Winter characters

Appears from the start

The eighteen-year-old princess of Luna, Levana's stepdaughter, adored by the Lunar people for a beauty that owes nothing to glamour and for three fine scars across one cheek that she gave herself as a girl. She has refused since childhood to use her Lunar gift to control anyone, and the refusal has brought on the sickness that comes with it: she hallucinates, sees the palace bleed and the walls come apart, and holds conversations with things that are not there. The court treats her as beautiful and harmless. She is neither cruel nor stupid, and she is the only person in Artemisia the people would follow.

Appears from the start

A royal guard, and Winter's friend since they were children. Silent, blunt and expressionless, he returns to Luna in disgrace after failing the thaumaturge he was assigned to on Earth, expecting to be executed for it. He has spent his life making himself useful enough to stay near Winter and cold enough that no one notices why.

Appears from the start

The queen of Luna, days away from marrying the emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth and adding Earth's largest nation to her rule. She has held her throne for years on fear, glamour and a face no one has been permitted to see, and she is increasingly aware that her stepdaughter is loved in a way she never has been.

First appears in chapter 2

The farmer from France, held captive on Luna as an exhibit in the royal menagerie and missing a finger taken from her as a lesson. Winter visits her, and Scarlet - unimpressed, unbroken and incapable of being polite about any of it - becomes the princess's one honest companion.

First appears in chapter 3

Princess Selene, arriving on the moon she was smuggled off as a child with a stolen ship, four friends and a plan to overthrow her aunt. She intends to raise the outer sectors - the mining and manufacturing districts that feed the capital and starve doing it - and reach the palace while the royal wedding has its gates open.

First appears in chapter 3

The Rampion's captain, on Luna with the crew he acquired by accident and now refuses to leave behind, no less certain of himself for any of it.

First appears in chapter 3

The Lunar shell and hacker, whose ability to break into a network is the crew's only route to speaking to the Lunar people directly. Levana's control of the moon runs through what her subjects are allowed to see, and Cress is the one person who can take that away from her.

First appears in chapter 3

The former special operative, back on the moon that made him, with the outer sector he was taken from somewhere below and his family in it.

First appears in chapter 3

Cinder's android friend, at last in an escort-droid body of her own and delighted by it. She joins the crew on the ground rather than staying with the ship.

First appears in chapter 4

Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth, arriving on Luna to be married to Levana in a ceremony that will make her empress of his country. He knows Cinder is coming, cannot show that he knows, and has to play the compliant bridegroom in a palace where any Lunar in the room can read a slip.

First appears in chapter 4

The Eastern Commonwealth's royal advisor, who has come to Luna with Kai and is one of very few Earthens in a palace full of people who can make him believe anything.

First appears in chapter 5

Levana's head thaumaturge, returned from Earth with a captive, a failure to explain and a guard she no longer trusts.

First appears in chapter 20

One of Levana's senior thaumaturges and a fixture of her court, smooth, attentive and unpleasant in a way that never quite breaks etiquette. The queen has decided that he will marry Winter.

First appears in chapter 38

Wolf's mother, still living in the outer sector her sons were taken from, who has spent years being told what happened to them and believing none of it.

First appears in chapter 38

Wolf's younger brother, who stayed in Levana's army after Paris and has been through everything the programme does to a soldier who does not run.

First appears in chapter 70

The Lunar defector and scientist, who came to the moon ahead of the crew to look for the shell children Levana keeps for their blood, and for the daughter who was taken from him among them.