Female Gold Dragon, Headmistress of the College of Magical Arts in Naridale. Aernath has, for years, reveled in her position amongst humanity, much preferring to live as one of them rather than as the dragon she truly is. Only a handful of people truly know her secret, including Darrin Trailsong, Shasta Rameikos, and her diametric rival, Zhaga. Following the sacrifice of her life during the Second Chaos War, she was elevated to Godhood (Dragon Mistress), but still prefers to live her life among mortals.

The first of Aspentil Silvermane's children, the centaur woman currently is living in Swanspoint and following in her mother's footsteps by learning the arts of herbal and plant magics.

Born to a human woman, Jeremiah was originally considered just an abnormally deformed child and left to die in the wilderness. One of Joran duCharleroi's Axis men, though, recognized Jeremiah for what he was and brought him before the guildmaster. Joran, realizing the potential benefit of having a loyal minotaur guardsman/bodyguard, brainwashed the child and made him believe he was little more than a bloodthirsty animal. Freed from servitude by Ailen Arrowshaft during the Rise of Assassins.

Elven vampire responsible for the destruction and defiling of the World Tree. Cedric was originally the brother to Eyrim Delithera, but was brought over to the Dark about four centuries into his life. Over the course of the last couple hundred years, he has turned on his family and slain a number of them to keep himself alive-- all in order to tempt his brother into joining him on the side of the Darkness. He survived the end of the Second Chaos War and, after the restoration of the World Tree, is hiding out deep within the Sybaran wilderness and is wondering just where his own future will lead.

Twin felinid women; in their normal forms, each has the distinctive markings of a Siamese cat, right down to the luxurious seal point fur and long tail. Each is the mirror twin of the other; whereby Chrranya (often just shortened to Anya) has an earring in her right hear, is right handed, and has a blue right eye and green left eye, Chrrenya (often just shortened to Enya) has an earring in her left ear, is left handed, and has a green right eye and blue left eye.In addition to their outside markings, these two share a number emotional mirror images. Anya is the rational, cool-headed one, while her sister Enya is almost wanton in her emotional needs, desires, and attitudes. Oddly enough, the two also share some sort of deep psychic bond, which manifests itself in the way the two speak-- they're constantly finishing one another's sentences, jumping in and speaking the same thought, in fragments, from two mouths.

The twins make their living in Crossroads, the trading town in the heart of the Free Cities, as merchants and traders, heads of the Seven Moons Trading Company. While the two are dedicated to the causes of Light, it's been understood by most every trader not to cross these two; their temper is legendary, and those who've crossed them have often found themselves in quite an odd predicament when they've been returned to their senses.

Corene was originally the daughter of a simple farming family from Naridale about four hundred years before Founding Day. One day while swimming, she spotted a mermaid in trouble along the bottom of Lake Narilan and, after freeing the imperiled woman, was granted her fondest wish-- to become a mermaid. Some years later, she ascended to the throne of Midia and was, at the time, a very popular queen. She eventually met and married the bard Darrin Trailsong and bore a child, Endara, by him. Endara, however, died during the Rise of Assassins when she was slain by her father, Darrin, after approaching him after a long battle with a number of killers. Corene subsequently put a price on his head, one that only recently was canceled.

Eyrim is an Elven nobleman, wizard, and inventor, and was eventually selected to be the king of the combined peoples of Sybara. He was for a long time the last surviving member of his house; many of his relatives had simply died off naturally or otherwise disappeared, presumably slain by Eyrim's brother, the vampire Cedric Ashmist.

Eyrim's greatest creation was a simulacrum he named Aster. Aster was originally meant as a fighting simulator, something from which the Elven Home Guard could learn fighting techniques. In a moment of benevolence by the Elven goddess Aelstra, Eyrim's greatest creation was granted life, and the elder Delithera could, at last, be happy that the heritage of his house could be somehow passed on. Aster, however, partially rejected her father's benevolence and set out to make her own path in the world. She returned to Sybara mere days before the Darkness ascended during the Second Chaos War and was instrumental in keeping a sliver of resistance alive within Sybara until she was captured.

Marissa DelVane is a Midian noblewoman and mage of little consequence. During the time between the Rise of Assassins and the SwordQuest, Marissa was instrumental in freeing the captive Darrin Trailsong from a Midian prison after he returned to visit his daughter's grave. Most recently, she led an uprising (with the help of her love, the winged elf Danilin; the two met during the rescue of Trailsong) that deposed the now-unpopular Queen Corene and has been instated as new monarch of Midia.

Joran duCharleroi started out in life as a simple street thief, graduated to a con man, and soon put together the largest thieving and assassin's guild in the world. It was said that nothing could get by the wily Joran's mind, that he was virtually infallible. Those people, though, knew very little about Joran's son, Garlin.

Garlin, born to one of Joran's many mistresses, was brought up in a pampered lifestyle for the first decade and a half of his life. Growing bored with his life (and increasingly disappointed in his father's ways), he snuck out in the middle of the night and made his way across the continent on foot. He planned to go to Marnet to seek his fortune; instead, he happened upon the magical settlement of Swanspoint and trained as a ranger, becoming an unofficial member of the all-female Swanmays. Eventually he returned to Talian and defeated his father to end the Rise of Assassins.

Garic is a weretiger from the near-mythic town of Laposter and also a powerful mentalist of the Puristan Order. Agalacae, his wife, is a powerful woman in her own right; she is the child of two gods, an "experiment" gone wrong and sent to live among mortals. The couple met during the time between the Rise of Assassins and the SwordQuest and has lived in relative obscurity-- that is, until Agalacae discovered the missing Darrin Trailsong in Swanspoint and returned him to his real life.

Not much is known about the pasts of the twin gypsies Aidan and Linin Gemsplitter, other than that they are the only two members of their family who survived the mass extermination of the gypsy and nomadic people in Tasmil in the early third century. Fearing hunters from their past, the two struggled with their inner demons and settled in one place, opening a small bar and inn that Linin christened the Brooksong, partially for her current infatuation-- the bard Darrin Trailsong. It was Linin who slew Darrin the first time, during the Chaos War, in a jealous rage because of the emergence of Darrin's wife Corene.

Following the Rise of Assassins, the history of the Gemsplitters is largely unchronicled. They sold the Brooksong and again began wandering, traveling to parts unknown. Rumor has it that they have settled on the Northern Continent, but nobody has as yet substantiated the tale.

Aex Hellshadow was a common thief, eking out an existence in the alleyways of Talian and Cove until the Chaos War broke out. Seeing opportunity, Hellshadow quickly allied himself with the Heroes of Narilan, scoring little more than a peripheral nod in the tales of the group-- until the final battle. It was Hellshadow who noticed the shard of Chaos that remained alive. He drew it into himself, thus providing the seed that the Mad God needed to return to the mortal realms some years later in the body of another.

Kynna is the leader of the Order of the White Wing, an organization also known as the Swanmays, an order of female rangers dedicated to keeping the magical forests around Swanspoint safe for all kinds of the fae. Her help during the First Chaos War kept the forces of Light concentrated and eventually led to the downfall of the Mad God.

Calimar Llewyntraee has, quite possibly, a blacker heart than most of his dark-skinned kin. For over a century, he has ruled the desert empire of Tasmil with an iron fist, profiting from both the bloody fighting in the Arena and from the rampant slave trade centered along the western coastlines. If there's something allied with the Darkness, one can bet that Calimar has a hand in it somewhere. For a while after the Second Chaos War, Llewyntraee had gone into hiding to lick his wounds, but it's a sure bet that while he's recovering he's also planning his next big conquest.

Miriam is the daughter of a one-week dalliance between Kynna and Garlin duCharleroi. Following the Rise of Assassins, Garlin came to Swanspoint seeking an alliance with the Order of the White Wing, but was turned down months later when it was clear in which direction the Axis Guild was heading under his leadership. Miriam barely knows her father, having been brought up in the sole custody of her mother. Currently, she is being groomed to lead the Order after her mother passes away.

Riana is the eldest of the five Rameikos children and, for a time after their parents died, took it upon herself to provide for the struggling family. After Shasta and Koril had grown up (Laren had long since been kidnapped) a bit, Riana left the family in the care of a family friend in Marnet and gone to seek another method of income. Using skills taught to her by her father, she became a ranger for a time. During one particular adventuring season, however, she was overwhelmed, captured, and raped by a band of orcs. Eventually, after more than a year of torture and servitude at their hands, she escaped and made her way back to Marnet, where she became a cleric.

During the Chaos War, Riana awoke late one night in the temple and found an intruder. Fearing nothing, she approached the man and bade him to tell her his troubles. She was rewarded instead by being implanted with the seed of the demon Tarograx, which consumed her soul and took root in her body. She was slain during the final battles of the Chaos War, but was eventually resurrected and ascended to godhood when her brother Shasta abdicated his position as god of Order.

Once Riana left home to find her own path, Shasta became the primary source of income for the struggling Rameikos family. As a boy, he had always been interested in magic, but had not been able to afford the tuition to apprentice himself to a wizard of any power. Instead, he relied on simple parlor tricks and "street magic", little illusions and sleight-of-hand tricks that brought him to the attention of a couple lesser known men needing someone to do the scut work around the laboratory. Shasta proved an excellent study, though, and quickly surpassed all that his first two masters set before him.

After he adventured with the Company of Crazed Wits for one not so memorable adventure and brought a small fortune away from it, he bought a struggling shipping and shipbuilding firm, renaming it for himself, and started to turn that small fortune into a large one. Something was missing from his life, though; only after he heard Darrin sing at a local tavern did he realize that sponsoring the bard was the next logical step. With Shasta's money and Darrin's skills, the arts flourished for a long time, both in Marnet and soon in Naridale, where the bardic arts were added to the listing of courses taught at the College of Magical Arts.

It was Shasta who slew the Mad God at the finale of the first Chaos War (with the help of the cleric Tenbar's research), and who became a god himself after assuming the mantle of swirling energies left by the god's passing. He soon grew detached and aloof and yearned for his mortality once again; to that end, he sought out the soul of his sister, Riana, and after giving her the power of Order, returned himself to the mortal realms as a silver dragon, ensuring his own longevity in the process. Ever since, the irascible wizard has been seen as a harbinger of doom; it seems that each time disaster is about to befall the people of Garidon, Shasta pokes his head out from wherever he's hiding and alerts the world. Not that he involves himself in the struggle anymore, mind you; he prefers rather to employ newer, younger heroes to do his own scut work.

During the SwordQuest, Shiatar was attacked and nearly destroyed by the minions of Chaos. To save her precious fortress, she assumed the Guardian Form, a dangerous magic in which she surrendered her soul to keep the building safe and intact. She was restored to mortality by her niece and nephew, Madrigorn and Tathlyn, and is ready to restore the mostly dead order to its former glory.

The first weretiger to leave the sheltered lifestyle of the city of Felinids, Laposter, Mercicon has gone on to prove wrong both her own kin and those she travels among. As an albino weretiger, she was immediately ostracized by the townsfolk of her village. They considered her white fur a bad omen among her people. Instead, she turned that perceived handicap into a benefit; it made her more recognizable and thus, more popular once she left (that is, was exiled from) Laposter. She left, adopting her hybrid form of part human, part tiger, as her form of choice, partly to remind her of what she had lost, but partly to inspire fear in any of the strangers outside her village that may wish to visit harm upon an unsuspecting female wanderer.

Once she left, she found herself facing similar treatment from those who couldn't understand her bizarre appearance. She was involved in numerous barfights, and even found herself jailed for a short time because of her actions. One night, as she was preparing to leave Marnet, she felt a call, a tugging at her most primal instincts. Shifting to her full feline form, she followed the call to a large manor near the dockyard: the home of the wizard Shasta, who had summoned her as a familiar. After a few moments of confusion-- and a decade of forced servitude to Shasta-- she found herself freed by the conscientious wizard. During her time with him, though, she had fallen in love with him, and the two married. Only when Shasta was thought dead did she divorce the man.

Years later, during a period in which Shasta had gone slightly insane, he again renewed the bond he had over Mercicon. After he was restored to sanity by the tigress and his current wife, Felyndiira, she and Shasta shared a rather intimate night; a month later, she discovered herself to be pregnant with his child. Madrigorn was born soon after. Felyn, outraged at Mercicon's perceived impudence in sleeping with "her" husband, struck the tigress, nearly slicing off her tail.

Later in life, after Felyn had left Shasta, the two buried the hatchet and went adventuring. During the Sword Quest, the two teamed up to retrieve a sword from the rogue Elf Calimar Llewyntraee. While the two were escaping his empire, Mercicon was slain. Her body died; her soul, however, was taken by the sword. Chaos (now in the body of Pell) knew about this unexpected bonus, and returned Mercicon to life as one of her own warriors. Following the Battle of Deepdawn, Mercicon was freed from Chaos' control and was welcmoed back into the land of the fully living.

Now that she has time to wander again, she has forged a new, startling path for herself and joined the crew of the vessel Shasta's Folly, which sailed to the rumored Northern Continent. Once there, she accepted the quest to find the children of the late monarch. She has since located one and accepted responsibility for her charge as though she were her own daughter.

Weretiger, daughter of Mercicon by Shasta Rameikos. Madrigorn, an albino weretiger and natural-born fighter thanks to her impressive heritage, has opted for a much quieter life since her exploits during the Second Chaos War. After witnessing firsthand the destruction caused by what she perceived as a family feud (the combined wreakage from the battles between Felyn/Pell/Shasta/Mercicon, among others), she has dedicated her energies-- and a portion of the funds from Rameikos Shipping and Shipbuilding-- to the rebuilding of the areas destroyed during the Chaos Wars, including the areas of Deepdawn and the center of Ruriping.

Dark Elf, sister of Felyndiira, and lover to Drake Rameikos. Pell came to the surface with her reconstructed sister, Felyn. Though she was the emotionally and spiritually stronger of the two sisters, she herself became melancholy and morose when it was discovered that Felyn was the more powerful of the two on the surface. After a brief fling with in-law Drake Rameikos (which was rumored to have produced a child; nobody can shed light on the veracity of this tale), she went travelling on a quest to find herself. This quest took her to Ruriping, where she was met by a restored Tyrrel. After spending a week with him, he took advantage of the bond she was trying to develop and, in the name of his dark master, infused the weak priestess with the shard of Chaos taken from the body of the dying Aex Hellshadow.

From that moment, the rest is history. Pell, as Chaos, proceeded to exterminate and subsume most of the Elves and their homeland of Sybara. From there, she discovered that the path to full restoration of her godhood would be to steal the Four Nodes and bring them into herself, thus giving her complete control over the elements (and, consequentally, the whole of Garidon. She was at last defeated at Deepdawn, however, when the last remaining vestiges of Pell's soul came forth and stopped the ascension ceremony just long enough to be slain by her sister, Felyn.

Dark Elf and second wife of Shasta Rameikos. Felyn, along with her older sister Pellanistra, fled to the surface after witnessing the senseless destruction of most of her city. During the fight, she was butchered by a man from a rival house and left for dead; both arms below the elbow and both legs below the knee had been sliced away from her body. Pell found her and, at the risk of her own life, carried her to safety. A kindly Dwarven artificer, one of the many hidden well underground, restored Felyn's mobility by crafting new legs and arms for her from pure adamantium. (Her arms came with a bit of a bonus: her hands now lock into the hilts of her swords, which truly make her blades an extension of her body.)

After meeting the wizard Shasta, both Felyn and Pell came to live with him as his guests in Marnet. Over time, Felyn grew close to Shasta and bore him a son, Tathlyn. During Shasta's time as a god, however, Felyn left him, choosing her own path once again. When she returned to Rameikos Manor, she found that her sister had gone missing; she discovered, during the opening scenes of the Second Chaos War, that her sister's disappearance was owed to the resurgence of Chaos. Both Felyn and Pell perished when Felyn struck her sister with a mortal blow to stop the full resurgence of Chaos.

Son of Shasta Rameikos by the Dark Elf Felyndiira. Tathlyn always idolized his mother's fighting prowess and, as he grew of age, began to train under her in the courtyard of Rameikos Manor. During the quest to restore the Elven Kingdom, Tathlyn-- along with his half-sister, Madrigorn-- saved their aunt Laren from eternal life as a specter in the halls of Keep Shiatar.

Since the end of the Second Chaos War and after the loss of both his mother and his aunt Pell, Tathlyn has grown moody and withdrawn from the rest of his family-- so much so that he went to Tasmil to fight in the Arena to work out his own private frustrations. Since returning from the Arena (after leading a revolt of the slaves held within), he has grown very close to the Avariel Ayrlee Arrowshaft. Together, they have had a daughter, a dark-skinned, dark-winged daughter named Brillayra.

Sahara Snow is the interim regent of the Free City of Eskomil, having taken the place of her father while he recuperates from injures to both the body and the mind suffered during a kidnapping and attempt on his life. Sahara, a half-elf and lost scion of the Elven house of Alariah, is the current bearer of the Blade of Ice, returned to her following the end of the SwordQuest and installation of Eyrim Delithera as the head of the Sybaran people.

Cleric of Hundarian and original Hero of Narilan. Tenbar was instrumental in helping Shasta rediscover the origins of both Chaos and Order and was able to combine both clerical and non-clerical magics to create the two spells which defeated Chaos. After the First Chaos War, Tenbar retired from active adventuring and dedicated his life to establishing the new church of Order.

A Dark Elf who came to the surface, Ryld T'orgh forsook his people after the witnessing the wholesale destruction of two-thirds of his city by a nearby rival town. He arrived on the surface outside of Tasmil and, after finding a modicum of success fighting for money in the Arena, left in the dark of night to find something more spiritually fulfilling. He didn't find a cause; he found a woman.

Lauri was a mage-candidate who had studied for a number of years at the College of Magical Arts, specializing in fire and illusion magics. While on the way back to her hometown of Bilodiar, she was besieged by a band of roving brigands who had, in actuality, been sent to capture her for ransom. Ryld happened along during the fight and not only subdued the highwaymen, but stole Lauri's heart.

The couple has had two children and retired to just outside Tasmil following the events of the SwordQuest, where they operate an inn (the Sandy Dunes Inn) which also serves as a waystation for people escaping from slavery in Tasmil.

Bard, rogue, and part time Legend, retired. Darrin Trailsong has been around in one way or another, for as long as a number of the smaller cities of Garidon. Some think that if nothing else, he will be the last one left to turn out the proverbial lights if the world should ever go kablooey.

Darrin began his life as Gavril shea Silverleaf, firstborn male child of the Elven royal house. As such, he was first in line to the throne of Sybara, but, when it came time for him to assume the throne, he realized that he honestly didn't want it. To that end, he arranged for an accident to cover his 'death' and ran away from the Sybaran kingdom, leaving it to his eldest sister, Keryl, by default. He disguised himself as a human (a disguise that remains to this day) and took the name Darrin Trailsong.

During his first years wandering, Darrin met and fell in love with a human cleric of Amitir, Matron of Bards, by the name of Allisyn. The two, along with a number of other friends and acquaintances, formed the Company of Crazed Wits and proceeded to make their fortune hiring themselves out as adventurers for hire. After twenty years, the two were ready to retire. Allisyn, though, caught the bug one last time to go on one last quest, something that would put an impressive cap on their lives. Fate intervened: it was indeed their last adventure... but only because Allisyn perished.

Distraught, Darrin spent the next twenty years trying to drown his sorrows in any bar he could find. During that period he met the Avariel Ailen Arrowshaft. The two fell not into love, but into lust; their marriage lasted less than five years before they both moved on. Following that, Darrin traveled to the port town of Firstfall, where he and a young lady named Corene struck up a friendship, then a relationship. The two were wed within months. Corene then revealed herself as a mermaid, and Darrin followed her to her undersea kingdom, where the two lived in peace for over a century.

The urge to wander bit him once again, however. With his wife's blessing, he left once again for the surface, ostensibly as an envoy for the kingdom of Midia but moreso to recharge his own personal batteries. Along the way he met the gypsy woman Linin Gemsplitter, her brother Aidan, and, because of Linin's infatuation with him, was at the center of the critical event which caused the First Chaos War. Following the First Chaos War, Darrin returned to the undersea to find peace once again, but it was not to be; the death of his daughter by his own hand forced him to leave and he returned to the surface to stay.

Following his return to the surface, he again met the Ailen Arrowshaft, and this time something genuine was struck between them. Since their marriage, they bought the Whistling Swan Inn, moved it part and parcel to Naridale, and have started a rather eclectic family (three Avariel, one centaur, and a granddaughter [also Avariel]). Following the events of the Second Chaos War, Darrin and Ailen have entered a happy retirement, although Darrin isn't above wandering around once in a while to spread his tales and tunes of history and legendary feats to perhaps inspire the next generation of heroes.

Once she'd come to the mainland, she found herself a figure of much awe and speculation; after all, she was the first winged elf anyone had ever seen. Following the advice of those in Ruriping, she traveled to Naridale, where she met with Aernath at the College of Magical Arts. This was rather fortunate for Aernath; Ailen was perfect for a task that the gold dragon headmistress needed done. To complete that task, Aernath gave her a potion to enhance her already formidable strength. Due to an accident on the mission, that increased strength became permanent-- an unforeseen bonus on an already profitable mission. After she met and divorced Darrin Trailsong, she again went adventuring (mostly to forget him). During one quest, however, her wings were forcibly torn from her body, thus sending the elf into a deep depression. (Her wings were restored by a grateful Garlin duCharleroi following the Rise of Assassins.)

She currently resides in Naridale and lives a quiet, fairly domestic life, although she secretly yearns for the freedom that Darrin so readily enjoys. She is content, though, to live out the rest of her life in relative obscurity... though she realizes that such will never truly happen as long as she remains with Darrin.

Twin sister to Danilin. Darci decided at a young age to follow in her mother's footsteps, choosing the path of the warrior over the path of the bard like her father. This eventually led to the loss of her wings from the breath of the red dragon, Zhaga, during the SwordQuest. Danilin carried her back to the inn in a mostly catatonic state where she lay for many weeks, mourning the loss of her wings. One night, a man came to Darcilyn's room and offered her a tremendous gift: a pair of magical silver wings, crafted of the purest silver, which would replace with absolute precision the ones she lost during the SwordQuest. (The man was, in fact, the cleric Tenbar, who had been working on the wings under the direction of his goddess for nearly a decade.)

Darci currently lives at the Whistling Swan, helping her parents keep the famed inn in tip-top shape, but occasionally sneaks away to visit her sister Ayrlee in Marnet.

The most enigmatic of the three Trailsong/Arrowshaft children, Ayrlee is currently in seclusion in Marnet, hidden away from the tyrant Byreth. Byreth claims that Ayrlee is in fact his daughter; this would be physically impossible, but his subjects on Tanathel still believe his claim nonetheless and have made efforts to capture the girl. She is currently a practicing cleric of Patriah, Goddess of the Skies, and has been assigned as warden of the nursery of the temple in Marnet. Not coincidentally, it is at this nursery where her daughter by Shasta Rameikos' son Tathlyn, Brillayra, is being raised.

Queen of the Elven kingdom of Sybara and sister to Darrin Trailsong (Gavril shea Silverleaf). Keryl's death touched of the SwordQuest and was the first harbinger of the Node Quest and the Second Chaos War.

Dark Elven wizard and cousin to the Eilservs. Tyrrel came to the surface some decades ago with promises of gold and renewal, but a secret plan of conquest and control. His attempt was thwarted by Ailen Arrowshaft, distraught over his kidnapping of her husband, Darrin Trailsong. After spending a stint changed into the centaur witch Aspentil Silvermane, he was slain and returned to life in the service of Chaos. Following the end of the Second Chaos War, Tyrrel is laying low, plotting his revenge on Ailen, and searching for a way to further his own power in the region of the Free Cities.

Female Red Dragon and scourge of the eastern coastlands. For centuries, Zhaga terrorized the whole of the eastern coast, taking exactly what she pleased from whomever she pleased; in fact, the city of Wyrmspire was named for her after its citizens began to worship her as some sort of nouveau deity. Following the Second Chaos War, she has changed her entire attitude toward life. Between the sacrifice of her longtime rival Aernath and the return of her two children (twin ruby dragons, Aerin & Ilyara), she has begun to swing much closer to the causes of Light rather than risk her children to the Darkness.