The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound 12 characters

Appears from the start

A member of the Swak family whom Randidly is preparing to confront while his damaged left arm is failing. The approaching Zurt Brigade prevents Randidly from moving against him immediately.

Appears from the start

Randidly's soulbound partner is an Aether and engraving specialist. She studies Yestix's living engravings in hopes of helping him replace his damaged arm, and she can conceal her bone-worm identity with an illusion.

Also known as Randidly, Ghosthound

Appears from the start

Karen's founder and Earth's protector begins this volume under pressure from several directions. He is training Yggdrasil, the Stillborn Phoenix, and the Grim Chimera to act through one body, while his damaged metal left arm is failing and a major Nether assault threatens Earth.

Appears from the start

A visibly troubled Nemesai who arrives with a winged serpent under an agreement with Randidly. Thea helps deliver a mysterious weapon while showing fear, anger, and envy after her time away.

Appears from the start

The creator of a body of living-engraving work that Nevaeh is studying. Randidly needs to understand this material before it can help improve his failing arm.

Appears from the start

A winged serpent that arrives with Thea Glasshammer under the Nemesai agreement and brings Randidly a mysterious weapon.

First appears in chapter 2

Randidly's eager living spear is sent away to kill powerful monsters and gather their bones for his replacement arm. Acri is both a weapon and an active companion capable of pursuing a task independently.

First appears in chapter 2

A figure whose living status is a central source of doubt for Thea. She rejects Randidly’s assurance that Chrysanthemum is alive.

First appears in chapter 3

A trusted offworld combat leader whom Randidly leaves visible when the Zurt Brigade inspects Earth. Her presence helps his preparations appear ordinary while his other offworld associates remain concealed.

First appears in chapter 3

Randidly's contact in the Zurt Brigade. She advises him on how to handle the visiting investigators and warns him to appear unexceptional before the ambitious Smog Clan captain.

First appears in chapter 4

The Smog Clan commander leads the Zurt Brigade inspection force on Earth. Captain Quill establishes a temporary command center on Randidly's island while his forces complete their work.

First appears in chapter 4

Captain Quill's gray-skinned aide and a skilled evaluator of engravings. Wuva accompanies Quill when the Zurt Brigade establishes its temporary base on Randidly's island.

First appears in chapter 4

A guard at Zone 1's restricted Mjolnir facility. His shift creates the opening Acri uses to enter the complex and reach its large stock of monster cores, placing him at the edge of Randidly's effort to build a replacement arm.

First appears in chapter 5

An Order Dukies applicant whose combat class is suited to clearing groups of monsters. Derek helps welcome survivors recruited for Karen and explains that citizenship brings demanding training and a duty to defend other people.

First appears in chapter 5

Derek Moss's mentor in the Order Dukies. Naffer presents the order as a way for ordinary people to build strength of their own.

First appears in chapter 5

Karen's civic leader manages the city's shortages of space, teachers, industry coordination, and predictable travel. She gives Randidly room to set broad priorities while preparing to turn his ambitious expansion ideas into workable administration.

First appears in chapter 6

A long-incapacitated fighter under Sydney’s care. He has suffered severe pain for nearly a year, and Sydney remains at his bedside.

First appears in chapter 6

Firun relentlessly hunts the Nemesai after their interference almost sent Ifran into the sea.

First appears in chapter 6

Naffer's prospective wife. Maureen asks Randidly to approve their marriage because she regards him as a father figure in Naffer's life.

First appears in chapter 6

Drake's protector and Ace's former partner cares for Drake through a long, unexplained incapacitation. When Thea tries to provoke her, Sydney suppresses her anger with a cold image and refuses the offered fight.

First appears in chapter 8

A paralyzed Zone 1 fighter following a deviant path. Nether use has left him in continual pain, but he remains involved in the president's plan to infiltrate and betray a joint expedition for control of a runic tablet.

First appears in chapter 8

Zone 1's president is under impeachment pressure when she orders Nether-using subordinates to join an expedition, betray its allies, and seize a runic tablet. Her decision presents political survival as worth a planned attack on rival forces.

Also known as Ace

First appears in chapter 9

Randidly's former friend possesses Yestix's stolen memories even though they reject his attempts to use them. He is also cultivating an immense fleshy egg fed by negative emotion, making his hidden work an urgent danger.

First appears in chapter 9

A highly influential child in Karen whose inherited Aether connection helps her lead other children. Tatiana compares Delilah's influence among the young to the authority Randidly carries among adults.

First appears in chapter 10

Karen’s committed chief of police. Commissioner Arrietty reports that public interest in joining the Order Dukies has increased after refugees witnessed the order fighting.

First appears in chapter 10

An undead Hero living under Nevaeh's care. Something experienced while dead has left Roy disturbingly resigned, and his refusal to discuss the change makes his passive obedience more troubling to her.

First appears in chapter 11

An engraving specialist whom Randidly recruits to help guide the development of Karen Academy.

First appears in chapter 11

Donington's absent village spirit has not been seen for several weeks. Her unexplained disappearance matters to Randidly as he checks the people and places he may leave behind when he travels to the Nexus.

First appears in chapter 11

An engineer who examines Randidly's failed metallic arm and advises how it might be reinforced. She also provides technical guidance for the developing Karen Academy.

First appears in chapter 14

A Zurt Brigade investigator intent on proving that Randidly is a Nether agent. He enters Randidly's prepared enclosure, deploys a suppression space, and isolates his target from both Nevaeh and the Nether power on which the trap depends.

First appears in chapter 13

Ace's collaborator watches Randidly's preparations with him and helps ready the large egg intended to disrupt the coming confrontation.

First appears in chapter 25

A spear fighter who responds to the recent destructive battle by training harder. Alana decides Earth must develop defenders who do not depend on Randidly and prepares to enter his duos tournament with a powerful partner.

First appears in chapter 25

Alana's frost-dragon partner and a broodmother. Wyvanya urges Alana to enter the duos tournament with her and already has a preferred name for Earth if they win the naming tablet that serves as its prize.

First appears in chapter 26

Ace's grieving former second-in-command is digging his grave when Randidly finds her. An observant analyst with broad skill knowledge, Rose helps bury Ace and then asks Randidly to give her useful work.

First appears in chapter 27

A provisional Karen investigator whose passive image worsens surrounding circumstances when her emotions slip. Heidi works with Derek to examine an attempted killing, using the violent image traces left at the scene.

Also known as Bagel Guy

First appears in chapter 27

The injured owner of a bagel shop and the witness in Derek and Heidi's investigation of an attempted killing. Gary exaggerates how well he resisted the attack, while the image traces show that he was nearly killed.

Also known as Tim, Timothy

First appears in chapter 29

Derek's young son has a rare affinity with Karen's moss spirits and an ability that seems to teach him image use naturally. Randidly considers whether Timothy could learn the specialized engraving needed to create permanent floating islands.

First appears in chapter 29

A contact whose advice Randidly awaits while considering a dungeon as a place to train his unstable images.

First appears in chapter 35

Randidly's offworld contact is mentally depleted while undergoing severe training. Their secret Nether Ritual allows him to reach her.

First appears in chapter 38

An experienced construction professional whom Randidly recruits to advise the Karen Academy project.

First appears in chapter 39

The first Karen citizenship applicant to complete the image challenge is also an accomplished educator. Gertrude can hold the attention of more than a hundred children with simple illusions shaped by clear motives.

First appears in chapter 41

An elite smith with a longstanding friendship and Aether bond to Randidly. Sam agrees to support Karen Academy's specialized construction in exchange for the first human expedition to a corrupted world.

First appears in chapter 43

An Academy worker who joins Randidly's planned six-month dungeon expedition. Dinesh is part of the mixed contingent using the isolated space for combat training, construction, and institutional planning.

First appears in chapter 43

A combat trainer assigned alongside Helen to prepare Karen's police force during its six-month dungeon expedition.

First appears in chapter 54

The memory portrays this figure as the System's creator and as having once been married to the woman who appears with Lyra's face. He uses runes to keep her pure-energy child intact, then confines that being as the System's power source.

First appears in chapter 54

This unnamed being was born from a union between a Nether King and the woman who resembles Lyra. The Aether historian prevents his energy from dispersing, but holds him captive to power the System. Records sealed on Halom could help Nevaeh devise a rescue.

First appears in chapter 54

Appearing with Lyra's face, this woman says the historian was once her husband. She directs Randidly toward sealed records on Halom that could help Nevaeh release her confined son.

First appears in chapter 55

Delilah's father reacts protectively when she reports that a boy named Anon claimed she loved him.

First appears in chapter 57

Donington’s leader enters the duos tournament with Glendal, whose captured raid-boss spirits overwhelm opponents during their desert preliminary.

First appears in chapter 57

Hank Howard's horse and his declared tournament partner. Ancho is not presented as a conventional combatant, but his place in Hank's identity is essential to the marksman's image and to the partnership they bring into the contest.

First appears in chapter 57

Donington’s ghost-using tournament partner. Glendal deploys captured raid-boss spirits against opponents in a desert preliminary.

Also known as Hank

First appears in chapter 57

A marksman who enters the duos tournament with his ordinary horse rather than a conventional fighter. Hank treats Ancho as an inseparable part of his gunslinger image, making their partnership more substantial than it first appears.

First appears in chapter 57

Dinesh’s tournament partner first appears opposite Lyra and her unresponsive partner in a mist-filled preliminary. Their opening confrontation begins as Lyra clears the mist during her exchange with Tykes.

First appears in chapter 57

Lyra's living tournament partner is physically present during the mist-filled preliminary but remains unresponsive when Dinesh addresses him.

First appears in chapter 59

A tournament fighter who competes alongside Kale under a wager that has them exchange their usual weapons.

First appears in chapter 63

A concealed tournament identity paired with Richter and listed among the projected semifinalists. The person behind the title is not yet established.

First appears in chapter 63

Lucifer’s tournament partner and one of the contestants identified during a live broadcast as a projected semifinalist.

First appears in chapter 63

Juliana's tournament partner and one of the contestants identified during a live broadcast as a projected semifinalist.

First appears in chapter 58

An adopted member of the Huang family who serves as Zone 7’s royal-guard captain. He prepares to enter the tournament alongside an older adoptive relative despite political strain between them.

First appears in chapter 58

The Zone 7 captain’s older adoptive relative and tournament partner. This politically influential elder joins him as they prepare to compete despite strain between them.

Also known as Theodora Grayman

First appears in chapter 69

Black Hand is revealed as the impeached former president Theodora Grayman. She has converted more of her body into a source of caustic Nether power for the tournament fight, exposing the connection between the political figure and the masked combatant.

First appears in chapter 70

Zone 7's captain and Huang Shou's adoptive grandson. After reaching the tournament quarterfinals, he struggles with contamination in his wounded image and the prospect of facing Paolo and Kale.

First appears in chapter 70

Huang Li's adoptive grandfather and tournament partner. He identifies the foreign influence destabilizing Huang Li's wounded image and redirects him toward confidence in his accumulated effort.

First appears in chapter 65

The crab-mutated owner of an isolated villa operates banks and lending businesses whose influence has reached Karen through their customers. Randidly confronts him while assessing social pressures that could threaten the city after his departure.

Also known as Vuala

First appears in chapter 72

The drain is Vuala's new identity after she gives up her former Nexus citizenship. She needs active-cohort citizenship coins from Randidly to pursue Tier Three standing and a civilian position on the Nexus Council.

Also known as Donington’s leader

First appears in chapter 76

Donington’s leader, now identified as Donnie, partners with Glendal in the duos tournament. Their defensive effort is overcome by Tykes and Dinesh in the fight for a semifinal place.

First appears in chapter 112

Randidly's official guide meets him at a crowded relay after his arrival in the Nexus. The overseer bypasses the ordinary queue and begins escorting him toward the Nexus proper, giving him his first direct contact there.

First appears in chapter 111

An independent artificial intelligence whose concealed production operation Randidly moves to the former winged-serpent island. In return for a future favor from Randidly or Nevaeh, it agrees to aid Karen as many as three times and remain available through the city's calamities.

First appears in chapter 111

One of Randidly's original soul seeds, now sufficiently independent that he advises Arbor to choose a purposeful life of its own.

First appears in chapter 111

One of Randidly's original soul seeds, now acting independently. Thorn intends to root at Xperia's center and protect its people.

First appears in chapter 113

A dangerous older near-double of Vuala whom Randidly meets in the Nexus Undercity. Her exact relationship to Vuala is not explained when she offers him a position as a military drill sergeant in an emergency program.

First appears in chapter 114

A frontline military leader allied with the original Vuala's faction. She arranges Randidly's tribunal interview and instructs him to display only the controlled healing aspect of Yggdrasil before the divided panel.

First appears in chapter 115

A Zurt Brigade investigator on the Nexus tribunal that tests Randidly's image control and suitability for military command. At the investigator's request, Randidly works around the room's wards to manifest a physical tree. The investigator then abstains from the initial decision.

First appears in chapter 117

A senior Nexus military authority who maims a Swak-family applicant for insubordination. Wick then makes Randidly's reconsideration for head drill sergeant conditional on healing the injured applicant.

First appears in chapter 117

A metallic applicant from the Swak family whom Commandant Wick maims for insubordination. Wick makes healing the applicant the condition for reconsidering Randidly’s candidacy.

First appears in chapter 120

An energy reader in a deep-Web household who gives Randidly three territory coins as insurance against failure. The organizer brings together people who want to change how the Nexus treats lives and worlds.