The Queen of Nothing characters

Appears from the start

The mortal High Queen of Elfhame, exiled to the human world by the husband she married minutes before he banished her. She is living in a flat with her sisters and her small brother, unable to return to Faerie, unwilling to be idle, and taking paid errands from the fey who pass through the mortal world so that she keeps her hand in. She is furious, bored, and waiting for any excuse to go back.

Also known as Vivi

Appears from the start

The eldest Duarte sister, half fey, who has built the mortal life she always wanted and now shares it with an exiled queen, a bored little brother and a girlfriend who has learned more about Faerie than she was ever meant to. She has little sympathy for Jude's homesickness for a place that nearly killed her.

Appears from the start

Vivi's mortal girlfriend, who now knows what the family she attached herself to actually is. The knowledge has not been easy to carry, and the relationship is strained by what was hidden from her and by what was done to make her forget.

Appears from the start

Jude's young half-brother, secretly the son of the murdered Prince Dain and the heir every faction in Faerie would like to control. He is growing up in the mortal world, happy in it, and old enough now to notice that his family keeps arranging his life around a throne he has never seen.

First appears in chapter 3

A redcap general driven out of her own court and living rough in the mortal world, where she hunts and eats humans. Enormous, brutally direct and delighted by a good fight, she recognises a fellow professional in Jude and proves a useful source on the state of the war brewing back in Faerie.

First appears in chapter 4

Jude's twin, who arrives in the mortal world with a dead husband and a problem. Married into the fey gentry and now widowed, she needs someone to answer for Locke's death before the High King's court, and she needs that someone to be a person who cannot be compelled into telling the truth.

First appears in chapter 4

Taryn's husband, the fox-haired fey lord who once courted both Duarte sisters at the same time and never stopped treating the people around him as material for entertainment. He is dead before the book begins, and how he died is the question that pulls Jude back into Faerie.

First appears in chapter 6

The explosives expert of the Court of Shadows, still loyal to Jude and still willing to cross a border to bring her word of what is happening at court. She is one of the few people in Faerie who treats the exiled queen as though she still holds an office.

First appears in chapter 8

The High King of Elfhame, ruling a realm sliding into civil war. He exiled Jude in front of the whole court and has said nothing publicly about the marriage that preceded it. He is more competent as a king than anyone expected and less forthcoming about his reasons than Jude can tolerate.

First appears in chapter 8

Jude's adoptive father, now in open rebellion. He has taken the north, allied himself with a cold and vicious court from the frozen reaches, and means to take the crown of Elfhame by force and rule with the wars he has always wanted. He would still prefer his mortal daughter alive and on his side, and he is entirely prepared to proceed without her.

First appears in chapter 12

Madoc's fey wife and Oak's mother, caught between a husband in rebellion and a son every faction wants to crown. She has never liked Jude and has never had any illusions about what the court would do to a child heir.

First appears in chapter 12

Princess of the Undersea and now its representative in the land's affairs, Cardan's former sweetheart and Locke's former lover. Her contempt for mortals is undimmed, but the sea's interest in who ends up wearing the crown of Elfhame makes her a party to the war.

First appears in chapter 19

A legendary smith, long exiled and lately restored to favour, whose work is prized across Faerie and whose loyalty turns out to run to whoever offers him the most interesting commission. He is capable of making things that no one else can make, including crowns, and he has a habit of building a flaw into his masterpieces.

First appears in chapter 19

Co-ruler of the Court of Teeth, a cruel northern court that has allied itself with Madoc. She and her consort keep their power through a stolen child and are practised at breaking people to obedience rather than persuading them.

Also known as Suren

First appears in chapter 19

A small, ragged girl who is the nominal queen of the Court of Teeth, kept obedient by an enchanted bridle her guardians control. She was taken from a mortal family as a child and has been used as an instrument ever since. She says almost nothing, and she watches everything.