The Dragon Republic characters

Also known as Fang Runin

Appears from the start

Commander of what is left of the Cike, and both the most useful and the most feared person in Nikan: the shaman whose fire ended the last war by destroying the Federation's home islands. A year on she is dependent on opium, arguing in her head with a dead commander, and fixed on a single objective - killing the empress who sold Speer to the Federation. Her god answers her far less reliably than it once did, and she has nobody left who can tell her why.

Appears from the start

Rin's oldest friend, the defence minister's son, who survived the massacre at Golyn Niis and has not recovered from it. He has attached himself to Rin as her strategist and the only person who will tell her the truth, while making no secret of what he thinks of what she did to Mugen.

Appears from the start

The Hinterlander shaman who served Altan and now serves Rin without pretending to respect her. He can leave his body, read minds, and steady a shaman who is losing themselves to their god, and he understands what is wrong with Rin better than she does.

Appears from the start

Chaghan's twin sister and the Cike's archer and scout, who sees through the eyes of her birds and speaks only when she has something to say.

Appears from the start

A Cike veteran who fights with a nine-pointed rake and channels a boar god, and who has followed three commanders without complaining about any of them.

Appears from the start

An enormous Cike soldier who channels a monkey god and works constantly to keep it from taking him over entirely.

Appears from the start

The Cike's explosives-maker, the youngest of them, one-eyed and reckless, and the only member of the unit who treats the work as fun.

First appears in chapter 4

The ruler of the free port of Ankhiluun, who has kept her city outside imperial control by controlling everything that moves through it. She hires the Cike, bargains hard, and keeps her own counsel about what she intends to do with them.

Also known as The Empress, The Vipress

First appears in chapter 9

The empress of Nikan, unaged in two decades on the throne, who holds the twelve provincial warlords together by playing them against one another. Rin knows what she did to Speer and comes for her intending to kill her.

First appears in chapter 10

Rin's rival from Sinegard, who did not die at Khurdalain as she believed. He serves as an officer in his father's army at Arlong: scarred, disciplined, considerably changed by the last war, and no more inclined than before to explain himself to her.

First appears in chapter 10

Warlord of the Dragon Province and Nezha's father: cold, precise, and the only Nikara ruler with a modern fleet, a trained army and foreign allies. He has spent years preparing to replace the Empire with a republic modelled on the Hesperian west, and he wants Rin's fire to do it with.

First appears in chapter 13

Vaisra's eldest son and Nezha's elder brother, given command of the Republic's river fleet. Confident, conventionally capable, and dismissive of shamans and of everyone who is not from his province.

First appears in chapter 13

A Sinegard classmate of Rin's who was taken prisoner when Golyn Niis fell and survived captivity there. Harder and far quieter than the girl Rin knew at school, she attaches herself to Rin's unit and proves to be a first-rate shot.

First appears in chapter 15

A Hesperian missionary and natural scientist attached to the western delegation supporting Vaisra. Courteous, tireless and entirely certain that shamanism is a disease of the mind rather than contact with a god, she asks for permission to study Rin and does not take refusal as final.

First appears in chapter 24

The wind shaman loosed from the Chuluu Korikh during the last war, now wholly given over to his god. He answers to nobody, cannot be bargained with, and is capable of destroying ships and armies by himself.