Tyrant Moon

Dramatis Personae

The Arrow that Flies the Farthest aka Arrow is the 19-year-old Champion of the Red Feather Clan. At her birth, the future the priestesses forsaw for her was unprecedented: she would be the first woman Champion among the Skald nomads. Because the fortunes of the clans depended upon their Champions to settle dispute in ritualized combat, the Red Feathers believed that Arrow's appointment would ultimately doom them. Only Arrow's granduncle, Leaf Dancing, believed that she could become a great Champion. Under his tutelage, Arrow grew to become a mighty warrior. Although she gained much respect among her people after her first few victories, she believes that their good will hangs by the most slender of threads, and that any sign of weakness from her will resurrect their scorn.

Physical Description: Arrow is very tall for a woman. A lifetime of training to fight has given her a strong, muscular body, although her curves remain very feminine. Arrow has long, red hair and brown eyes. A blue tattoo on her face marks her as the clan Champion, and she has other tattoos on her arms and belly.

Thraxis: At age twenty-five, Thraxis is the most powerful of all the Athraskani mages. Although this would seem to be an advantage in a society that places magical ability in high regard, in fact Thraxis is acutely aware that his people see him only as a tool to be manipulated and used for their own benefit. His emotional isolation has caused him to act arrogantly towards others in order to hide his own deep insecurities. This seeming callusness, combined with his great power, leads Balthazar to cast a death curse on him. By the opening of the novel, Thraxis has less than a year to live.

Like all Athraskani, Thraxis has taken a Vow to do no harm. He takes this vow very seriously, whether contemplating what to eat for dinner or facing off bandits intent on taking his own life.

Thraxis' most deeply-hidden secret is that he is in fact a romantic at heart. He fervently believes in the power of love and longs to find his own soul-mate--something that seems unlikely to occur in the brief time left to him.

Physical Description: The death curse has eaten away at Thraxis until little is left of him. His hair, except for his eyebrows and eyelashes, has all fallen out. He is very thin, to the point of gauntness, and this combined with his height (6'7") gives him a skeletal look. Although most mature Athraskani have golden eyes, Thraxis' are so pale that they are light yellow.

Balthazar is the rogue Athraskani whom Thraxis and Arrow must struggle to defeat. Although smart and personable, Balthazar never rose above the level of children's magic. Because power is the only thing held to be of value in Athraskani society, he was treated with contempt at best and hostility at worst. No matter how accomplished he was otherwise, none of his people would ever look upon him as anything more than a pitiful failure. His opportunity for revenge came when Thraxis created a magical jewel capable of bestowing great power on any Athraskani. Balthazar stole the jewel, cast the curse on Thraxis, and then fled to the steppes of the Skald. If his people would not acknowledge him before, then he will now force them to acknowledge him by sowing havoc across the face of the world.

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