The Gate Will Open - Book Character and Group List

Book Characters and Groups

The Death Gate Cycle features a large cast of characters, as well as a number of groups and creatures. The main purpose of this page is to provide a reference list to help with recalling names; however, I will attempt to provide brief information as well.

Some characters may not be listed if it seemed there wasn't enough that could be written about them, while others were unintentionally overlooked. Parentheses are used to indicate additional (nick)names or changes in the name between books, such as varying use of the letter "h." In one case, a minor character changed names between books; this is noted with a slash. All page numbers for quotes and paraphrasing come from the paperback editions. I've referred to the books by number when it would get too wordy to list them all.

Creatures and Incarnations
Dwarves
Elves
Groups/Classifications
Humans
Non-Standard Individuals
Patryns
Sartan

Creatures and Incarnations

Dwarves

Elves

Groups/Classifications

Humans

Non-Standard Individuals

Patryns

Antius

Elven Star

Marit spent the night with this handsome young man from a Squatter tribe after leaving Haplo when they were still in the Labyrinth. When Haplo found out that she had spent the night with Antius, he abandoned his search for her.

Haplo

All seven books

Kari

Into the Labyrinth

This woman was tall and lank, and had brown eyes and a hard-muscled body (p 318). She led a hunting party sent by Vasu to find Haplo, Marit, Alfred, and Hugh; the party ended up rescuing them from tiger-men. Initially friendly and courteous to Haplo, she became suspicious and treated the three men as prisoners after Marit revealed that Alfred was a Sartan. She was sent home by Vasu after returning to Abri, and seen again when she and the hunters volunteered to fight the serpents with Haplo. One of them fell to her sword. Hugh carried her back to the city after finding her wounded under the bodies of dead chaodyn; later she is revealed to have given her life in the battle.

Klausten, Sendric

Elven Star appendix

A Runner in the early days of attempts to reach the Nexus, he returned to the Vortex through the First Gate and wrote of his observations as his magic faced the challenges of the Labyrinth. He discovered the Barrier of Uncertainty; a rune could only be so detailed before its very presence affected the magic and imbalanced it. His work was submitted to the Lyceum, where Sage Rethis discovered it. See the appendix for details of the theory.

Marit

Books 2 - 5 as "the woman;" by name in books 6 - 7

Rue

Existence suspected in book 2, confirmed book 5, by name books 6 - 7

Daughter of Marit and Haplo, she would be seven or eight gates at the time of the books. Her name is very common in the Labyrinth. Marit imagined that she would be skinny, wiry, tall for her age, chestnut-haired like Marit and with a quiet smile like Haplo (p 43). It's possible that one of the children Haplo and Marit adopt could actually be her.

Sadet

The Seventh Gate

Xar left a man named Sadet in charge when he sent all of the Patryns he had brought to Abarrach away on a ship to pursue that of Ramu and his followers as they headed for the Labyrinth.

Sage Rethis

Elven Star and The Seventh Gate appendices

He lived in the time when the Patryns apparently still resided in the Vortex. In the Year of Exile 1391, he developed his basic laws of rune magic to explain problems the Patryns had always observed with their magic failing unexpectedly. He adopted Sendric Klausten's discovery of the Barrier of Uncertainty after finding it at the Lyceum where he'd studied. His work had disturbing, controversial philosophical ramifications that led to his death at the decree of the Lords in Exile, who later accepted his laws as "the standard foundation of our understanding of magic" (p 363). The crime was "anarchistic heresy," but songs were later sung in praise of him. See these appendices for details of the theories.

Usha

The Seventh Gate

This gray-streaked and wrinkled-- but strong-- woman lived near Marit in the Nexus, though she references "our" headman being killed; perhaps she was a former Squatter who kept up tribe bonds (p 78). The people turned to her to be their acting headman after they were forced to flee the burning Nexus through the Final Gate. She spat at Xar's name because he went on to Abarrach with a promise to return later. Vasu and she left together to discuss strategies to keep holding the Final Gate open; she doesn't appear again.

Xar (aka the Lord of the Nexus)

Referenced in all seven books; first use of name in Serpent Mage

When he was the first Patryn to escape the Labyrinth and enter the Nexus, he imagined children playing there; later, as its self-proclaimed Lord, he would envision armies to help him rule all four elemental realms. With his great magical power, he might have done so for a time. His ambition was his downfall.

Although he deeply cared for his people and selflessly risked his life to return to the Labyrinth and rescue them, he became too focused on world domination and grew afraid of anything that could challenge Patryn rule. His distrust of Haplo led him to order the death of his former servant and "son," eventually allowing Haplo's gravely injured form to die so that the corpse could still provide him with information; this failed, however, since Haplo's body contained no soul. Xar redeemed himself by destroying the spell he'd constructed to collapse the realms into one, preventing Sang-drax from using it before the dragon-snake killed him.

Patryns still honor his memory. Until his death, every Patryn who escaped the Labyrinth did so with his help, whether he brought them out from its depths or encouraged them to reach the Final Gate when they might have given up; nobody else had the will to overcome their fear (a fear he also felt) and enter the Labyrinth again. He put the runes on the Final Gate that allowed it to swing inwards, so that it could be re-entered.

It is unknown if he fathered any children in his lifetime (speculated to be well over ninety gates;) Into the Labyrinth notes that they would have been old by Patryn standards and probably long dead by the time of the books. He did, however, consider Haplo to be like a son to him; all Patryns he brought out of the Labyrinth were "his children," but Haplo was very dear to him.

Xar was "a man of keen, cold, sharp intelligence" (Elven Star p 85). His age and the hardships of the Labyrinth left his face lined and marked, but his skin didn't sag, his jaw was firm, his nose jutting and beak-like, and his eyes "bright and wise and hungry" (Serpent Mage p 9). He commonly wore black, hooded robes, and he was described as having "long hair that fell over his forehead," which would disguise the sigil tattooed there for use in his many rune-joinings (Into the Labyrinth p 49). In a sense, he was polygamous-- against Patryn tradition-- but because it benefitted him to have easy access to the thoughts and feelings of his rune-mates, as they would inadvertantly reveal things they would otherwise keep secret. Marit became one of these rune-mates.

He forgot his own name after tattooing over his heart rune with runes of strength and power; "Xar" was "not his real name. It is not a Patryn name at all, in fact, and is undoubtedly one he devised himself, possibly a corruption of the ancient word tsar, derived from Caesar" (Serpent Mage p 1).

Xar kept a daily journal called A Chronicle of Power. As of Serpent Mage, it had reached twenty-four volumes.

Sartan

Anna/Lya

Fire Sea and Serpent Mage

She was the lovely young woman Alfred had loved for a long time, but she unfortunately died during their long hibernation. (I wonder if her name changed between books to reflect her true Sartan name, or if it was actually a mistake.)

Balt(h)azar

Bethel

Coren (aka Alfred Montbank)

Edmund

Ivor

Fire Sea

He is one of the Sartan whom Alfred knew, and he died during the hibernation.

Jera

Jonathan/Jonathon

Kinilan

Fire Sea appendix

Alfred described him as a Sartan magical researcher, likely the one who built the rune that Alfred analyzed from the Table of Elders in the Chamber of the Damned, and the "narrator" of that text (p 404). He suggested studying ancient necromantic texts for possible solutions to the problem of communicating with the other worlds.

Kleitus I

Kleitus VII

Kleitus XIV

Marta

Mother Peytin (aka Peytin Sartan, Matriarch of Heaven)

Elven Star

According to the myths of Pryan's elves, she created a world for her mortal children-- at the time, humans-- but it was sundered by the war between her sons, the twins Obi and Om and their younger brother San. For their participation in the war, the humans were cast out of the ancient world and sent to Pryan. She then created the elven race and sent them to restore the world's purity (100). Her name is invoked by the various Quindiniars, and they have a prayer icon of her that features the typical Sartan hair coloring; it proves to Haplo that Sartan had been on Pryan. As these elves are matriarchal, it makes sense that they would have a Sartan goddess instead of a god.

Obi

Elven Star

According to the myths of Pryan's elves, he was one of Mother Peytin's elder twin sons and they were appointed to rule over the ancient world. Their younger brother was San.

Orla(h)

Orn

Elven Star

According to the myths of Pryan's elves, he was Mother Peytin's other twin son and was appointed to rule over the ancient world with Obi. Their younger brother was San. His name is commonly invoked in elven expressions.

Orstan

Fire Sea appendix

Alfred wondered if he was a fellow researcher to Peartree. He developed a rune structure intended to facilitate communication by allowing the Sartan to break through the Death Gate and contact the ancient world; instead, it apparently led to contact with a higher power and horrified them.

Peartree

Fire Sea appendix

A researcher who analyzed Delsart's work on the difference between the coarse physical state and the spiritual state, and the one to suggest that order existed in the chaos beyond the Runestate Boundary, a belief considered heretical by many (p 409).

Pons

Queen Mother

Raef

Ramu

Samah

San

Elven Star

According to the myths of Pryan's elves, he was the younger brother of Orn and Obi and was jealous of their rule, so he gathered the humans to wage war against them. Their war supposedly sundered the ancient world, and he was banished below for it.

Sparanga, Delsart

Fire Sea appendix, The Seventh Gate appendix II

Alfred described him as "an aging Sartan mage" (The Seventh Gate p 341). Delsart discovered the Delsart Near State (or Delsart Similitude) and the Runestate Boundary, which was also discovered by Sendric Klausten and named the "Barrier of Uncertainty" (and later adopted by Sage Rethis.) Delsart's were the first major insights of the Abarrach Sartan into better understanding the difference between coarse physical reality and the finer spiritual state. The Delsart Solution was used to improve necromancy so that the corpses better reflected their original spiritual state-- rather than being automatons, they were more self-motivated and had more of their living personalities and capabilities. Attempts to apply his Solution, however, led to the creation of lazar since the necromancers were not sure how long to wait to prevent the spiritual state from binding too closely.

Tomas

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The Death Gate Cycle and all related characters and terms copyright © 1990-1994 Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman; further materials as noted. This website copyright © 2005-7 Immora. Rune image is my rendering of those presented in Dragon Wing and is not an original composition.