Because there are a lot of characters in this story, I maintain a list of those who have been introduced and information about them, because I often refer back to these older characters and events. Hopefully, this makes things a little easier for people to track. This page has a list of all the characters who have been introduced in the story up to the current chapter, and it may contain major spoilers for previous books. To mitigate this, as each book is finished, I’ll have a separate list set up which is current up to the end of that book, i.e., the cast list of book one will contain information about the first book and no information about events in the second book. These characters are sorted loosely by how central they are to the story, because the cast does get rather large.
Capinera: A half-redcap whose adopted name means “blackcap” in Italian, reflecting a personal feeling of mourning or statement of intent related to that heritage. Recently opened a performing arts venue in Pittsburgh called the Blackbird Cabaret. Capinera herself is a spectacular vocalist who has an exceptional ability to inspire emotion using song. Likely, this is because that portion of her education was mediated by Clíodhna, the queen of banshees; Clíodhna is also Capinera’s godmother. Capinera has killed many things, both for pleasure and as her father’s assassin. She has been trying to be a better person recently, with mixed results.
Melissa: Twelve generations removed from Serket, and a scion who has noticeable, significant power. Was kidnapped at sixteen and kept for four years by a mage who specialized in manipulating emotions. As a result of this experience, she has severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and extreme alexithymia. Melissa does not know what her own emotions are, does not present those emotions overtly, and as a result can appear to flip from calm and cheerful to extremely emotional in an instant. Close friend of Kyoko, who participated in the raid on Melissa’s captor which saw her rescued. Kyoko watched Audgrim kill the witch who did this to her, and she feels that this was extremely merited. Kyoko calls Melissa “honeybee” as a term of endearment. She has extreme issues with touch, and can also be seriously triggered by things like raised voices, sudden movement, and terms of endearment. Since being rescued, she has been largely supported by the dvergar, ostensibly as compensation for a security lapse that was tangentially related to her kidnapping; Kyoko has always suspected Audgrim twisted some arms to make this happen.
Pepper: An old friend of Kyoko’s, though they’ve only ever interacted online; Pepper spends a lot of time online to hide from the physical reality of life and her abusive family. She goes through an endless array of usernames, all of which are bad puns about pepper. She’s the kind of person who can use hermetic and mantic in a sentence but misspells common words constantly, and she has nightmares about squid that Kyoko doesn’t want to know about.
Raincloud: Kyoko’s dog, a Siberian husky with preternatural intelligence. At the end of Seed and Trellis, Kyoko essentially created Raincloud in her current form by helping the mind of a dead fae to bond with that of a puppy. The fae being was a lupine creature which was fundamentally tied to a cypress tree in Pittsburgh, and was dying following that tree’s death. By enabling him to bond with Raincloud and become a disembodied presence sharing her senses and anchored to reality via her body, Kyoko simultaneously helped him to survive the death of his own body, and changed Raincloud’s experience of life forever.
Saori: A kitsune of uncertain origin and nature. Kyoko met her in the suburb of Fox Chapel, an exceptionally on-the-nose place for one of the fox-like kitsune to live. Saori was not the one who chose this home; rather, it was one offered to her by a mysterious benefactor, who helped her out of a similarly mysterious bad situation. She avoids discussing the whole topic like the plague. She likes to listen to extremely unusual music, consumes an impressive amount of sugar and caffeine, and her driving makes most people very glad to get out of the car alive. She says she’s gotten soft and squishy since her younger days; most people who have seen her these days are rather disturbed thinking about what those days must have been like, for this to be soft.
Audgrim: While his proper name is Auðgrímr Eyvindson, Audgrim is a half-blooded dvergr who has long since given up on correcting English speakers. The dvergar have long had an interest in this city, and until recently Audgrim was the supervisor for the local dvergr investments and security company. A relatively close ally and acquaintance before the story starts. He’s the one who called her asking for a favor at the opening of Seed and Trellis. When he turned traitor at the end of that book, he became the first person Kyoko ever made the conscious choice to kill.
Caleb Moorhead: Kyoko’s oldest friend in the area, a human who went to university at the same time she did. He is now a practicing attorney and expects to make partner with a criminal defense firm in the near future. He’s concerned about her. She’s been pulling away from him because she knows that she will not be able to maintain the illusion of being a normal human with him for much longer.
Cassie: Born Kassandra Antigone von Weisse Elster, which might explain why she only ever uses Cassie as a name. She’s an older werewolf, one of the stronger ones in Pittsburgh and respected by the others. She’s got a very good head in a crisis. She’s done EMT training and knows how to handle basic medical issues. Speaks fluent German for reasons she doesn’t tend to discuss. The best in the city at scent tracking. She has personal feelings about hunting accidents and how they can be used to cover up an assassination.
Lord Cerdinen: A lord of the Midnight Court who historically has for many years been a reclusive figure near Pittsburgh, very rarely leaving his home. Unusually, he keeps that home in the mortal world. Has power over the forest and a fixation on a particular Welsh folk song that runs very deep. He feels indebted to Kyoko for her preventing a major overreaction on his part in Seed and Trellis, as well as for returning the sickle which was in his keeping.
Derek Staver: A werewolf, one of the younger wolves in the local pack. He’s a decent guy who always gives the impression of being a hapless puppy, even in skin. He’s a casual friend of Kyoko’s, and invites her to events sometimes. In particular, he hosts barbecues sometimes for the pack, and she tends to be invited. One of these parties got ugly when a small group of faeries picked a fight, claiming to be offended at not getting an invitation. That brawl went poorly for them, and involved Kyoko decking a small troll, which got her a fair amount of respect from the local pack. He’s terrible at poker. Works as an imaging tech at a hospital, and lives at the edge of Monroeville. He notably didn’t choose to be a werewolf, instead getting mauled by a moon-crazed werewolf as a random victim. Has criminal connections, including a fixer he hires on her behalf early in Pawn and Storm.
Hope Robbins: Owns the coffeehouse Softened Dreams in Pittsburgh, and insists very strongly that it is in fact a coffeehouse rather than a coffee shop or cafe. Also in principle an art gallery, but mostly it’s used for her personal collection. Relies heavily on her close companion Lacuna to enforce the coffeehouse’s policy of neutrality and nonviolence. Kyoko has never quite been able to get a read on her, and isn’t sure whether she’s human or something else.
Jack Tar: Powerful mage, possibly the most powerful urban druid in the world. Extremely modern in his inclinations and presentation. Lives largely as a vagrant, homeless and wandering various cities, mostly in the northeastern United States. Fluent in Japanese, but his language use is strange in any given language or format, in one way or another. A relatively close ally of Kyoko in Seed and Trellis, and fond of her after she saved his ass at the end of that book.
Jacob Snow: An old, powerful werewolf who lives in Ashland, New York, and basically owns the town. He’s been there for over two hundred years, and even the humans are well aware of his power and influence. It’s one of the few places where you can reasonably expect that any given person you meet believes in werewolves. Kyoko spent a couple years in Ashland immediately after leaving Tokyo, and earned Jacob’s respect. In particular, her visions were crucial in preventing a minor war between Jacob and a vampire in Albany called Silas Fleischmann which would have been devastating to all involved. Jacob, along with Saito, are the people who acted as father figures for Kyoko when Haruyoshi proved so incapable. They’re still relatively close.
Lacuna: Pale, silent nonhuman figure who is literally always present and active at Softened Dreams. Extremely devoted to Hope for unclear reasons. They never talk, but are quite personable if you can look past that, and past their generalized strangeness; they can sign and write fluently when they feel the need, though usually they don’t. They feel to Kyoko like an absence, like their magic has the feeling of void and nothingness – not the absence of scent but the scent of absence. Keeps the peace at Softened Dreams with probably-lethal force. What they actually do to people isn’t clear, but the people aren’t there anymore when they’re done.
Maddie: Her full name is Madison Cavendish, but she very rarely uses that name, and goes by Maddie in almost all contexts. She’s human, but there’s a far less human than blood in her signature, and it doesn’t smell quite like blood should. She’s exceptionally hypervigilant, and has panic attacks if she’s not early to events and meetings. She makes jewelry, using crystals that look almost exactly like rubies, emphasis on almost, and is always looking to sell or give it away. This is because those crystals are actually something quite different, and she has power over them. She does this even with friends, because life has taught Maddie that friends can become enemies in a heartbeat. She lives in a warehouse complex in Braddock, mostly because she likes to have the space and the privacy it offers. She’s a freelancer in the supernatural community of Pittsburgh, as well as often traveling for jobs; her clients have tried to kill her so many times that at this point it barely registers to Maddie as noteworthy.
Richard Althoff: A pyromancer associated with the Tribe, and a relatively close acquaintance of Kyoko’s. He’s good company, but also genuinely, completely insane, out of touch with reality and prone to interact with fire like it’s a person he’s conversing with.
Saito Ryosuke: A friend of Kyoko’s from Japan, one of the few she’s still in sporadic contact with. He was at least a decade older than she is, and a prominent member of the Yakuza family she was spending time with. He takes the older traditions of protecting his people and looking out for his community seriously; in particular, he gets very protective about the younger criminals under his supervision. Has a military background of unclear nature, and was the one who left her with such strong feelings about weapon maintenance. He acted as a mentor to Kyoko, and when she needed to get some space and be away from Japan for a while, he was the one who recommended the town of Ashland.
Silas Fleischmann: A powerful, old vampire who rules the vampires of Albany with an iron fist and has extensive power elsewhere. He likes Kyoko and feels that he owes her for preventing a war between him and the werewolf Jacob Snow in nearby Ashland.
Tobias Morgenstern: A local, shady member of the supernatural community. He generally introduces himself as Toby, though his full name isn’t a secret. Toby is a small fish, but he knows that and he’s smart about it. He knows what not to touch, and he’s known for dealing in good faith consistently. He’s an information broker, and to some degree a black market trader and smuggler, as well as being tangentially involved in other criminal or semi-criminal businesses. He doesn’t turn anyone down based on ethics, more or less, and will gladly sell to both sides of a conflict. It doesn’t register to him as important. He is very good at digging up information locally.
Andrew: An older werewolf, one of the most respected in Pittsburgh. He’s experienced and reasonably powerful, but a lot of that respect is because he’s smart, has good organizational skills, and looks out for people. Murdered by Audgrim at the end of Seed and Trellis.
Anthony Hayes: Somewhat shady proprietor of a funeral home in North Shore. He’s a relatively decent person, but he does sometimes illicitly dispose of bodies for various people, at a steep cost.
Chris: A friend of Saori’s, a petty criminal in Pittsburgh who was affiliated with the Tribe. She met him when a mutual acquaintance recommended her services for a smuggling job, one that required a bit more in the way of subtlety than Chris could manage. They remained friends afterwards, mostly because he was heavily into street racing and she’s a lunatic who finds human driving skills rather quaint. Murdered before Kyoko actually meets him.
Garnet: A girl who frequents Softened Dreams often and has, in combination with her identical twin sister Jade, hired Kyoko at least once to help with a hobby they share. They like to finish each other’s sentences, meals, and romantic affairs, and needed help arranging a particularly convoluted instance of that last one. Garnet is the older of the two by a few minutes, a fact she reminds Jade of often.
Hrafna Rauðfeldr: A full-blooded dvergr, she’s Audgrim’s half-sister. She regards her younger half-sibling with affection, but also a good deal of exasperation. She tends to say very little, but her silence speaks volumes. To Kyoko’s senses, her body posture seems markedly inhuman.
Jade: A girl who frequents Softened Dreams often and has, in combination with her identical twin sister Garnet, hired Kyoko to help with a hobby they share. They like to finish each other’s sentences, meals, and romantic affairs, and needed help arranging a particularly convoluted instance of that last one.
Karl: Attends Softened Dreams. Beats Kyoko at chess sometimes.
Kelly Lamarcke: Kyoko’s main point-of-contact with VNC, a disturbingly professional woman who is their main local agent.
Martin: Treacherous member of the Tribe in the first book, a witch who excels at creating peaceful, soothing feelings, and who uses this in ways that aren’t very peaceful at all. Killed by Jack in Seed and Trellis.
Nate: A shaman associated with the Tribe who has given Kyoko some pointers on the topic. In particular, he helped to arrange Raincloud’s creation.
Elaheh Nilsen: One of the named partners of the consulting firm Varkalnen, Nilsen, Casimir, and Associates. Kyoko met her once and found the experience frightening and disturbing; she is certain that Nilsen, if she was ever human, left that behind a long time ago.
Opari: Local woman who has personal experience of a shared-occupancy mode of existence. She contributed some insight from that experience to help with the creation of Raincloud.
Ralph: Local man with a minor magical talent. He drinks more than most humans can get away with. After having seen Saori do the same, he has a sort of respect for Kyoko, if only because she’s around that routinely and isn’t dead yet.
Rebecca: Woman associated with the Tribe. She’s distinctly inhuman, and strongly associated with cold and ice. She’s a very good motorcyclist, a mobile skirmisher by preference in combat, and moves through the forest very well. When she killed someone in Seed and Trellis, they didn’t leave a body, just a whole lot of frozen blood on the grass.
Robert: Local werewolf with a particular skill for stealth. Survived the fight at the end of Seed and Trellis, though only by sheer luck and with severe injuries.
Sparrow: A worker at Softened Dreams. He was born with the name Ezekiel and quite reasonably chose to use this one instead. Makes excuses to come to Kyoko’s table more often than necessary, mostly to pet Raincloud. Works a lot of overtime.