The illegitimate son of Prince Chivalry Farseer, brought to Buckkeep Castle as a child and raised in the stables before being taken into the service of the crown as a royal assassin. Fitz carries both the Skill and the Wit - the former the prised magic of the Farseer line, the latter a stigmatised ability to bond with animals that he must conceal throughout his life. Hobb's most sustained creation, followed across six novels and decades of in-world time, he is one of contemporary fantasy's most fully realised protagonists - a man defined by his service to others and his difficulty in serving himself.

Member of Regal's Skill coterie who hunts Fitz and the quest party

Member of Regal's Skill coterie alongside Will and Burl

The youngest legitimate son of King Shrewd, whose resentment of Fitz and contempt for the coastal duchies he considers beneath his ambitions make him the primary antagonist of the Farseer Trilogy. Regal is not a subtle villain - his cruelty and self-interest are apparent - but Hobb grounds his behaviour in comprehensible psychology rather than pure malevolence. His treatment of Fitz and of Verity is the source of the trilogy's most direct moral outrage.

A Witted man (Old Blood) who lives near Crowsneck with his bond-bear Hilda and companion Holly. He educates FitzChivalry about Old Blood ways and offers to teach him.

The stablemaster of Buckkeep who raises Fitz after Prince Chivalry's abdication, providing the closest thing to a father the boy has. Burrich is a man of fierce principles and genuine tenderness beneath a forbidding exterior, whose complicated feelings about the Wit - which he suppresses in himself with considerable cost - shape his relationship with Fitz in ways neither fully understands for much of the sequence. One of the most beloved supporting characters in the Elderlings universe.

Duke Brawndy of Bearns' daughter, a spirited young noblewoman who develops a strong attachment to Fitz. Chade encourages Fitz to court her for political reasons, but Fitz's heart belongs to Molly. She remains loyal to the Farseer crown throughout the crisis.

The illegitimate half-brother of King Shrewd who has served the Farseer crown as its secret assassin for decades, living hidden in the walls of Buckkeep Castle. Chade takes Fitz as his apprentice and shapes his training as an assassin with a complex mixture of genuine care and ruthless pragmatism. One of the longest-serving characters in the sequence, appearing across all three Fitz trilogies, his relationship with Fitz evolves from mentor to colleague to something more complicated as both age and the costs of their service become clearer.

The Duke of Bearns, a powerful coastal lord whose duchy suffers terribly from Red Ship raids. He is a shrewd political figure who notes Fitz's resemblance to Chivalry and tests his loyalty. He witnesses Fitz's trial and is forced to watch helplessly as Regal seizes power.

The cruel Skillmaster at Buckkeep who trains Fitz and the other Skill students. A man whose particular harshness toward Fitz, and whose particular political affinities within the Farseer court, is one of the things the early Farseer books unfold with patient care.

A member of Galen's Skill coterie - one of Regal's more openly aggressive supporters at court, used as a blunt instrument of political pressure in ways the more discreet members of the coterie find easier to deny they had any part in.

An elderly woman who joins the quest party travelling to find Verity. Revealed to be Kestrel, an ancient Skill user from a previous generation who has lived for centuries through the use of the Skill.

The Mountain Kingdom princess who marries Verity Farseer and becomes Queen of the Six Duchies, bringing with her a set of values around duty and service that sit in productive tension with the court culture she enters. Kettricken's arc across the Farseer Trilogy is one of its most carefully observed - a woman adapting to an alien culture while holding to her own principles - and her role develops considerably in the Tawny Man Trilogy.

Fitz's childhood companion and first love, whose relationship with him is shaped by the constraints his secret service to the crown places on everything he might otherwise choose. Molly's practical competence and emotional directness stand in contrast to the court world Fitz inhabits, and the gap between what Fitz wants and what his obligations allow defines much of his personal tragedy in the Farseer Trilogy. Her role develops significantly in the later trilogies.

The wolf with whom Fitz forms a Wit bond in the Farseer Trilogy, a relationship that deepens across the sequence into something that defies easy categorisation. Nighteyes is not merely an animal companion but a fully realised presence whose perspective on the human world - pragmatic, unsentimental, and deeply loyal - provides a counterpoint to Fitz's more conflicted consciousness. His relationship with Fitz is one of the most affecting in the sequence and his fate in the Tawny Man Trilogy is among the most discussed moments in the Elderlings universe.

The wife of Prince Chivalry and therefore Fitz's stepmother by circumstance if not by acknowledgment, whose eccentric energy and genuine warmth toward Fitz are among the more unexpected sources of support in his early life at court. Patience is one of Hobb's more original creations - chaotic, brilliant, and impossible to predict - and her relationship with Fitz develops quietly across the trilogy into something of real significance.

A young girl who serves as Queen Kettricken's page and attendant. Sweet, devoted, and a small constant presence in the queen's household whose particular loyalties the closing chapters of the Farseer trilogy give some careful attention to.

A member of Galen's Skill coterie and the strongest Skill user among them - a careful, ambitious practitioner whose particular alignment within the Farseer court the later Farseer books examine at considerable length.

The reigning King of the Six Duchies at the opening of the Farseer Trilogy, whose pragmatic intelligence gave him his name and whose relationship with Fitz is one of calculated use alongside genuine if complicated affection. Shrewd takes the bastard Fitz into the crown's service with clear-eyed assessment of what the boy can offer and what he is owed in return - a transaction that defines much of Fitz's early understanding of duty and loyalty. His decline across the trilogy is one of its most painful threads.

A minstrel who attaches herself to Fitz during the journey in Assassin's Quest, whose pragmatic self-interest and genuine talent make her a complicated presence in his life. Starling's relationship with Fitz is defined by mutual use that contains real feeling on both sides, and her reappearance in the Tawny Man Trilogy gives her arc unexpected depth. One of the more honestly drawn secondary characters in the sequence.