A Bingtown woman whose expertise in Elderling lore has been the purpose of a life otherwise constrained by an unhappy marriage and social expectation. Alise's journey with the dragon keepers to Kelsingra is the fulfilment of everything she has studied and the beginning of something she could not have anticipated. Her arc examines what happens when a person who has been living entirely in their mind is suddenly required to live in their body and in the world, and her relationship with Leftrin and with the dragons reshapes her understanding of what her life can contain.

The younger daughter of the Vestrit family whose passionate connection to the liveship Vivacia and refusal to accept her exclusion from seafaring drives much of the Liveship Traders Trilogy. Althea's arc is one of the sequence's most satisfying - a woman who earns her place through genuine competence in a world that would prefer she stay ashore - and her relationship with Vivacia is one of the trilogy's emotional anchors. Her path crosses with the wider Elderlings sequence in ways that reward the full reading of the universe.

FitzChivalry Farseer's unexpected daughter, born small and strange in ways that mark her as different from her earliest days. Bee's perspective on the world is among the most distinctive in the Elderlings sequence - her perception operates differently from other characters, her understanding of events around her is simultaneously more limited and more profound than those events' participants realise, and her voice gives the Fitz and the Fool trilogy a second centre of gravity that gradually becomes as important as Fitz's own. Her arc across the trilogy is one of Hobb's most sustained examinations of what it means to survive.

The Piebald Prince - born to Princess Caution under circumstances Felicity's account of his birth and early life takes care to set down. Named Charger Farseer by Felicity on his fourth day of life, though most call him only 'the Piebald Prince'. Born mottled red and white, resembling both his mother and the Spotted Stud's markings. Raised by Felicity, possessed of considerable Wit-magic, and named King-in-Waiting at seventeen by King Virile.

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.

A Rain Wild girl born with more of the river's physical changes than society considers acceptable, whose selection as a dragon keeper offers escape from a life of careful invisibility. Thymara's arc across the Rain Wild Chronicles is about the gradual discovery of what she is capable of when circumstances stop requiring her to minimise herself, and her relationship with her dragon Sintara - difficult, demanding, and ultimately transformative - is the emotional centre of the quartet. Her navigation of the keeper community's social dynamics and her own changing body give the Chronicles their most grounded human perspective.

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

The most senior of the Servants at Clerres, whose longevity and accumulated prophetic knowledge have made her the organisation's dominant force. Capra represents the ultimate corruption of the Servants' original purpose - a woman who began as a genuine seeker of better futures and has become someone who uses foreknowledge purely to perpetuate her own power. Her treatment of those with prophetic gifts and her history with the Fool are among the most disturbing revelations of Assassin's Fate.

Member of Regal's Skill coterie alongside Will and Burl

A mid-ranking Servant whose fanatical devotion to the organisation's mission and whose particular cruelty toward those she considers threats make her one of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy's most immediately threatening antagonists. Dwalia's pursuit of Bee is the driving engine of much of the trilogy's plot, and her absolute certainty in her own righteousness gives her a particular quality of menace - she is dangerous precisely because she believes completely in what she is doing.

The most complex antagonist in the Liveship Traders Trilogy - a pirate of genuine charisma and strategic brilliance whose vision of a free Pirate Confederation is real even as the means by which he pursues it are not. Kennit's characterisation deepens considerably across the trilogy as Hobb reveals the history beneath the charm, and his relationship with Vivacia is one of the most morally complicated in the sequence. A character whose full picture emerges only gradually and demands reassessment of everything that preceded it.

Keffria Vestrit's husband whose assumption of control over the Vestrit family's liveship and trading interests sets the Liveship Traders Trilogy in motion. Kyle is not a subtle antagonist - his arrogance, his treatment of his crew, and his fundamental misunderstanding of what a liveship is and requires make him a consistent source of damage across the trilogy. His role in Wintrow's story is the most directly harmful expression of his character.

Leader of the Piebald faction who orchestrates the kidnapping of Prince Dutiful

Lord Canny Farseer, son of Strategy Farseer, Duke of Buck - King Virile's nephew and a rival claimant to the throne. Charismatic, reckless, and the leader of the faction known as the Canny Court, his rivalry with King Charger is one of the central tensions Felicity's account traces in careful, deliberate prose.

A former White Prophet who chose to work against the natural course of change, seeking to preserve her own power by preventing the return of dragons. She operates from Aslevjal, using Forged humans and the Outislanders as pawns. She captures and tortures the Fool before being defeated.

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.

An aggressive young Bingtown Trader's son with violent political ambitions who becomes a dangerous faction leader during Bingtown's crisis.

A portly but physically capable Chalcedean merchant and trader. He approaches Leftrin at the mouth of the Rain Wild River offering grain in exchange for passage upriver and intelligence about dragon parts for the ailing Duke of Chalced. He blackmails Leftrin with knowledge of Tarman's secret wizardwood refit.

A Servant with an unusual ability to compel others' compliance, whose relationship with Dwalia is one of dependency and fear rather than genuine loyalty. Vindeliar's arc across the Fitz and the Fool trilogy is one of its more surprising - a character introduced as a straightforward threat who develops unexpected complexity as his circumstances change. His interactions with Bee are among the trilogy's most carefully observed examinations of power and vulnerability.

A Bingtown Trader's daughter, plain and freckled with red hair and grey eyes. A self-taught scholar of dragons and Elderlings with an extensive private library. She enters a loveless marriage of convenience with Hest Finbok, who offers her financial security and a promise to visit the Rain Wilds. Five years into the marriage she finally forces Hest to honour that promise and travels upriver on the liveship Paragon.