in Milten posing as a wandering challenger smith. Her real aim is to discover which dwarf broke dwarven law by teaching a human the craft. Arrogant and certain of her master's near-artifact hammer, she wagers it against Arwin and loses both the bet and the hammer, and is left publicly humiliated.

First appears in chapter 96

A Councilwoman of the Dwarven Council and Ida's mother, unwilling to believe Arwin could smith at a master's level without stolen dwarven techniques. Overriding her daughter, she sends the warrior Gideon to kill the smith Ifrit, offering Ida's hand in marriage as the reward and treating her daughter as a bargaining chip in her own political ambitions. She acts from a distance through a telepathic stone.

First appears in chapter 96

A dwarf warrior of the Dwarven Council serving under Indrana, and Ida's unwanted longtime suitor. Arrogant and boastful, he is clad head to toe in Indrana's high-grade gold-and-silver enchanted armor and wields a huge magical axe he can dismiss and recall to hand. He is sent to Milten to kill the smith Ifrit in exchange for Ida's hand in marriage.