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Characters / The Forges of Dawn

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Uhuru's pride

Uhuru/Uru

The main character of the story, Uhuru is an abnormally large lyonesse with red eyes and fur. She is the most recent of a long line of magical Red Queens, however is ignorant of her powers and lineage. It isn’t until the Pale Ones rip apart her family and shatter her world does she learn who and what she really is...

Tarute

The childhood friend and love interest of Uhuru, who accompanies her throughout the book. He is handsome, and knows it, but his vanity has Hidden Depths concerning Uhuru. After Vireka turns him into a monster, he seeks revenge on the white Lyon.

Hotio

Uhuru's father, and the leader of her pride before the Pale Ones attack. Hotio afforded Uhuru her red eyes, large size, and her shared blood with the Pale One royal line, giving her the magical powers inherent in it. She also inherits her stubborn, deterinmed streak from him, which assists her throughout the course of the story.

Koto

Koto is the brother of Hotio, and the Co-leader of the pride. While Hotio is all muscle and fire, Koto is more logic and thought. Like his brother he has magic in his blood, but uses a very mild form of it. Even then, he needs a charm to actually do it. Koto is not so secretive about their lineage, and when Uhuru asks questions, he answers as best he can.

Asta

The mother of Uhuru and Oni, though the only thing she affords her eldest daughter is her red pelt and tail tuft color. Asta is one of Hotio's wives, and unlike her mate and eldest daughter, she is calm and levelheaded, if a touch manipulative.

Oni

The younger sister of Uhuru and second daughter to Hotio and Asta. She too is red, but more brownish hues instead the blood colors Uhuru has. Unlike her sister, she takes to traditional lyonesse roll with ease and shows promise as hunter. Her personality is more soft and passive, though if pushed, she can drum up a fire similar to her older sister.

Moyo

Moyo the son of Koto and Liwaza, and the eldest "cub" in the pride, older than both Uhuru and Tarute, who are just on the cusp of adulthood. He manages to escape alongside Oni and Aja when the pride finds a flaw in Jesiza's supervision of them.

Kamaria

  • Dark and Troubled Past: She has a dark past with the Pale Ones that is described in a supplemental work.
  • Killed Offscreen
  • Princess in Rags: She's descended from the line of royal Pale Ones, but lives in a refugee pride. Before that, she was her father's personal servant who wasn't allowed to tell anyone about her true heritage.

Shari:

  • Broken Bird: She's a cynical lyon who believes there's no hope of defeating the Pale Ones, but internally feels horrible due to not being able to have cubs and is kinder than most lyons know.
  • Did You Think I Couldnt Feel: Most lyons tend to assume that she's just bitter and cruel, with no love for Hotio. After his death, she notes that that was never the case.
  • Killed Offscreen

Endia and surrounding areas

Lochan

A soft spoken and strikingly handsome male lyon from Endia, Prince Lochan serves as an ambassador to the Endian Empire and takes interest in Uhuru when he learns she may be from the lost continent of Afriik. Both curious and motivated by greed, he looks into this, intending to sell her should it prove true...at first.

Modak

An old, beat up Lyon originally from Afriik, now settled in Endia after making it alive through the cursed Waste. At first just a cynical healer, he desires to go with Uhuru on her quest for revenge after it is revealed she is the fabled "Red Queen". He patches up a tortured Lochan and then betrays Yu Song as the two procure a boat to head to the edge of the Waste.

Ming Huo

Ming Huo is a tiger native to Endia, who works as a blacksmith after she abandons Yu Song's crew. She takes an interest in Uhuru after she mentions that no one works Iron in Afriik, only bronze, and decides to follow her since her skill would be more valued there and people would be less likely to turn her away because of her gender.

—-

Yu Song

Yu Song is a nastily scarred and extremely oily maltese Tigrisian native to Europa, who meets Uhuru in the Endian Empire's dungeons. He isn't so much interest in her as the bracelet she carries, falsely claiming he wants them pure for their aesthetic value. However, he sees power in them where Uhuru does not, and is the closest second the Vireka in terms of lethality.

  • Ax-Crazy: More subtle than Vireka, but it's still there.
  • Bad Boss: Is revealed to have drowned all but one of his crew to get Uhuru's bracelet.
  • The Charmer: Has some degree of charm, though is fluctuates and is ultimately all a ruse.
  • Covered in Scars
  • Manipulative Bastard: Manipulates the tigrisians into following him and Uhuru into being forced to giving him the fyre stone bracelet, since he knows Lochan will betray her but Uhuru would never suspect this.
  • Pirates: He's the captain of a pirate ship.
  • Rebel Leader: The leader of the Tigrisian uprisings sparking all across Endia and threatening Lyon power.
  • Spikes of Villainy: His armor has spikes to prevent enemies from leaping on his back.
  • Staged Populist Uprising: Uses the tigrisians' grievances against the lions to form a rebellion for his own gain.
  • Turncoat: To Uhuru, though they were hardly on the same side to start.
  • Unholy Matrimony: With Tai Yang.

Tai Yang

The Second, or first mate, of Yu Song. She is utterly loyal to him and just a hair less vicious as well as terribly possessive of the scarred blue tigrisian.

Navya

Nayva is a small lyonesse a part of Yu Song's crew. Injuries have terribly twisted her face, giving her a permanent squint and snarl.

  • Gutted Like a Fish: Threatens to do this to Uhuru, but it doesn't work because she doesn't understand her slang. Yu Song kills her this way.
  • Mooks: One of a crew of them.
  • Pirates
  • Too Dumb to Live: Winds up getting herself killed when she decides to get drunk instead of warn Yu Song about Uhuru's impending betrayal. Tai Yang guts her for this.

Wulan

The Utan (orangutan) captain of a ship that rescues Uhuru and takes her to Endia.

  • Punch-Clock Villain: She's a reasonable if sometimes strict captain in normal life, but is willing to turn in Lochan for his likely torture and execution to gain money and fame.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Her plan to accuse Lochan of treason for withholding Uhuru's existence to Chetna backfires because Chetna imprisons her and Bambang for withholding that information themselves.

Bambang

Wulan's second.

  • Punch-Clock Villain: He's a very kind utan who is supportive of Wulan and helps nurse Uhuru back to health, but is willing to turn in Lochan for his likely torture and execution to gain money and fame.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: His support of Wulan's plan to accuse Lochan of treason for withholding Uhuru's existence to Chetna backfires because Chetna imprisons them both for withholding that information themselves.

Chetna

Pale Ones

Vireka

Vireka is the Lord of the Pale Ones, an insane and cruel lyon, the latest of a line of them. He rules over near all of Afriik, and it's people with a suffocating grip, save the Lyons to the North who resist his rule and the Hynar (Hyena) to the south who do the same. Of the Pale Ones, he is the uncontested worst and vilest of them all.

  • A God Am I: "Highest of the High, Holiest of the Holy."
  • Admiring the Abomination: Does this when he turns Fuga into a hound.
  • Aggressive Categorism: Thinks Uhuru is no threat because she is female, and makes the the cornerstone of many of his verbal offenses.
  • Ambiguous Disorder: The way he jumps between being Hot-Blooded and The Stoic may be a nod to having a split-personality disorder. Also, Vireka is quite the narcissist, accosting and killing any who seem to doubt his superiority.
  • The Assimilator: Could be considered this to Uhuru. He wanted to marry her and finally destroy her line so it could no longer be a threat to him as prophecy foretold.
  • Ax-Crazy
  • Bad Boss: Regularly abuses, tortures, and even kills his underlings, regardless of rank or previous loyalty/success.
  • Believing Their Own Lies: Though whether the lies are truly his are up for debate. Regardless, Vireka thinks himself a true and proper god (he isn't) and a white lion (he isn't — not completely).
  • Big Bad: The Primary big bad.
  • Blood Magic: Like all of Lang'at's descendants.
  • Blow You Away: His greatest magical talent is creating deadly, hurricane-force winds.
  • Blue Blood
  • Chaotic Evil: None of the evil his does is tempered; No, he goes over the top, each time and this only gets worse as his mind unravels throughout the book.
  • Circling Monologue: does this to Fuga before he turns him into a Hound.
  • The Conqueror
  • Knight Templar: Believes his cause is just and will kill and torture anyone who disagrees.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: When he captured Uhuru.
  • Large Ham: Dominates any scene he's in, even when Uhuru is present.
  • Light Is Not Good: A white lyon, and the worst character morally in the book.
  • Magic Knight
  • Matricide: Turns his mother into a Hound and later actually kills her.
  • Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: When he gets the Coldfyre during the Final Battle. Of course, the audience knows that Nirnasha can stop him if he can get to the fire himself in time.
  • Red Right Hand: Literally. His paw, much of his shoulder, and a few patches on his face, are red. The same red as Uhuru's fur. This is because both he and Uhuru are Mjane's descendants.
  • Royally Screwed Up: All Pale Ones are like this — it's how they stay pale — but the Royal family, composed of nothing but white lyons, white being a very recessive gene, have it worst. And Vireka planned to perpetuate it by marrying and breeding Uhuru, later Oni, both of which are his cousins.
  • Stalker with a Crush: When Vireka learns about Uhuru, he develops an unholy thirst for her, one that doesn't die even when she is presumed dead. It simply transfers to her sister, Oni.
  • Sorcerous Overlord: He rules his empire by having the most powerful magic in the form of coldfyre.
  • You Have Failed Me: Why he turns Fuga into a Hound.

Kanali

Kanali is Vireka's commander, a second-in-command of sorts, and the lyon with with he has the most verbal (and physical) contact with. Like his leige, he is white, and the like the Pale Ones, he seeks to rid the world of "dirt-pelts", even if his loyalty does waver from time to time.

  • The Dragon: This to Vireka.
  • Eye Scream: Uhuru rips his eye out. In their confrontation in the climax, she does the same to his other eye.
  • Extreme Doormat: Vireka heaps all kinds of abuse on Kanali, and never once does he retaliate.
  • Jerkass: Mainly to Uhuru, because she mutilated his face.
  • Light Is Not Good: White, but up there with the worst of the worst.
  • Knight Templar
  • Only Sane Man: When Vireka begins burning Afriik with the Coldfyre, trying to find Uhuru's sister, Kanali has half a thought to kill him via stabbing him (literally) in the back. However, he does not, unsure if he can.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Uhuru returns, he intends to repay her tenfold for stealing his eye and ear.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Kanali's bronze armor.
  • The Rival: To Uhuru,

Fuga

Fuga is Vireka's former beast trainer. After one failure among millions of successes however, the Lord decides he's had enough.

Jezisa

Jezisa is Fuga's replacement, and though he doesn't like his "promotion", he does manage to succeed where Fuga failed.

  • Got Volunteered: He only became Head Beast Tamer because the other candidates all extolled his virtues, all wanting to not be chosen themselves.
  • Put Them All Out of My Misery: Part of why he uses Coldfyre on refugee prides, as seen in his narration.

Other

Nirnasha/Mōbōr

Nirnasha is the great demonic presence roaming the Wastes, and the leader of the undead army dwelling there. He was a participant in the Great war between Mōbōr and his brother Tšatši ,later revealed the be the Great Black Lion himself. He is far bigger than any lyon has the right to be, decorated in the skeleton of another lyon he claims to be his father, Mōbōr.

Tšatši

  • And I Must Scream: He's trapped in his body, which is only a skull, still conscious and unable to move.
  • Benevolent Mage Ruler: He had as strong magic as his brother, but was much wiser about using it.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He doesn't want to be pitied by Uhuru because he believed he brought his fate upon himself by using dark magic to create the waste.
  • Light Is Good: One of the only good white lyons.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His last act of creating the Waste leads to the death of many, many animals on both sides, who are kept alive even as they rot, and leaves him with an even more miserable fate. Not to mention how Afriik is left isolated and at a lower technology level than Endia, Uropa and Shya.
  • Posthumous Character: He died thousands of years before the start of the story, though plays a major role especially because he's not exactly dead.
  • Taking You with Me: Used the sunfyre to destroy everyone in the future waste, including himself.

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