Tiamat's Wrath characters

Appears from the start

A biologist who first studied alien life on the colony world Ilus and has spent the years since building a scientific career. Laconia has conscripted her expertise, given her a naval rank she never asked for and a research ship, and set her to work on the question of what destroyed the civilization that built the ring gates. She is competent, conscientious, and uncomfortably aware that refusing the empire is not an option.

Appears from the start

A geologist and Elvi's husband, wry and deflating in a way that keeps her steady. He has followed her into Laconian service and treats the whole arrangement with a running commentary that stops just short of what would get them both arrested.

First appears in chapter 2

Former engineer of the Rocinante, now the organizing intelligence of the underground resistance against Laconia. She lives alone inside shipping containers moved from ship to ship, never registering as a passenger, communicating only through couriers and delay, because she is too valuable and too recognizable to be seen. The isolation is deliberate and it is costing her.

First appears in chapter 3

The Rocinante's pilot, now flying for the resistance and old enough to feel every burn. He has a grown son he barely knows and a crew that has become the only family he has managed to keep, and he follows Bobbie's orders without needing them explained.

First appears in chapter 4

The fourteen-year-old daughter and only child of Laconia's high consul, raised inside the State Building to be the empire's heir. She is intelligent, rigorously educated, and almost entirely without company her own age; her closest attachments are her dog and a routine of lessons, ceremonies and security details. She has never had a reason to doubt her father.

First appears in chapter 4

High consul of Laconia and ruler of humanity, formerly the Martian admiral who took a fleet through the gates. Courteous, patient and genuinely affectionate toward his daughter, he governs on the principle that a single permanent authority is the only thing that can keep the species alive long enough to matter. He has been using the alien technology of his world on himself.

First appears in chapter 4

Teresa's dog, a large and enthusiastic animal who accompanies her on the walks that are the only unsupervised part of her day.

First appears in chapter 9

Laconia's chief scientist, the man responsible for the empire's protomolecule research and for the high consul's personal treatments. Brilliant, incurious about other people, and unhampered by any feeling that would slow an experiment down. He has been given effectively unlimited authority over what may be tried and on whom.

First appears in chapter 10

The Laconian admiral who commanded the conquest of Sol and now runs the empire's military. A practical, unsentimental officer who measures policy by what it costs to enforce, he is the closest thing the high consul has to someone who will tell him bad news.

First appears in chapter 7

A former Martian Marine and now captain of the resistance's only serious warship, a Laconian destroyer taken during the fall of Medina Station. She plans and leads the underground's raids, and she is the one who decides which risks are worth crews' lives.

Appears from the start

Former captain of the Rocinante, held on Laconia since he surrendered himself at Medina. He is not in a cell: he lives under guard in the capital as an object of the high consul's interest, permitted books, gardens and conversation, and denied any means of leaving. Prior-book knowledge for a reader starting this volume.

Appears from the start

The Rocinante's mechanic, who was sent to Laconia on the resistance's behalf and has not been heard from since. Prior-book knowledge for a reader starting this volume: the crew does not know whether he is alive.

First appears in chapter 14

A large, plain-spoken man living rough in the woods and drainage tunnels outside the State Building, who talks to Teresa as an equal and asks her nothing about her position. He is the first person she has met who is not part of her father's court.