An orphan raised in Keramzin who discovers she is a Sun Summoner, the only Grisha capable of creating light. Her power makes her the most important person in Ravka and a target for everyone who wants to control what she represents. Over three books she moves from terrified conscript to reluctant symbol to something she chooses for herself.

A pale, reed-thin Fabrikator at the Little Palace who is brilliant with metalwork and glass. He is quiet and socially awkward, far more comfortable with materials than with people, and creates specialised Grisha tools and equipment.

A Tailor, the rarest type of Corporalki Grisha, able to alter the appearance of living tissue. She serves at the Ravkan court as the queen's personal attendant - a position that gives her access to everyone in the palace and the genuine confidence of nearly none of them. Genya's quiet friendship with Alina is one of the more carefully drawn relationships the trilogy gives either of them.

A tall, broad Corporalki Heartrender who serves as one of the Darkling's most trusted personal guards. He is handsome and arrogant, wearing an amplifier made from the claws of a Sherborn bear around his neck.

Alina's childhood best friend and the finest tracker in the First Army. Fiercely loyal and deeply uncomfortable with the world of Grisha politics that Alina is pulled into. His relationship with Alina is the emotional anchor of the Shadow and Bone trilogy.

Queen of Ravka; vain about her looks and a demanding mistress to her Grisha tailor.

King of Ravka; father of Vasily.

The King's spiritual adviser, a priest with a long dark beard, unsettling black eyes, and an aura of mildew and incense. He speaks in riddles about faith and power, and his true loyalties remain unclear.

The immortal commander of Ravka's Second Army and the most powerful Grisha alive. He has spent centuries manipulating Ravkan history from the shadows, always towards the same goal: a world where Grisha are no longer hunted. His methods have long since swallowed whatever idealism he started with.

The elder prince of Ravka and heir to the throne - vain, indolent, and considerably more interested in horses and drink than in the particulars of governing the country he is theoretically being prepared to inherit. The kind of crown prince whose missteps the more competent figures around him have long since learned to plan around.

The most powerful Squaller in the Second Army and later Nikolai's general and closest advisor. Cold, proud, and formidably competent, she has survived everything Ravka has thrown at her by refusing to need anyone. The King of Scars duology slowly unpicks that refusal.