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 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.

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.

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.

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 son of Verity Farseer and Kettricken, introduced as a young prince in the Tawny Man Trilogy and present as the reigning king in the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Dutiful's relationship with Fitz spans two trilogies and considerable in-world time, evolving from the rescued prince and his rescuer to something more complex as both age into their respective roles. His handling of the political dimensions of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy's crisis reflects the king his parents shaped him to become.

Chade's son, assigned to Fitz's household as a scribe and reluctant participant in the events of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Lant's arc is about the discovery of competence and courage under circumstances that could not have been anticipated, and his gradual development from an unprepared young man into someone capable of being relied upon gives him a quiet but satisfying trajectory across the trilogy.

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 work-roughened boy a few years older than Bee who tends her horse Dapple at the Withywoods stables. Straightforward and kind, he becomes one of the few people near Bee's age who treats her as an equal rather than an oddity.

A tall, fastidious young man who serves as house steward at Withywoods. He is meticulous about propriety, skilled at managing the household, and quietly devoted to the estate's smooth operation, often at odds with Fitz's casual approach to domestic matters.

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.

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 beautiful young noblewoman with auburn hair and green eyes, placed under Fitz's protection after attempts on her life. She is demanding, vain, and accustomed to luxury, frequently clashing with the simpler household at Withywoods.

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.

Burrich and Molly's Witted son who comes to Buckkeep to be trained

The enigmatic White Prophet whose existence is bound to FitzChivalry Farseer's by prophecy and by a relationship that develops across six novels into one of the most celebrated in contemporary fantasy fiction. The Fool's true origins, nature, and gender are deliberately and consistently ambiguous - Hobb treats the uncertainty as essential rather than incidental. Appearing first as the King's Fool at Buckkeep, the character moves through multiple identities and presentations across the sequence while remaining recognisably and profoundly themselves. Their bond with Fitz is the emotional centre of the entire Elderlings sequence.

Thick is a simple-minded keep servant who appears to be Chade's secret Skill apprentice. He is short, homely, and dismissed by most, but possesses unusual Skill strength that Chade has been quietly cultivating.