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Protagonists
Zetian
Wu Zetian (武 则天)
"Redemption story, they said? There will be no redemption. It is not me who is wrong. It's everyone else."
The female pilot of the Vermillion Bird and the main protagonist of the book. Originally having enlisted to avenge her sister's death, she is forcefully conscripted when she was identified as an "Iron Widow", a female pilot who kills male pilots to power up Chrysalises.—Wu Zetian
- Abusive Parents: Zetian's father had his wife and daughter live in perpetual fear of his temper and didn't give two shits that his eldest daughter was murdered. When Zetian returns home from the front lines for a brief while, the first thing her father does is accuse her of leaving the rest of her family to rot while she lived the high life. While Zetian's mother doesn't take an active part in the abuse, she does nothing to stop it either and instead tries to make Zetian accept it.
- Agony of the Feet: Zetian's feet were crushed when she was younger, as part of the foot-binding process practiced in Huaxia. As a result she is forced to use first a cane and later on a wheelchair to get around. Shimin describes his out-of-body experience in her shoes as "walking on daggers".
- Animal Motif: Foxes. the first Chrysalis she ever pilots is the Nine-Tailed Fox and she is often called a fox-spirit after her murder of Yang Guang.
- Anti-Hero: Zetian is incredibly ruthless, cold and doesn't hesitate to kill people who get in her way. This comes to a head in the book's finale, in which Zetian kills the entire ruling class of Huaxia after their scheming leads to Shimin's (apparent) death. Nonetheless, she is ultimately fighting to avenge her sister and later to free women everywhere from a horribly patriarchal society.
- Deadlier Than The Male: Literally; While Zetian is not a direct physical threat to most men due to her petite stature and bound feet, she is one of the strongest pilots in all of Huaxia and could effortlessly kill almost any male pilot inside a Chrysalis. That's not to mention her incredible ruthlessness and her cunning.
- Does Not Like Men: Zetian at the start of the book understandably has no love for men, due to her horrible experiences with both her father, her grandfather, her brother and pretty much every boy in her home village, with Yizhi being an exception. She gradually breaks out of it after she gets closer to both Yizhi and Shimin and acknowledges that not all men are vicious monsters who only live to torture women.
- I Have Your Wife: The Gods end up taking Shimin and using him as a hostage to keep Zetian on a leash.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She breaks down in tears once she realizes that Shimin was a victim just like her and how awful she treated him. She immediately tries to make things right and a romance ensues because of it.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Of course, of the historical Wu Zetian (武则天/武則天), later known as Wu Zhao (武曌), the first and only female emperor of China.
- Not Afraid to Die: While not overly suicidal, life has been so miserable for Zetian that death holds no fear for her. When the army tries to threaten her with death for what she did, she laughs in their faces, and is only opposed to dying in a Chrysalis because it would mean someone defeated her.
- Polyamory: Ends up in a happy poly relationship with Shimin and Yizhi, who are also very much attracted to each other.
- Power Gives You Wings: One of the first things she learns to do when she gets her spirit metal pilot suit is form it into a pair of wings so she can fly, finally freeing her of the pain of bound feet. It saves her life more than once.
- Self-Made Orphan: She murders her family during her coup of Huaxia, in part because she doesn't want them to live their lives as the Sages' hostages, in part because she has disowned them long ago for their abusiveness.
- You're Not My Father: After being confronted by the fact that her family has always seen her as a meal ticket at best and a nuisance at worst, Zetian disowns them and kills them together with the Sages.
Shimin
Li Shimin (李 世民)
The male pilot of the Vermillion Bird. A convicted murderer with such high spirit pressure he was spared the death sentence and drafted as a pilot instead. There is more to him than meets the eye.- Addled Addict: His alcohol-addiction has left him a wreck physically and mentally. Sobering up seems nigh impossible for him and he becomes bed-ridden for a good while when Yizhi tries to get him off the stuff. Made even worse by the fact that he didn't become an alcoholic by choice.
- The Alcoholic: His cell is filled with flasks and he's drunk or drinking for the majority of the time. His alcoholism is later on revealed to have been forced on him by the military to strengthen their control over him.
- Body Horror: At the very end of the book, he's revealed to be on life support by the gods, and has been reduced to a head and an open ribcage.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Before he murdered his family, Shimin was by all accounts nothing but a gentle-minded scholar and artist, who only fought to earn money. He might have had a promising future in academics, had his brother not decided to be a colossal dick.
- Combat Pragmatist: He's very good at using improvised weapons to defend himself and others.
- Force Feeding: Zetian discovers that Shimin's alcoholism began with Shimin being strapped to a chair and a feeding tube forced down his throat.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Subverted. He's a near-sighted man who needs glasses to see and is infamous as the "Iron Demon" who killed every concubine pilot forced to pilot with him and murdered his own family, but he's actually a very gentle soul who was forced into a life of crime by circumstances beyond his control.
- Genius Bruiser: He's a hulking half-Rongdi man who effortlessly beats up multiple other pilots in a mass brawl and as Zetian finds out, he used to be the top student of an extremely prestigious school and used to have a talent for calligraphy.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Li Shimin (李世民) is also the given name of Emperor Taizong (唐太宗), one of the most respected emperors of the Tang Dynasty. Hilariously, the historical Wu Zetian was actually one of his concubines, but the historical Taizong paid no attention to her. Instead, Wu Zetian became the empress of his son, Emperor Gaozong.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: When he gets his glasses back, they're described as so thick his eyes don't align with the rest of his face. Zetian is stunned to realize he wasn't scowling, he was squinting to see the whole time.
- Organ Theft: While he was in prison, part of his liver and a kidney were taken from him, as is standard for healthy death row inmates.
- Polyamory: Ends up in a happy, loving relationship with both Zetian and Yizhi.
- Self-Made Orphan: He murdered his father in self-defense, after killing his half-brother to save a girl his brother had raped.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: Due to his high spirit pressure, he was spared a death sentence and made into a pilot instead.
Yizhi
Gao Yizhi (高 易之)
The son of one of the richest men in Huaxia. He becomes Zetian's and Shimin's greatest supporter after following Zetian to the military.- Beware the Nice Ones: While he comes across as merely a sheltered rich kid at first, the story implies that he has a darker side to him. He can be surprisingly cold and calculating, as shown by his marriage proposal to Zetian on the day she was picked up to enlist, and it's hinted that his father's business might be related to gangs. Zetian also notes that he shows no visible reaction when watching the video of her and Shimin torturing An Lushan.
- Good Is Not Soft: He's genuinely kind and loves Zetian and Shimin dearly. But don't mistake that for being soft.
- Love at First Sight: He seems to be immediately smitten with Shimin upon first seeing him, staring at him for a while and then stuttering when actually addressing him.
- Meaningful Name: Yizhi's name is made up of the family name Gao (高), which is also the first character in the temple name of Wu Zetian's second husband Emperor Gaozong (唐高宗) and the personal name of her last lover Zhang Yizhi (张易之).
- Polyamory: He gets together with both Zetian and Shimin.
- Pretty Boy: He's repeatedly described as incredibly pretty to the point of having a rather feminine appearance. Shimin even mistakes him for his former co-pilot while suffering from alcohol withdrawal.
- Self-Made Orphan: He kills his father for trying to blackmail Zetian into making him her advisor.
- The Social Expert: Being the son of a wealthy media tycoon, he's the most used to being in the spotlight and talking to the media compared to Zetian and Shimin.
- Tattoo as Character Type: When sleeping with him for the first time, Zetian discovers that most of his body is covered in elaborate tattoos. It's an early sign that he's not as innocent or harmless as he might seem.
Pilots and Chrysalises
Chrysalises in General
- A Mech by Any Other Name: They are called "chrysalises" instead.
- Animal Mecha: Downplayed. Most of them are modeled after mythological creatures in their standard forms, but become more anthropomorphic when transforming into Heroic and Ascended. Though a few also take humanoid appearances from the get-go.
- Armored Coffins: Averted. Pilots can eject themselves or others from the cockpit during emergencies.
- Destructive Savior: Chrysalises tend to destroy a good portion of the land they're fighting on, due to their massive size and weaponry. During the march to the Zhou-province, Zetian even notes that the hunduns seem to take special care not to damage the woodlands too much, while the Chrysalises basically just bulldoze everything in their way.
- Humongous Mecha: Every Chrysalis is at least as big as the great wall. They grow even bigger when transforming into their Heroic or Ascended forms.
- Living Ship: Downplayed. The Chrysalises are made out of spirit metal scavenged from dead hunduns. As a result, pilots are able to feel the emotions of the hunduns they're fighting, as well as the damage the Chrysalis takes in battle as if it was damage to their own body.
- Transforming Mecha: All Chrysalises have three forms: Standard, Ascended and Heroic. Standard is the base form and the weakest, Ascended is stronger but takes up more qi and Heroic is the strongest by far with the highest qi usage and can only be held for a limited amount of time.
The Vermillion Bird
The Vermillion Bird
- Attribute: Fire Type
Weight: King Class
Yang Pilot: Li Shimin
Yin Pilot: Wu Zetian
- Energy Bow: When in Heroic form, the Bird gains a bow that shoots projectiles made from pure qi.
- Glass Cannon: While its damage output is remarkable, as a Fire Type it is one of the most vulnerable Chrysalises and barely possesses any armor.
- Red Is Heroic: A Chrysalis whose main color is red and who is piloted by the protagonists of the book. Who also happen to be the most genuinely heroic pilots in the story.
- Winged Humanoid: Downplayed in its Ascended form but played straight in its Heroic form, where it gains full-fledged wings and the ability to fly.
The Nine-Tailed Fox
The Nine-Tailed Fox
- Attribute: Wood Type
Weight: Prince Class
Yang Pilot: Yang Guang
Yin Pilot: Variable
- Asian Fox Spirit: Its design is based on the mythical nine-tailed fox.
- Green and Mean: A largely green Chrysalis, piloted by an unrepentant serial killer.
- Prehensile Tail: Well, tails. During the prologue, Guang mentions slaughtering hunduns by cutting them down with the Chrysalises' tails.
Guang
Yang Guang
The male pilot of the Nine-Tailed Fox and the murderer of Zetian's older sister.- And Now for Someone Completely Different: The prologue is told from his point of view, showcasing his callousness and indifference towards concubine pilots and his Glory Hound tendencies.
- Asshole Victim: He murdered Zetian's sister and many other concubine pilots sent to him before her with not a lick of remorse, alot of them outside his Chrysalis. When Zetian sees his memories inside the Chrysalises mind sphere, she also finds he tricked several of his concubines into having sex with him by making them believe he thought of them as special, even using the exact same phrases with each one. Needless to say, him dying probably isn't a tearjerker for most readers.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He acts like the perfect gentleman at first when Zetian meets him, making her wonder if she was wrong for assuming her sister's death was his fault. But then she's forced to pilot with him. And not only does it turn out that he did kill her sister, but also that he murdered dozens of other concubine-pilots outside of battle and was merely never held accountable due to his fame and Huaxia generally not caring about female pilots.
- Evil Counterpart: To Shimin. Both of them are incredibly strong pilots on whom the military relies on for victories, Zetian is forced to pilot with both of them and both of them have killed several times. Shimin's Rongdi-heritage made it so he could never actually profit from his position. He actually has a very strong sense of morality and murdered his family not out of bloodlust, but first to protect somebody else, then in self-defense. Guang on the other hand is a monster who puts on a facade of friendliness up until he doesn't get what he wants and is very popular with the citizens and the pilots of Huaxia. His popularity and importance, along with Huaxia's dismissive attitude towards concubine pilots also make it so that he can get away with his crimes scot-free. Or he would have, had it not been for Zetian.
- Glory Hound: In the prologue, he repeatedly mentions his fans and the fame battle will bring him. When he's informed that a prince class hundun is walking with the herd him and the other pilots are currently fighting, he decides to transform his Chrysalis knowing that the concubine pilot will die if he does so and not caring because killing a prince-class will make him even more famous and popular.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Yang Guang (杨广/楊廣) is the given name of Emperor Yang (隋炀帝/隋煬帝), the last emperor of the Sui Dynasty. He was described as corrupt and negligent, fitting his fictional counterpart.
- Serial Killer: He's killed many concubines even outside the chrysalis, with Zetian's sister being only one of the latest.
The White Tiger
The White Tiger
- Attribute: Metal Type
Weight: Prince Class
Yang Pilot: Yang Jian
Yin Pilot: Dugu Qieluo
- Deus Exit Machina: The only Chrysalis on par with the Black Tortoise is kept from assisting the Vermillion Bird against it by a hundun grabbing it from behind and dragging it back into battle.
- Light Is Good: Zigzagged. It's a white Chrysalis that is used to defend humanity, but its female pilot doesn't make the greatest first impression, to say the least. Later played straight, as both Qieluo and Jian prove themselves to be true allies to Zetian.
Qieluo
Dugu Qieluo
The female pilot of the White Tiger. A Rongdi woman infamous for her temper.- Blunt "Yes": When Zetian sarcastically accuses her of projecting her own family issues onto Zetian, Qieluo simply answers that that's exactly what she's doing.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She takes an immediate dislike to Zetian after seeing her in her co-pilot's mind.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to rile her up. Her co-pilot thinking of Zetian makes her so mad she antagonizes and physically assaults the latter the first time they meet.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's an immensely unpleasant and easy to anger woman, who slut-shames and assaults Zetian when the latter tries to strike up an alliance with her. However, it's hinted that she regrets doing so (if only because she's basically been Bullying a Dragon) and she gives Zetian earnest advice to stay waway from her abusive family and not be their punching bag and piggy bank her whole life, drawing parallels to her own experiences. She also later on tries to help the Vermillion Bird when it's being destroyed by the Black Tortoise and is only stopped by a hundun grabbing her Chrysalis.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Dugu Qieluo (独孤伽罗/獨孤伽羅) was the given name of Empress Wenxian (文献皇后）, the empress of the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty. Her husband didn't have any concubines for most of their marriage, and she was known to be ruthless and domineering.
- Yandere: Played with. While it's never confirmed, there are rumors that Qieluo threatened Jian with a knife to get him to agree to never take a concubine. While this is seen as odd in the setting, this could also easily be read as Qieluo not wanting to be married to a man who would needlessly throw away the lives of young women.
Jian
Yang Jian
The male pilot of the White Tiger. A distant relative to Yang Guang. He debuted alongside Qieluo, his balanced match and has never taken a concubine as a result.- Named After Somebody Famous: Yang Jian (杨坚/楊堅) is the given name of the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen (隋文帝).
- Satellite Character: We don't learn much about him, other than that he's Qieluo's husband and might have fantasized about Zetian at one point.
- Seduction-Proof Marriage: He's never taken a concubine, as he's an extremely rare case of a pilot who debuted with a balanced match.
The Black Tortoise
The Black Tortoise
- Attribute: Water Type
Weight: Prince Class
Yang Pilot: Zhu Yuanzhang
Yin Pilot: Ma Xiuying
- The Big Guy: It has a very solid, compact Heroic and Ascended form, compared to the more slender Vermillion Bird and the regular-sized White Tiger and relies mostly on physical strength.
- Weapon Specialization: Wields long black whips in its Ascended and Heroic forms.
Xiuying
Ma Xiuying
The female pilot of the Black Tortoise. A pleasant Han-woman whose feet have somehow remained unbound. One of the few friendly faces in the Huaxia-military.- Embarrassing Nickname: Has earned the nickname "Big-footed Ma" because of her unbound feet.
- Foil: To Qieluo. She pretends to be a caring person, while Qieluo comes across as a jerk while being an actually caring person. She has two toddler sons, while Qieluo is childless. She urges Zetian to care for her family, while Qieluo want her to cut ties with them. She stabs Zetian in the back, whereas Qieluo comes to her rescue.
- Happily Married: Her and Yuanzhang really seem to love each other, if him immediately going protective when she shows fear of Shimin is any indication.
- Manipulative Bitch: She pretends to be on Zetian's side for the majority of the book. But when the battle for the Zhou-province is over and the Vermillion Bird can no longer fight, her and her partner try to kill Zetian, Shimin and Yizhi under orders from the Sages. While Xiuying later claims they only followed the order because their children are being held hostage, the fact that she threatens Zetian right after trying to gain her sympathy suggests she's not as nice or soft as she claims and may have actually agreed that Zetian needed to be dealt with. It's also heavily implied that her trying to get Zetian to forgive her abusive family was yet another ploy to make Zetian more controllable by the military, by using her family as potential hostages. The Sages do try this when Zetian goes on a rampage, but it fails miserably.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Ma Xiuying (马秀英/馬秀英) is, according to legends and operas, the given name of Empress Ma (马皇后/馬皇后), the empress of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
- Rags to Riches: She was originally an unassuming farm girl, but scouters going to the countryside checking people's spiritual pressure found her prodigious potential and recruited her to be a pilot. She was catapulted from being a peasant to obtaining the highest station any woman can hope for in society.
- Together in Death: Both her and Yuanzhang die in the Black Tortoise when Zetian crushes it as revenge for their murder of Shimin.
Yuanzhang
Zhu Yuanzhang
The male pilot of the Black Tortoise. A stoic former monk.- Freudian Excuse: He's extremely racist against the Rongdi, due to losing his family in a raid of the Menggu tribe.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) was the given name of Emperor Hongwu (洪武帝), the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The historical figure was also a monk for a short time, but had to leave after his temple ran out of money.
- Together in Death: Is killed alongside Xiuying when Zetian crushes the Black Tortoise's head.
- Warrior Monk: He's explicitly called this in Zetian's description of him. It's stated that the province he comes from, Ming, is so hostile that even the monks learn martial arts.
The Yellow Dragon
The Yellow Dragon
- Dragons Are Divine: It was piloted by a God-Emperor and is revered by his attendants as an almost holy site.
- Large and in Charge: It is the only Emperor-class Chrysalis in existence, making it the largest Chrysalis in the story by far. It dwarves both the Black Tortoise and the White Tiger in their Heroic forms while being in Standard Form itself. And its pilots are the former emperor of Huaxia and its new empress.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Unlike many other Chrysalises, it cannot perform qi-attacks. However, its sheer size and brute strength more than make up for that.
The Emperor
Qin Zheng
The pilot of the Yellow Dragon and former emperor of Huaxia.- King in the Mountain: Legend says he hasn't died, but rather went into a prolonged sleep behind enemy lines, waiting for the day Huaxia found a cure for his disease. As it turns out, legend is completely correct. Zetian wakes him up and cures him via a vaccine injector in the book's climax.
- Named After Somebody Famous: A variant. Qin (秦) is taken from the dynasty of the same name, while Zheng is the personal name of the first emperor of China, Ying Zheng (嬴政).
- Master of All: Not only was his spirit pressure immense, he was also a master of every qi-form, enabling him to perform all sorts of qi-attacks.
Central Command
Strategists
Yi
Sima Yi
The strategist assigned to Shimin and Zetian to keep them in line.- A Lighter Shade of Black: He may support and train Zetian and Shimin, but that's only because he believes they'll be able to get Huaxia the Zhou-province back. He is still part of Huaxia's oppressive ruling class and a highly sexist and unempathetic, as well as spoiled elite.
- Named After Somebody Famous: The historical Sima Yi (司马懿/司馬懿) was a general in the Three Kingdoms period, particularly renowned for being the rival of Zhuge Liang.
- The Nicknamer: Gives Yizhi the nickname "Rich Boy".
- Pet the Dog: At one point he puts his life on the line to stop Zetian and Shimin from being tributed and does his best to protect them from Lushan's repeated murder attempts by hiding them in the facilities and advocating for them to the other Sages.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As soon as the Vermillion Bird manages to kill the Water Emperor Hundun, Sima Yi and the other Sages order the Black Tortoise to destroy it and kill Zetian and Shimin.
- You Need to Get Laid: When he discovers that Zetian and Shimin haven't slept together, he insists this under the belief that not doing it is affecting their performance as pilots.
Lushan
An Lushan
An antagonistic strategist who starts hounding Zetian and Shimin after Shimin beats up two of his pilots.- Asshole Victim: With the way this guy acts, there probably weren't too many tears spilled by the readers when Zetian and Shimin torture and kill him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: If nothing else, he seems to genuinely love his son, if his desperate reaction to Zetian's and Shimin's claim they kidnapped him is any indication.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He spends to the entire book antagonizing and trying to kill Zetian and Shimin. Even worse, he's revealed to be the one responsible for Shimin's alcohol addiction, having forced it on him as a way to control him. In the end he is tortured and killed by the two people he hurt most, by being drowned in alcohol, the very substance he used to get Shimin addicted.
- Named After Somebody Famous: The historical An Lushan (安禄山/安祿山) was the namesake of one of the bloodiest rebellions in the history of the Tang Dynasty.
- Revenge Before Reason: He repeatedly tries to get the two strongest pilots in Huaxia killed out of a petty grudge, without thinking how losing two people with such massive spirit pressures just might negatively affect the war effort.
Civilians
The Wu Family
Zetian's father
Zetian's abusive father.- Abusive Parent: He would regularly beat on and scream at his wife and daughters, not caring when his eldest was killed and throwing a tantrum over Zetian not sharing her income with the family when she briefly returns home from service.
- Asshole Victim: It's almost impossible to feel sorry for him when Zetian murders him.
Zetian's mother
Zetian's timid mother.- Accomplice by Inaction: She was always too afraid of her husband to stand up to him when he abused her or her daughters. She doesn't even try to defend Zetian when he lays into her during her short stay at home and even seems afraid of Zetian when she finally stands up to him.
- Extreme Doormat: Lets her husband do whatever he wants to her and her daughters and never so much as tries to get a word in.
- Useless Bystander Parent: To go with the above tropes. No wonder Zetian didn't feel bad about killing her.
Wu Ruyi
Zetian's older sister who was killed during her service as a concubine pilot.- Cool Big Sis: Was seemingly the only member of Zetian's family, apart from maybe her mother, who treated her with any kindness or respect.
- Plot-Triggering Death: It's her death at the hands of Yang Guang that prompts Zetian to enlist in the first place, in order to avenge her.
