Ian Irvine - Chimaera

Malien : A venerable but ostracised Aachim living in Tirthrax. A heroine from the time of the Mirror (also known as the Matah). She helped Tiaan make the thapter, or flying construct, subsequently took her to Stassor and then on to Fiz Gorgo.

Meriwen:Daughter of Troist and Yara, twin of Liliwen.

Merryl:A slave who taught human languages to the lyrinx in Snizort; also known as Tutor. He was kind to Tiaan.

Minis : A young Aachim man of high status; foster-son of Vithis; Tiaan’s dream lover who was forced to spurn her when the Aachim came through the gate to Tirthrax. He feels guilty about his treatment of her, yearns for her, but is totally in thrall to Vithis. Minis is so weak and vacillating that he couldn’t even choose to save Tiaan from Vithis. He was maimed during her escape in a construct.

Mira:Yara’s sister who dwells at Morgadis, embittered after the loss of her husband and her three sons in the war. She communicates with a coalition of like-minded people by skeet. Nish fled her home in fear for his life after a liaison which ended with an unfortunate misunderstanding.

M’lainte:Flydd’s mechanician, the genius who built the first air-floater.

Myllii:Ullii’s long-lost twin brother for whom she had been searching all her life. He was accidentally slain by Nish.

Nish : Cryl-Nish’s nickname.

Numinator, the:A mysterious figure mentioned by Flydd when in his cups, said to secretly control the Council of Scrutators.

Nylatl:A malicious creature created by Ryll and Liett’s flesh-forming. It killed Haani’s aunts and attacked Tiaan. Nish destroyed it after it attacked him and Ullii near Tirthrax.

Orgestre:General Orgestre is Grand Commander of the Army of Greater Borgistry.

Rulke:The greatest of all the Charon, he created the first construct. He was killed at the time the Forbidding was broken.

Ryll: An ostracised wingless lyrinx who captured Tiaan and subsequently used her in flesh-forming. He was an honourable lyrinx and after Tiaan saved his life he allowed her to escape from Kalissin. He later captured her again when she came to Snizort looking for Gilhaelith, and used her in the patterners. After the destruction of Snizort, Ryll went to Oellyll, where he was put to work to create a flisnadr, or power patterner .

Seeker:Ullii. Also, one who can sense the use of the Secret Art or people who have that talent, or even enchanted objects.

Tiaan Liise-Mar: A young artisan; a visual thinker and talented controller-maker. With the amplimet, she picked up Minis’s cry for help, fell in love with him and carried the amplimet all the way to Tirthrax, where she used it in opening a gate to Aachan, to save Minis and his people. She subsequently helped Malien make a thapter in Tirthrax, departed in it, attacked the Aachim camp and later crashed near Nyriandiol when the amplimet refused to do what she wanted. Her back was broken in the crash. She was taken back to Nyriandiol by Gilhaelith, who began to teach her geomancy. When he was kidnapped by Gyrull and taken to Snizort, she followed in the thapter but was captured and put to use in the patterners, to pattern torgnadrs or node-drainers. This was only partly successful, because of her broken back, so the lyrinx flesh-formed it to repair her spine. After Snizort was abandoned, Merryl helped Tiaan to escape the patterners. She was subsequently captured by the Aachim, escaped back to Tirthrax, and travelled with Malien to Fiz Gorgo, ‘rescuing’ Gilhaelith on the way .

Tirior:A manipulative Aachim clan leader.

Troist:An ambitious junior officer in the army destroyed by the lyrinx at Nilkerrand. He formed a smaller army out of the survivors. Troist became a general much loved by his troops. Nish rescued his daughters Liliwen and Meriwen from ruffians, and again when they were lost in an underground labyrinth.

Ullii : A hypersensitive seeker, used by Scrutator Flydd to track Tiaan and the amplimet. She accompanied Nish to Tirthrax in the balloon and found Tiaan, but Malien intervened. Her talent failed her for a while, but subsequently she was used by Jal-Nish at the manufactory, before being rescued by Flydd and taken to Nennifer, then west to help in the war at Snizort. She escaped from Snizort with Flydd and Nish, where they discovered that she had become pregnant to Nish in the balloon. Ullii had just found her long-lost brother, Myllii, whom the scrutators had used to find her, when he was accidentally killed by Nish. Ullii lost her baby and, consumed by a lust for revenge on Nish, was captured by Ghorr and used to hunt down Flydd and his allies, which she eventually did .

Vithis : Minis’s foster-father; an Aachim from Aachan and the head of Inthis First Clan, who led the Aachim to Santhenar. When all First Clan (except Minis) were lost in the gate, he became angry and bitter. He forced Minis to repudiate Tiaan. He subsequently led the Aachim across Santhenar but did not hold to his original purpose, to seize land, instead pursuing Tiaan and her thapter across the continent of Lauralin. After Minis was maimed, Vithis retreated to the Foshorn, seized land there and closed the borders .

Xervish Flydd : The scrutator (spymaster and master inquisitor) for Einunar. He was commander-in-chief of all the scrutators’ forces at Snizort, charged with defeating the lyrinx army there. Secretly, he was also required to sneak into Snizort and destroy the lyrinx’s node-drainer. He, Irisis and Ullii succeeded but the device he’d been given was faulty, destroying both node-drainer and node in a catastrophic explosion. The field vanished, of course, rendering both the army’s clankers and the Aachim’s constructs useless, and the soldiers defenceless against the attacking lyrinx. Flydd was blamed for the subsequent defeat, stripped of his position and condemned to die as a slave hauling constructs out of the mire. He escaped with Nish and after many adventures eventually ended up at Fiz Gorgo. He is determined to overthrow the corrupt scrutators, knowing that they can never win the war .

Yara:A brilliant advocate, wife to Troist.

Yggur : A great long-lived mancer of ancient times, subsequently found to be still living at Fiz Gorgo. After Flydd’s company seeks refuge there, he comes to aid them in their quest to overthrow the scrutators, though he and Flydd will ever be rivals.

Alcifer:The long-abandoned city of Rulke the Charon, in Meldorin. The entire city was believed to have been a magical construct and it still has an aura of barely leashed power.

Amplimet:A rare hedron which, even in its natural state, can draw power from the force (the field ) surrounding and permeating a node. Occasionally can be very powerful. Inexplicably, Tiaan’s amplimet shows signs of a crystal instinct or purpose, for in Tirthrax it communicated with the node and woke the trapped Well of Echoes. It also communicated with nodes elsewhere, denied Tiaan control when she wanted to take the thapter to places it did not want to go, and drew threads of force throughout Snizort, including to the node and to Gilhaelith.

Anthracism:Human internal combustion due to a mancer or an artisan drawing more power than the body can handle. Invariably fatal (gruesomely).