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
CargansBack to top
Chaodyn
Dead
Dolphins
Dragon-snakes
Dragons
Durnai
Fire dragons
Good dragons of Pryan
Gorgon
Grenko
Gushni
Hargast
Krishach
Labyrinth dragons
Lazar
Pauka
Pricklebulb fish
Seven-eyed dragon
Snogs
Tier
Tiger-men
Torb
Tytans
Wolfen
Dwarves
Bolttightner, LimbeckBack to top
Drugar (aka Blackbeard)
Fricka
Gertrude
Hartmut
Heavybeard, Grundle
Heavybeard, Hilda
Heavybeard, Yngvar
Jarre
Lectric, Lof
Longshoreman, Darral
Pullstarter, Dunk
Purgeflusher, Balin
Pushpuller, Throtin
Screw, Dirk
Staredial, Groth
Elves
Agah'ran (Emperor)Back to top
Ander'el (Captain)
Ban'glor (Lieutenant)
Bothar'el (Captain, formerly Lieutenant Bothar'in)
Ciang (the Arm)
Daidlus
Devon
Dian'nne [short story]
Durndrun
Eliason
Elixnoir
Kasia [short story]
Keeper of the Book
Keeper of the Door
Keeper of the Soul
Kethin, Paxar
Krenka-Anris
Kris'ah (Baron) [short story]
Lucilla
Marabella
Mnarash'ai
Pundar
Quindiniar, Aleatha
Quindiniar, Calandra
Quindiniar, Elithenia
Quindiniar, Lethan
Quindiniar, Paithan
Quindiniar, Quintain
Rees(h)'ahn (Prince)
Rubel [short story]
Sabia
Tretar (Count)
Walt'ar (Lord) [short story]
Zankor'el (Captain)
Groups/Classifications
Brotherhood of the Hand (The)Back to top
Gargans
Gegs
Kenkari
Kir monks
Little People
Melista
Mensch
Phondrans
Preservers
Quintar
Runners
Savag
SeaKings
Squatters
Tretar
Tribus
Unseen (The)
Weesham
Welves
Humans
Abbott (The)Back to top
Alake
Ancient (The)
Andor
Anne of Winsher (Queen)
Argana
Balthazar
Bane
Blackthorn, Hugh (the Hand)
Blackthorn, Perceval
Darby, John
Delu
Dumaka
Fitzwarren
Gareth
Gregor
Gwenned (Lord)
Hamish [Pryan]
Hamish, Peter [Arianus]
Harald
Iridal
Lathan
Lucy
Magicka
Mikal
Miklovich
Ravenlark
Redleaf, Rega
Redleaf, Roland
Reginald
Rogar (Lady)
Rolf
Sinistrad
Stephen of Pitrin (King)
Three-Chop Nick
Trian
Ulaka
Umbar
Non-Standard Individuals
DogBack to top
Dragon
Royal One (The)
Sang-drax
Twist, Ernst
Vasu
Zifnab
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, named in 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 (The Seventh Gate 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" (Elven Star 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, which is speculated to be well over ninety gates. Into the Labyrinth notes that if they existed, 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— because rune-joining benefitted him by allowing 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. The name "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.Back to top
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 was intentionally changed by the authors 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 (p 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 Orstan was a fellow researcher to Peartree. Orstan 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 He was a researcher who analyzed Delsart Sparanga'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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