The Curse of Home characters

Appears from the start

A hunted death wizard who has returned from the afterlife. Damage left by demonic magic still threatens his sanity, and the protection supplied by Ember's distant magic is weakening while he tries to conceal four dangerous tokens.

Appears from the start

A demon seeking four afterlife tokens that Kael has hidden. Their concealment is temporary, leaving Kael responsible for moving them before the demon can recover them.

Appears from the start

Kael's wife and a Fae leader working in the Fae Islands. Her magic has helped stabilize Kael's damaged mind, but distance and time are reducing its effect. She is leading work away from Kael when his allies divide between reinforcing her and concealing the tokens.

Appears from the start

A longstanding ally of Kael who argues that the teenage pikeman should be allowed to join the dangerous mission to conceal the tokens. He is among the trusted companions helping Kael decide how to divide their forces between Ember's relief mission and the token threat.

Appears from the start

The pirate captain commanding a fleet equipped with cannons. He offers the ships to Kael's alliance after ancient forces seize the fleet's engineer and violate an earlier transport agreement.

Appears from the start

An ancient assassin and one of Kael's protectors. She joins the force sent to reinforce Ember.

Appears from the start

A young spear fighter considered for Kael's token mission. Max supports taking him, but Kael first intends to determine whether he can function under extreme fear. His lack of experience makes that decision important because the proposed route involves dangers beyond ordinary military service.

Appears from the start

The specialist responsible for the pirate fleet's cannons and gunpowder. Ancient forces have taken him prisoner, creating the danger that his weapons knowledge could be used against the southern lands.

First appears in chapter 2

A civilian Ritek historian imprisoned beside the human engineer. She opposes the renewed war and receives his help after being placed in captivity. Her dissent shows that support for conquest is not universal among the Ritek, even as their interrogators continue seeking the engineer's knowledge.

First appears in chapter 3

A vampire who helps Kael stage a test of the teenage pikeman. Her venom and frightening transformed appearance make the false interrogation convincing. She is trusted with a dangerous role in the test and remains one of the companions supporting Kael's preparations.

First appears in chapter 4

A surviving priestess who conceals an escape operation after the seal island's defenders fall. She spends life force to maintain protective magic while hiding selected Ritek and Kohari for an attempt to seize a pirate vessel.

First appears in chapter 6

An allied necromancer ruler who helps Kael prepare a burial ground as the hiding place for a demonic token. He works with Kael and the burial-ground caretakers to place the object behind glyphs, undead defenders, and wall-bound golems without expecting civilians to resist an archdemon directly.

First appears in chapter 6

An allied necromancer ruler who joins Kael's effort to conceal a demonic token behind the defenses of a large burial ground. She helps coordinate a hiding place protected by marked caretakers, undead defenders, and golems while Kael prepares to move the remaining tokens elsewhere.

First appears in chapter 7

A southern ruler who can be difficult and wary but has supported the allied necromancers. A false report that Kael plans to assassinate him leads to Kael's party being detained near his palace.

First appears in chapter 8

A royal officer and former member of a desert monster-hunting order. The southern king assigns her to escort Kael toward the order's territory as part of a negotiated exchange.

First appears in chapter 9

A spirit living within Kael's mind. The spirit can restore his lost ability to understand and speak the Araki language, but warns that using this power opens a dangerous door.

First appears in chapter 10

The mage commander of the scorpion people. The commander accepts custody of a demon-linked token from Kael and agrees that the community will guard it, while preserving their claim to avenge one of their people if Kael returns.

First appears in chapter 11

A former Dead Sister traveling with her daughter and displaced survivors. She remains hidden from Kael while quietly killing bounty hunters who are preparing to capture him. Her protection allows his party to continue toward the mountains without learning that she is nearby.

First appears in chapter 11

The organizer and financier of a permitted caravan seeking a hidden ancient crypt near the archdemon's caverns. He offers Kael's group transport and supplies in exchange for magical protection on the journey.

First appears in chapter 12

The ancient-aligned magistrate governing Bender's Pass. He recognizes the destination of Kael's caravan, suppresses the party's magic, and uses the other travelers as leverage to force an expedition for binding stones.

First appears in chapter 13

The unusually communicative wraith guarding the Heliscore ruins. It responds to Kael's death magic, permits him to enter alone, and guides him to a sealed underground laboratory.

First appears in chapter 15

A caravan adventurer revealed to be an ancient being in disguise. He opposes Ritek rule, kills the magistrate before an alert can be sent, and preserves the binding stones Kael concealed.

First appears in chapter 15

One of a surviving pair of ancient siblings. She remains undecided about Ritek rule and continues watching Kael while waiting for proof that he could matter in a larger conflict.

First appears in chapter 16

The Ritek ruler who makes recovering her people's hidden magic a higher priority than healing the Black Chasm. She orders the deaths of Kael, all death wizards including Black Sun children, and her own daughter, the Nazca priestess.

First appears in chapter 17

The dragonkin ruler who holds Kael to a one-year bargain to recover her daughter and the dragons stranded in another dimension. She requires him to remain on the islands until he can attempt the rescue.

First appears in chapter 18

The dragonkin queen's lost daughter, found as a blind grey dragon after roughly a thousand years in another dimension. She has survived the fading of magic there, although living in dragon form has left her largely feral.

First appears in chapter 23

A wizard who takes the last two demon-linked tokens from Kael in Death Valley. He seals one inside cave stone and carries the other within runic clothing, then refuses to transport Kael's party across a chasm he considers deadly for several travelers.

First appears in chapter 24

The leader of a Kohari group hunting children born under Black Suns with Ritek institutional approval. He ambushes Kael with soul-targeting magic and poison arrows, then escapes after losing a hand.

First appears in chapter 25

Kael's daughter and a child born under the first new Black Sun. She lives in New Cairnwood with her mother, who has kept her safe alongside other magically gifted children.

First appears in chapter 25

A teenage death wizard living under the former Dead Sister's protection in New Cairnwood. Her dark magic is powerful but unstable, and she uses it to help defend the settlement.

First appears in chapter 25

Kenna's teenage brother and a defender of New Cairnwood. His blue shield can protect the settlement's gate from both arrows and magic. He uses that defensive ability beside his sister when tax collectors threaten the community, showing that the siblings already share responsibility for its safety.

First appears in chapter 26

An ambitious mayor pursuing mining rights in land protected as a massacre burial site. He proposes that Kael join a new kingdom being planned with the Blackwall warlord.

First appears in chapter 26

The military partner in Devon Waller's proposed new kingdom. Devon presents the warlord as the planned general for an expansion alliance and asks Kael to cooperate with them.

First appears in chapter 27

A Ritek conspirator who participates in the trap at the Blackwall fortress. He acknowledges a connection between interference at the Black Chasm and damage to mortal magic, then escapes after being wounded.

First appears in chapter 28

A memory-impaired divine figure with an unexplained connection to a remote pre-cataclysm fortress. He locates it on an old map, warns Kael about the region, and gives him an ancient dagger that must not be altered.

First appears in chapter 30

A curse-bound guardian who appears in the abandoned village near the fortress. She warns Kael's advance party to turn back and says her more powerful brother will stop them if they continue.

First appears in chapter 33

The immense lantern-bearing protector of the basilica and castle. It arrives after the female guardian confronts Kael's group, forcing the advance party toward a trap beneath the altar.

First appears in chapter 34

A demon who keeps the curse-bound guardian alive because it anchors the fortress's curse. She intervenes when Kael's group wounds the creature and explains why killing it will not end the danger.

First appears in chapter 35

The ancient Northman released when the giant guardian's remains form a cocoon. He explains that an invasive infection transformed him and that he used dangerous red-magic runes to hold back the fortress's purple corruption.

First appears in chapter 37

A Ritek priest who searches the Black Chasm's magical network for his people's lost original power. After recovering a limited source, he is appointed to command the new outpost built around it.

First appears in chapter 37

A knight-mage from a neighboring kingdom who receives covert support to investigate Ritek interference. Working under the cover of studying Ritek magic, the investigator seeks corroboration for reports linking the Ritek to the failed dragon rescue.