Characters that appear in Splint and the related stories, including Freedom's Limits. Beware of unmarked spoilers.
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The Main Pairing
Rukhash
A young Orcess born in Isengard whose childhood was spent during the War of the Ring after which she tried to find her place in Middle-earth that seemed determined to wipe out her race. After she rescues Cadoc in Gondor's wilderness, she forms a strong bond with the Ranger who promises to escort her to her kind in Mordor.
- Action Girl: She's skilled with a blade and bow, and more than capable of defending herself armed or unarmed.
- The Aloner: Until she rescued Cadoc, she had lived alone for around three to four years.
- Big Brother Worship: Rukhash was very close to her brother Thraangzi, who was older than her by a decade. After the Battle of Pelennor Field, she'd wanted to go find him despite the great risk in case he'd survived, but she later learnt from a surviving captain that he fell in battle. This turns out not to be the case, but unfortunately, Thraangzi seeks to avenge his dead shaûk and sons by torturing and killing Cadoc, and Rukhash is forced to kill him, much to her distress.
- Breeding Slave: She expected she'd become one for Mordor once she came of age, although luckily the war ended while she was still a child.
- Broken Bird: Rukhash is clearly traumatized and filled with grief and bitterness from the Trauma Conga Line she went through during and after the War of the Ring, making her rather blunt and standoffish, but she's also a kind, nurturing and even lovable person in her own way.
- But Not Too Bi: Rukhash casually mentions at one point that she has had sexual relationships with female Orcs, though she seems to prefer men overall; her two most serious relationships have been with men.
- Combat Medic: She's a capable healer and an Action Girl.
- Cool Big Sis: She has shades of this towards Cadoc's niece, Morwen.
- Covered with Scars: She has a deeply scarred back from being whipped while she was enslaved in Mordor.
- Interspecies Romance: With Cadoc, a Man.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's foul-mouthed and aggressive, but has a good heart at her core and is very loyal to her loved ones.
- Meaningful Name: She's named after the legendary progenitress of her race.
- The Medic: Grazad trained her as healer during her time in Mordor. As a result, Rukhash is able to treat Cadoc's broken leg and head injury at the start of the story.
- Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: She's half Uruk-hai on her mother's side and half goblin on her father's side. She also has a bit of human in her, for her maternal grandfather was Dunlending.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She had a son and daughter, but they were both killed by orc hunters.
- Pregnant Badass: She's more than capable of taking care of both herself and Cadoc while pregnant.
- Second Love: For Cadoc whose first relationship to Ingrid ended in divorce.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Like many Orc characters, she tends to make liberal use of profanity, especially in comparison to Cadoc.
- Sole Survivor: Around five years before the story, her entire clan, including her mate and two children, were killed by orc hunters.
- Tsundere: She is mostly a Type 1 (default "Harsh"), being generally quite abrasive and blunt, but possessing a softer and more compassionate side which comes out more as she warms up to Cadoc.
Cadoc
A middle-aged Gondorian Ranger from a small village in Lamedon who fought in the War of the Ring. When he gets injured while traveling in the wild, he's rescued and nursed back to health by Rukhash, and his growing relationship with the Orcess leads to him reassessing his assumptions about Orcs.
- Category Traitor: His relationship with Rukhash leads to the likes of Barmund and Dellon calling him a traitor to Men.
- Disappeared Dad: Being a Ranger, Cadoc didn't have much time to spend with his son Holgar, which led to them becoming increasingly distant. By the start of the story, Holgar has essentially cut his dad out of his life, to the point that he's completely apathetic about whether Cadoc is still alive or died on one of his outings.
- Distressed Dude: He spends several months recuperating at the start of the fic after falling and breaking his leg following a wolf attack. He later gets taken captive and tortured by Rukhash's brother. Both times Rukhash saves him.
- Eyepatch of Power: Losing his left eye doesn't make him any less of a badass, and he starts wearing an eyepatch after Rukhash fashions him one.
- Eye Scream: Cadoc gets one of his eyes burned out with a hot poker and wears a patch for the rest of the story.
- Has a Type: Hedon states that Cadoc has always been drawn to uninhibited women.
- Hide Your Heritage: Although he was born in Gondor and the majority of his family are from there, one of his grandmothers was actually a Dunlending woman, although he doesn't usually make this common knowledge due to the general negative opinion of the Dunlendings. Some people are quite surprised to learn this about him.
- Interspecies Romance: With Rukhash, an Orc.
- Noble Bigot: At the beginning of the fic, he is very prejudiced against Orcs, seeing them as little more than bloodthirsty monsters who get everything they deserve. This is somewhat understandable, given his only interactions with Orcs were during battles and raids, where he witnessed firsthand the horrors they inflicted on innocent people. He is otherwise a good man who fights to keep Gondor's lands and particularly the rural communities safe. However, after getting to know Rukhash, he comes to realize that Orcs are Mirroring Factions to Men and begins changing his views, to the point where he falls in love with Rukhash. Even then, his views were pretty tame compared to some other human characters like Dellon, who goes out of his way to hunt down and kill Orcs out of hatred for them, even if they weren't doing anything wrong.
- Parents as People: He genuinely loves his son Holgar, but because he was away from home so much, he didn't have much time to spend with him and they became distant. Cadoc regrets this now and has attempted to reach out to Holgar, but the latter isn't very receptive. Although hurt by their estrangement, Cadoc understands why Holgar feels this way and doesn't hold it against him.
- Ranger: He's a ranger of Gondor and has a number of badass moments, although he is getting on a bit in years and is thinking of retiring at the start of the story.
- Second Love: For Rukhash whose her first mate Anbagûrz was killed by orc hunters.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After Rukhash saves him from wolves, treats his injuries and looks after him, he initially responds by treating her like a threat and even impulsively lashes out at her when she tries to give him water. Rukhash straight up call him an ungrateful bastard and hits him back. Although Cadoc's reaction is understandable given his only experiences with Orcs up to that point have occurred on the battlefield, Rukhash has done nothing to harm him or suggest she'll harm him, and he later acknowledges that he was in the wrong for his outburst.
Humans
Hedon
A Ranger and Cadoc's longtime friend.
- Noble Bigot: Though he's a good man, he views Orcs as vile beasts, though he gradually starts easing up on his views as he gets to know Rukhash.
- Notorious Parent: Hedon's father was a thief called Crazy Eye Eaton who often collaborated with Orcs. He often had his young son assist in his crimes until he was arrested and hanged. Hedon was then raised as the Rangers's ward, and he prefers not to be associated with his father.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: He gradually becomes one with Rukhash.
Ingrid
Cadoc's former wife and mother of Holgar. She is now married to Baladnor.
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: A big reason her marriage with Cadoc failed was because he was frequently away from home doing Ranger duties. She got fed up being left at home all the time to raise their son by herself, not knowing if or when Cadoc would be coming home.
- False Soulmate: She ended up being this for Cadoc. They were married and had a son together, but while Cadoc loved her, he tended to put his duty to Gondor first and spent a lot of time away from home. Ingrid eventually got sick of this and her love for Cadoc faded; not even a year after their divorce, she remarried to Baladnor, whom she seems much happier with, while Cadoc eventually finds love again with Rukhash, who appears to understand him on a more fundamental level than Ingrid did.
Holgar
Cadoc and Ingrid's son.
- Hates Their Parent: He is borderline estranged from Cadoc because he was never around much when Holgar was growing up. He rarely writes or visits Cadoc, and did not respond to his father's attempts to reconcile; he's even indifferent as to whether his father lives or dies. Cadoc is upset by this, but he acknowledges that Holgar's feelings are understandable.
- Strong Family Resemblance: When Ingrid sees her son for the first time in a long while, she's startled to note that aside from the hair color Holgar inherited from her, he's a spitting image of his father.
Magistrate Halbard
The elderly magistrate of Cadoc's home village.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Once he personally meets Rukhash and hears her story, he decrees that she's not to be harmed as long as she does nothing wrong during her stay with Cadoc's family.
Barmund
An Orc hunter who's friends with Baladnor.
- Asshole Victim: After he nearly has Rukhash killed and brings in Dellon to hunt her and Cadoc down, he gets one of Rukhash's arrows in his head when he's about to lead his men to kill Cadoc (whom he used to bully for having Dunlending heritage when they were children).
- The Bully: He used to pick on Cadoc on the basis of the latter's Dunlending heritage when they were children.
- Jerkass: He's one of the few named human characters who has next to no redeeming qualities.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Not only he has dehumanized views on Orcs to the point that he ignores Magistrate Halbard's order to leave Rukhash alone, but he also makes comments about Cadoc and his family's Dunlending heritage.
Dellon
A young Knight of Gondor and former Ranger who's obsessed with exterminating all the Orcs from existence.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: This idealistic young Knight turned into the Orc Butcher seven years before Splint when two Uruk-hai females caught him and tortured him as well as raped him.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Hedon assesses that Dellon has always been prone to extremist thinking. He becomes convinced Rukhash is a witch powerful enough to ensnare men as honorable as Cadoc and Magistrate Halbard since he can think of no other reason they would even consider trusting an Orc (though he also considers that Cadoc's Dunlending heritage has made him susceptible to such a corruption).Hedon: For all of his conviction, Dellon has never been a sensible individual. Before he was attacked, he would argue against killing orcs on moral grounds despite the real dangers they presented to the people of Ithilien, and now he would murder every one of them, regardless of whether they are causing trouble or not.
- Combat Pragmatist: Dellon has no qualms about kicking a female Orc such as Rukhash between her legs.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Though Dellon hangs Madavi in the prologue of Freedom's Limits for loving an Orc (after killing Smador and their infant son before her eyes, no less), he prevents one of his men from molesting her on the basis of it not being right.
- Evil Wears Black: This Knight Templar is dressed entirely in black, though he has the White Tree of Gondor embroidered on his outer shirt.
- Freudian Excuse: Getting caught, tortured and sexually violated by two Orcesses left him filled with inextinguishable hatred towards the entire race of Orcs.
- He Who Fights Monsters: He's noted to match in cruelty the worst of Orcs he hunts down, and his tactics are considered brutal even among Orc hunters.
- Knight Templar: Dellon takes his job as the "Orc Butcher" very seriously to the point of hunting Rukhash and Cadoc half way across the country just because he hates Orcs that much.
- Perpetual Frowner: This young man is so grim he never smiles.
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Dellon was taught by Cadoc in Ranger skills until he chose to make killing Orcs his life purpose. Now he's trying to kill Rukhash and make Cadoc answer for consorting with her, but he also believes Rukhash's a witch who has bewitched Cadoc, and he feels he owes his former mentor the favor of freeing him from her clutches.
- Red Baron: Dellon is known as the "Orc Butcher".
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Cadoc, who personally taught Dellon, tells Rukhash that only Hedon would be better suited to track them down than Dellon.
- Tragic Bigot: He used to believe it's possible for Men to live in peace with Orcs, but he completely changed his views when he was caught and tortured by two Uruk-hai females.
Calon
A Ranger and one of Cadoc's longtime friends.
- Nice Guy: Out of all the Rangers accompanying Faramir and Eowyn, Calon is the least judgemental of Rukhash and Cadoc's affair with her. It's partly thanks to Cadoc accepting his homosexual relationship with Rivalon when he accidentally found out about them.
Rivalon
A Ranger and one of Cadoc's longtime friends.
- Everyone Has Standards: As bigoted as Rivalon is of Orcs, even he finds Dellon's obsession to eradicate them all as well as hunt down Cadoc and Rukhash to be insane.
- Freudian Excuse: He grew up in Henneth Annûn fighting Orc invaders and lost his parents and brother to them, which makes it hard for him to give Rukhash the benefit of the doubt.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can barely remain in Rukhash's company without scrutinizing her every action, but he remains a Noble Bigot for Calon and Cadoc's sake. Rukhash lampshades it by telling Calon that Rivalon can't be a complete jerk if a Nice Guy like Calon is his romantic partner.
Geth
Rukhash's maternal grandfather, a Dunlending outlaw who fathered the Uruk-hai Hegdash with an Angmar Orcess named Bidush.
- Creepy Blue Eyes: This creepy rogue had sharp blue eyes.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Rukhash heard her grandmother often saying that Geth had an Orc's black heart and did wicked things in his life. However, he was a Doting Grandparent who used to bring from his raids gifts to his Orcish grandchildren.
- Human Traffickers: Saruman hired him to abduct human females for the Uruk-hai breeding project.
- Posthumous Character: He died of old age when Rukhash was a child in Isengard and appears only in flashbacks during Splint. His backstory is explored in The Black Heart, one of the author's related stories.
- Really Gets Around: He was rather promiscuous with orcesses.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Geth was a wiry man easily dwarfed by the large Angmar Orcess Bidush.
- Torture Technician: He apparently gave his grandsons lessons about torture tactics. Thraangzi wishes he'd have paid those lessons more attention as he thinks on how to torture Cadoc slowly to death. While Dellon is being raped by Glokarn and Matnau in Rotten Fruit, they invoke Erotic Asphyxiation by using a trick Glokarn once witnessed Geth using on a man.
Orcs
Gijakzi
Rukhash's father, a goblin from Núrn who worked as the head smith and engineer of Saruman. Following the flooding of Isengard, he became the chieftain of the Glokong tribe.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Before Rukhash was born, Gijakzi had another daughter in Núrn. She and her mother died in Barad-dûr's breeding pits under Grazad's harsh watch.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's a few inches shorter than his daughter and reaches only Cadoc's chest. Despite his wiry appearance, he's strong enough to take on an Uruk.
Hegdash
Rukhash's Uruk-hai mother who was a breeder in Isengard. Following the flooding of Isengard, she became the shatroklob (head female) of the Glokong tribe.
- Aura Vision: She's able to see in the hearts of living creatures sparks of light which Orcs have gained at increasing rate since Sauron's final defeat.
- Half-Human Hybrid: She's technically one since her parents were an Angmar Orc and a Dunlending man.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She gave birth to more than a dozen children, but now she has only several left.
- The Social Expert: Rukhash tells Cadoc that Hegdash has a talent for reading people like books. Gijakzi also credits her diplomatic skills for the success of the Glokong tribe.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's as tall as Cadoc and considered particularly attractive for an Orc.
Grazad
An old Orcess who was the mistress of Barad-dûr's breeding pits and taught Rukhash healing. She became the healer of the Gundbarashal tribe after the War.
- Cool Old Lady: This elderly and potty-mouthed healer takes no crap from anyone.
- The Medic: The one who taught Ruhkash. She's known as the best healer in southwestern Núrn, and the neighboring Orc tribes buy her medicines.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Rukhash mentions that all of Grazad's children died a long time ago in Barad-dûr.
Takhbork
A blacksmith of the Gundbarashal tribe, shaûk of Fiilmor, and father of their son Gruk.
- The Blacksmith: He and Fiilmor are the only smiths of their tribe, and he soon starts teaching Cadoc in the trade.
Bogdish
One of Rukhash's older brothers and one of her closest siblings.
- The Blacksmith: He works as a smith in the Glokong tribe.
- Boisterous Bruiser: He's large even for an Uruk-hai and likes a good fight, but he's not a Blood Knight who enjoys killing people, and he's rather affable to hang around with.
- Child Soldier: He was thirteen years old when he was forced to Isengard's barracks and Uglúk's troop that attacked the Fellowship of the Ring at Amon Hen. He deserted during the battle and hid until his kin and the other refugees of Isengard found him.
- Gentle Giant: Bogdish' joviality is as abundant as his size. Rukhash lampshades it by stating that her brother might be a monster of an Uruk, but he's a gentle monster of an Uruk.
- Happily Married: He's married to a snara woman named Esha. Though they're happy together, she's not his shaûk because Bogdish is so fond of their children that he doesn't want to be forced to place Esha before them.
- Merciful Minion: He saw Frodo and Sam fleeing at Amon Hen, but he let them go since he couldn't bring himself to harm the hobbits, and unknowingly enabled them to destroy Sauron later.
Old Granny
An ancient Orcess who lived in the tunnels of the Gundbarashal tribe when Grazad was little. She refused to answer Sauron's call and remained in the tunnels were she ended up going mad.
- Aura Vision: She can see in the hearts of living creatures sparks of light which Orcs have gained at increasing rate since Sauron's final defeat.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: The sparks of light she sees with an increasing rate in the hearts of her fellow Orcs (likely the result of living more peacefully away from the influence of Sauron and of Morgoth before him) are viewed by her as an infection that make them "weaker" for being less hateful of existence in general. She herself tries desperately to prevent herself from succumbing to her own light.
- Child Eater: She has apparently been feasting on the few Gundbarashal sprogs that have wandering too far off from the tribe's den.
- Creepy Blue Eyes: This creepy hag of an Orc has icy blue eyes.
- Evil Old Folks: She's a murderous old Orcess and a devout worshipper of Morgoth.
- The Fundamentalist: She's so firmly devoted to Morgoth that she considers Sauron a poor imitation of the first Dark Lord to the point that she refused to heed his summons in the Third Age and considers the modern representatives of her race not to be true Orcs since they're not driven by hatred of existence like they were in the First Age.
- Stronger Than They Look: This withered old Orcess is only about the height of Cadoc's waist, but she turns out to be deceptively strong.
- Time Abyss: Even Grazad, who knew Old Granny as an elderly when she herself was a child, is not sure how old she exactly is. She actually originates from the First Age. She even calls herself the figure from orcish legends named Rukhash.
- Undying Loyalty: Towards Morgoth. After she's killed, she fights down the calling of the light she despises and enters the Void to wait for when she can serve Morgoth again in the Dagor Dagorath.
- Ungrateful Bitch: She tries to kill Grazad even though the latter prevented the Gundbarashal tribe from killing her.
- Would Hurt a Child: Not only she's a Child Eater, but she actually killed at least one of her own sprogs for possession the "spark" she despises.
Anbagûrz
A Black Uruk berserker who was Rukhash's shaûk and father of their children Rangmau and Raugvarg. He was killed by Orc hunters five years before Splint.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Rukhash considered his package to be the finest she's ever seen.
- Gentle Giant: He was a huge warrior, but as an affectionate mate and attentive father, he was a gentler example of his brethren.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: As a Black Uruk berserker, he was much larger than Rukhash.
- Hulk Speak: He was unable to speak well, though Rukhash is unsure if he was always like this or only after he suffered the head injury she first met him with. She knew though that he wasn't the Dumb Muscle his speech problems made him sound like. He's able to speak fine when he appears without his brain injury in Rukhash and Cadoc's near-death dreams.
- The Lost Lenore: Even after Rukhash finds happiness again with Cadoc, she won't forget her Anba.
- Made of Iron: Baladnor recalls that it took a great deal of wounds to bring Anbagûrz to his knees.
- Posthumous Character: He's regularly brought up by Rukhash years after his death. He also appears a couple of times when Rukhash and Cadoc nearly die and dream meeting him.
Bidush
An Orcess from Angmar whose union with Geth resulted in Hegdash, making her Rukhash's grandmother.
- Breeding Slave: She was brought to Isengard from Angmar as a child and made to produce offspring for Saruman's Uruk-hai breeding program as soon as she was old enough to conceive. She spent most of her time in a locked-up cell and wasn't allowed to go outside.
- Determinator: Gijakzi notes that Bidush showed remarkable resilience by defying Sauron's voice that whispered orders in every Orc's head and abandoning the War to go home.
- Gentle Giant: Though intimidating in size and appearance, Bidush was a Nice Girl.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Geth passed away, Bidush left Isengard to journey back to Angmar and hasn't been seen since.
- Third-Person Person: She spoke of herself and others in the third person.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: She was a muscular Angmar Orcess a head taller and twice as broad-shouldered as Geth.
- You No Take Candle: She learned to speak the common language while growing up in Isengard, albeit a slightly broken version of it.
Glokarn and Matnau
A pair of Uruk-hai soldiers and twin sisters. They were the ones who tortured Dellon and turned him into the Orc Butcher, an incident that's detailed in Rotten Fruit.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Matnau uses a heavy battle axe and Glokarn a long-handled mace in Rotten Fruit, and they're both savage brutes.
- The Cameo: Glokarn appears in one of the flashbacks of Rukhash's childhood in Splint, and her sister is also mentioned in the same scene.
- Dark Action Girl: They were large even for Uruk-hai females, and they proved themselves skilled enough in warfare to be assigned to Isengard's barracks instead of the breeding dens.
- Downfall by Sex: They've survived the years following the War by remaining on the move, but in Rotten Fruit, Glokarn decides to find a sire for the offspring her infertile twin has always wanted. Unable to come upon any Orc males, they decide to rape Dellon instead of just killing him. By the time they're done, they're taken by surprise and killed by Cadoc and Hedon.
- Evil Redhead: Both of these brutal Orc soldiers had red hair they used to shave short.
- Posthumous Character: They were killed when Cadoc and Hedon rescued Dellon from them seven years before Splint.
- To Serve Man: Rotten Fruit begins with them having eaten a human child. They plan on eating Dellon as well once they're done raping and torturing him.
- Twincest: They explicitly loved each other more than anyone in the world.
- Would Hurt a Child: Glokarn once attacked Rukhash who was six years old at the time and nearly killed her before Thraangzi came to the rescue. In the beginning of Rotten Fruit, the twins have just eaten a human child.
