The Land: Founding characters

Also known as Silk, James

First appears in chapter 3

A top-ranked player of an immersive virtual-reality game set in a world called the Land. Breaking into a long-sealed castle in search of treasure, he places his hand on a ritual pedestal and answers three questions, agreeing to go first and prepare the way for others. The ritual voice accepts his answers, and the scene breaks off on a flash of white before anything more is revealed.

First appears in chapter 2

An exiled member of the Dark Court, confined with the other exiles inside the Land, a sealed pocket dimension. Bored with the court's politics and secretly finished with his imprisonment, he has spent centuries engineering an escape: because the prison cannot be broken from within, he means to destroy the Land itself. To that end he has quietly arranged for Earth's people, whose innate spark of chaos could unmake the world, to be drawn in through a virtual-reality game.

First appears in chapter 2

The exiled prince's closest ally among the Dark Court, permanently hooded and with his true form never revealed. He supplies the strategy behind the prince's scheme: that destroying the Land would break its seal and free every exile, and that a game promising Earth's people escape into another world would draw them in willingly, satisfying the requirement that they come of their own free will.

First appears in chapter 4

A small, gray-skinned, bat-winged imp roughly a foot tall who greets the protagonist moments after his arrival and explains the rules of his new existence: that the transport is real, that pain and death now carry genuine stakes, and that his old game levels count for nothing. He claims to be an eternal being paid to orient new arrivals, and warns that the name he offers is not his true one, since a real name grants power over its bearer.

First appears in chapter 6

The Hearth Mother and leader of the wood sprites of Nadria: a small, red-haired, green-eyed figure who speaks for and protects her people. Sensing that the newcomer is neither wicked nor especially good, she offers him passage through sprite territory in exchange for hunting down the diseased wolves plaguing the forest, and equips him with enchanted arrows for the task.

First appears in chapter 7

A wood sprite assigned by the Hearth Mother to escort the protagonist on the wolf hunt. Taciturn and openly contemptuous of humans, he insists his people never question their leaders' orders and at first refuses to lend meaningful aid. He is a far more experienced archer and woodsman than the newcomer he reluctantly accompanies.

First appears in chapter 10

A goblin chieftain known by reputation before he is ever seen: a leader who has forced multiple normally-fractious goblin tribes into a single large host under his command. He is said to be searching a nearby ruined dungeon for an item of power that would let him gather an even greater horde, aided by a spellcaster among his followers.

First appears in chapter 10

An unnamed spellcaster serving the goblin chieftain, mentioned by a captured scout before ever being seen. Because goblin magic is tied to death and dark forces, he is the prime suspect behind the sickness driving the forest's wolves and other animals into rabid madness, though nothing has yet confirmed it.

First appears in chapter 13

The disembodied interface of a hidden ruined settlement that the protagonist unexpectedly comes to own. It describes itself as a remnant, an echo of the soul of the settlement's original chamberlain, left behind to guide future masters, and can appear as a small, rippling gray sphere. Speaking in a flat, deadpan tone, it can conjure simple labor constructs and manages the place in its master's absence. It is named after the mage who created it.

First appears in chapter 21

An older, even-tempered gate guard at the walled town of Leafs Crossing, and a former soldier. Where his younger partner is hostile toward non-humans, he is pragmatic: for a modest bribe he lets the protagonist and his sprite companion enter without proper papers, points them toward a contact who can process the paperwork, and later shares drinks with them as a friendly acquaintance.

First appears in chapter 21

The proprietor of the Whistling Hen, an inn in Leafs Crossing that still welcomes a mixed human and non-human clientele. Protective of her staff and patrons, she steps in when the protagonist's companion threatens her goblin cook. She explains how the kingdom of Eve has stripped rights from non-humans over the past decade, and agrees to help the protagonist find settlers for his village.

First appears in chapter 22

The cautious, well-organized keeper of the Laughing Imp, an inn in Eve's capital city of Law, and secretly the leader of a network that smuggles mistreated non-humans out of the kingdom. Slow to trust, he tests newcomers carefully before revealing himself, and sets the protagonist a condition to prove his intentions before he will extend full help in recruiting colonists.

First appears in chapter 23

A merchant in the city of Law dealing in gems and rare goods, introduced through a trusted contact. He buys the protagonist's accumulated gemstones and sells him a large haul of enchanted equipment, including a weight-reducing bag of holding and a bound magical map that records the places its bearer has visited.

First appears in chapter 23

A high elf spellcaster skilled in earth and water magic, whose family founded the magic shop Aldimah's Focus in the city of Law. She runs it alongside an old family friend. Working around a law that restricts magical instruction to licensed guilds, she sells the protagonist introductory spellbooks and potion recipes and helps identify recovered magical items.

First appears in chapter 23

An older human merchant who co-runs the magic shop Aldimah's Focus in the city of Law, a longtime family friend of the high elf whose family founded it.

First appears in chapter 24

A captive named among a group of non-humans freed from a criminal gang, though she herself is not among them: separated from the others days earlier, she had been sold into slavery on a noble's estate. Her disappearance becomes an urgent personal cause for the man who had arranged the group's escape.

First appears in chapter 24

A human fighter on the raid team that storms the criminal gang's hideout, pushing through the tunnels alongside the protagonist and the network's leader. He proves a steady, capable hand in close combat.

First appears in chapter 26

A small, formidable, widely respected labor agent who places workers with employers from a converted temple in Law's Grand Market. Known for absolute honesty and fierce loyalty to the people she places, she is slow to take the protagonist seriously until he proves a trusted contact vouched for him, then becomes central to recruiting colonists for his settlement.

First appears in chapter 27

A noble of the kingdom of Eve, a personal associate of the king and a chief backer of the laws stripping non-humans of their rights. The decoded records of a criminal gang reveal that he holds a sought-after captive in his personal chambers, and that he will soon leave the capital for the season, making any rescue a matter of days.

Also known as Randy

First appears in chapter 27

A tall, older human who once served as chamberlain to the late king of Eve, recommended by a trusted labor agent. The protagonist hires him to administer the growing settlement. The protagonist takes to calling him Randy.

First appears in chapter 27

An arcane gnome and adept dark sorceress, one of three seasoned volunteers who train the protagonist and his companion before a dangerous infiltration. Sensing through her own dark-magic affinity that he conceals the mark of a master of a place of power, she draws the secret into the open, the first time he reveals that status to anyone outside his own household. She teaches him dark magic for the coming mission.

First appears in chapter 28

A powerful human and, unusually, a holder of a true rogue's profession, who leads the criminal gang whose hideout the protagonist's raid had gutted. Having survived that attack, he tracks the group through the streets after their infiltration, having learned all of their names, and confronts them at the head of a fresh ambush.