A large, strong family man travelling with the Fellowship, father of many children. Reliable and straightforward, he becomes one of Shy's most dependable allies.

A young woman travelling with the Fellowship who proves tougher than she first appears. She carries her own secrets and hatreds beneath a quiet exterior.

A grizzled old soldier travelling with the Fellowship who keeps his past carefully hidden. He is protective of his granddaughter and carries the quiet menace of a man who has done terrible things.

A former lawyer, former slave, and current notary to Nicomo Cosca's mercenary Company of the Gracious Hand. A man of many past lives and no convictions who has failed at every fresh start, he finds himself reluctantly drawn to both conscience and Shy South.

A young woman trying to run a farm on the frontier and build a quiet life, who is forced back into violence when her younger siblings are taken. Shy has a past she has spent years running from - she was not always a farmer - and the journey to find her siblings in Red Country puts her back in exactly the situations she has been trying to avoid. She is Abercrombie's most emotionally direct protagonist, less armoured against feeling than most of his characters, which makes her arc in Red Country both more painful and more earned.

Shy South's stepfather - a quiet, gentle man with scarred hands who does the farm work, says very little, and very deliberately does not want to fight. The gap between what Lamb is trying to be and what the long road into the Far Country will eventually require of him is where Red Country makes its home, and he is one of Abercrombie's most carefully handled characters.

Dab Sweet's Ghost companion, a woman of few words and formidable skill. She guides the Fellowship through the wilderness and serves as bridge between the settlers and the native peoples.