David Wingrove - The Empire of Time

Kalugin, Ivan — Russian time agent and elder brother of Grigori.

Karen — one of the women at the platform in Four-Oh.

Katerina — Otto’s love. See also Razumovsky.

Kollwitz, Ernst — a ‘ Reisende ’, or time agent. Otto’s best friend and travelling companion; damaged in the Past.

Kondrashov, Alexi — Russian time agent, brother to Mikhail.

Kondrashov, Mikhail — Russian time agent and brother to Alexi.

Kramer, Hans — red-haired ‘ Reisende ’.

Krauss, Phillipe — double-agent, working for the Russians and responsible for ‘turning’ eight German time agents.

Kravchuk, Oleg Alekseevich — agent of the Mongols in 13 thcentury Russia, and — in some time-lines — married to Katerina.

Kubhart, Klaus — Ernst’s replacement in 13 thcentury Russia.

Kurst, Herr — innkeeper in Dollersheim in Austria in 1836.

Lavrov — Russian time agent.

Leni — female courier in Four-Oh.

Lili — one of the women at the platform in Four-Oh.

Locke — one of the eight German time agents ‘turned’ by the Russians.

Lothar — German head of translations at Four-Oh; expert on ge’not .

Luder — Brother of the Northern Order (13 thcentury).

Luwer, Hans — artefacts expert, based on Four-Oh. Uses his other selves to multi-task. Has a woman somewhere in Time.

Manfred — King of Greater Germany for 87 years. Three times the size of normal humans, he is a tenth-generation ‘ Adel ’.

Manfred — three-year-old son of Gehlen.

Manninger, Lucius — alias of Otto in Asgard in 2747 — acting as the envoy of the Confederation of American States.

Maria — grandmother of Adolf Hitler, but actually a female Russian time agent.

Matteus — young student at Four-Oh.

Mindaugas — Grand Prince of Lithuania.

Muller — innkeeper of the Black Eagle tavern in Potsdam in 1759.

Muller — student on Four-Oh.

Nemtsov, Alexandr Davydovitch — Russian time agent, working in the Mechanist Age (23 rd— 25 thcenturies).

Nevsky — Alexander Iaroslavich, Russian orthodox Prince of Novgorod in the 13 thcentury. Victor of the Battle on the Ice (on Lake Peipus) in April 1242; a battle which ends the expansive Northern Crusades.

Oleg — Razumovsky’s steward.

Ooris — Neanderthal female back in the Haven.

Otto — see Behr.

Petsch — greatest artist for a thousand years; living in 28 thcentury.

Postovsky — Russian time agent.

Razumovsky, Katerina — eternal love of Otto Behr. Daughter of Mikhail. Lives in Novgorod in the 13 thcentury.

Razumovsky, Masha — wife to Mikhail and mother of Katerina.

Razumovsky, Mikhail — rich boyar, living in Novgorod in the 13 thcentury. Father of Katerina.

Reichenau, Gudrun — ‘daughter’ of Michael (he claims).

Reichenau, Michael — Dopplegehirn , and Supervisor of Werkstatt 9. Also somehow involved in time travel.

Ribbentrop, Joachim von — Foreign Minister for Nazi Germany, 20 thcentury.

Ritter — German time agent.

Rothaarige — ‘the red-haired one’, manager of the club of the same name in Neu Berlin in 2747.

Schmidt, Andreas — alias for Russian time agent Dankevich.

Schmidt — home owner in Berlin in 1759.

Schwarz — one of the eight ‘turned’ by the Russians, and carrying Seydlitz’s DNA.

Seydlitz, Friedrich — advisor to Frederick the Great, and one of the greatest cavalry generals of the 18 thcentury.

Seydlitz, Max — ‘ Reisende ’, in charge of Project Barbarossa, an attempt to change history in Hitler’s favour.

Streicher, Julius — Nazi Gauleiter of Nuremberg, in 20 thcentury.

Subodei — Mongol chief in 13 thcentury.

Sygny — King Manfred’s aunt, assassinated in 2747.

Taysen — stable owner and ostler in Potsdam in 1759.

Tief — Chancellor to King Manfred in Asgard (2747). Uncle to Princess Gudrun. ‘ Adel ’.

Tomas — young student at Four-Oh.

Urte — one of the women at the platform in Four-Oh. In love with Otto. Also an expert physicist, technician and mathematician.

Vyshinski — trader in 13 thcentury Novgorod.

Werner — Brother of the Northern Crusade, in 13 thcentury Prussia.

Werner — gene surgeon in the Neu Berlin of 2747.

Yastryeb — see Chkalov. Grand Master of Time for the Russians.

Zarah — most senior of the women who run Four-Oh’s operating systems. Sweet on Otto.

Zieten, Hans Joachim von — cavalry general in Prussian army, and advisor to Frederick the Great.

Picture this. Forest. One hundred miles of dense, forbidding forest on every side, cut through by streams and rivers that flow between the dark, straight stands of pine, mirror bright beneath the moon. And here, on an island in a river, behind a stoutly built stockade, is a wooden fort and a tower and a crude stone chapel. This is Christburg, built three years past on ground cleared from the virgin forest and defended against the heathen.

Two guards man the tower, casting their weary eyes to the foreboding blackness of the surrounding forest. Deep snow carpets that bleak, unforgiving space between the fort and the river, while overhead a full moon shines down from a clear, blue-black sky.

It is cold. Bitterly cold. Breath plumes in the air as the guards rub their gloved hands together and stamp their feet to keep warm.

This is the edge of the Christian world. Beyond is only darkness: a hostile wilderness in which the heathen Prussians eke out their godless lives, praying to rocks and trees and the demons of the air.