List of The Sword of Truth characters

This article is about the characters in Terry Goodkind's epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth, also expanded to its television version Legend of the Seeker.

Protagonists

Richard Cypher/Rahl

Richard Rahl is introduced to the series as Richard Cypher, the adopted son of George Cypher and the younger stepbrother of Michael Cypher. He learns that his real father is named Darken Rahl (in the television series, Darken Rahl is Richard's brother). He has five known siblings: three half-brothers, one stepbrother and one half-sister. He grew up as a woods guide in Westland, leading travelers safely through the Hartland forests, and spent most of his life in the woods so that he would know all the plants by name or by sight. He is friends with the first wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. Over the course of the series, he learns more about his heritage and his gift, facilitating his role as the Seeker of Truth and the master of D'Hara. Throughout the series, he also grows and learns a lot of High D'Haran (the language of ancient D'Hara). He reads the Journal of Kolo to understand and learn this language.

Richard is described as having gray eyes (brown in the television series), a piercing raptor-like gaze, dark hair and a tall muscular form. In Debt of the Bones, it is revealed that he got his gray eyes from his mother, and it has been quoted by several women in the books that he is the most handsome man they have ever seen. Richard is in love with Kahlan Amnell and sees her as the only reason he lives.

Kahlan Amnell

Kahlan Amnell is the Mother Confessor and the last living Confessor after Darken Rahl hunted all the others down. A woman of true grace and beauty, she has green eyes (blue in the television series), long brown hair (dark brown or black in the television series), and typically wears a flowing white dress when acting as the Mother Confessor. In the television series, she sometimes wears a green dress, and later a brown and black one, that she uses as traveling clothing. Indicative of her position as the Mother Confessor, her Confessor's power is the strongest among the Confessors. Unlike most Confessors, who typically need one to a few days to restore their power after it has been used, Kahlan recovers far more quickly, requiring only a couple of hours to do so. It is for this reason that she was chosen as the Mother Confessor at an unusually young age. Kahlan is the ongoing love interest and eventual wife of the Seeker, Richard Rahl. She has a kind and generous soul, remarkable for its resolution and devotion to her people, but only the brutal Mord-Sith have less pity for their enemies than does the Mother Confessor.

In her fight against the Imperial Order (Stone of Tears), Kahlan declares war against the Order, with no quarter. When she comes across the "children" (as she calls them), of the Galean Army, it is quoted that she is not much older than the 18-year-old Captain. She is seen entering the order's camp by herself, where she kills the wizard Slagle, and over 100 men. She then leads the Galean men into battle. She fearlessly leads them in the night while painted with white paint, and completely naked, and they are able to deal serious damage the Order's numbers. She is an extremely modest person. When she returns from the initial fight, she leads the captain to believe that she was not really of any assistance in battle. Captain Bradley Ryan caught her in a lie, when one of the soldiers praised her for saving their lives by putting herself between her men, and the enemy troops (nearly getting her killed in the process).

Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander

Zeddicus "Zedd" Zu'l Zorander is one of the main characters in the series. He is the grandfather of Richard Rahl and thinks of Kahlan as something of a daughter. He is a wizard of the First Order, the most powerful class of wizards. Zedd is the one who sparked Richard's hunger to learn and know as much as he could. Zedd's wizard powers are restricted to the additive side of magic and as a result, he is limited to adding to elements that are already present in the world (i.e. he can change one coin into 10 coins). He cannot negate elements; for example, he cannot make a coin disappear into true nothing; he can only move it to another location thereby making the coin only appear to disappear. He has always been an explorer and as a child often found himself in trouble with the elder wizards by exploring the restricted areas of the Wizards Keep. When traveling incognito, Zedd prefers to use the alias "Ruben Rybnik".

Murdered by Irena, the sorceress of Stroyza (Severed Souls).

Cara

Cara, called Cari as a child before she became a Mord-Sith, is described as a woman of remarkable beauty, with ice-blue eyes and long, blond hair that is kept up in the traditional Dutch braid worn by all Mord-Sith. Within the show, she wears her hair down and it is shorter, her long braid having been cut by her Mord-Sith "sisters" in an act of betrayal. In the books, she is also described to be tall, and nearly the same height as Kahlan Amnell; she is also nearly the same height as Kahlan in the television series. Her training as a Mord-Sith has provided her with a thin and very muscular form. She was taken to be trained as a Mord-Sith at a very young age, as was customary, and is still haunted by her fears of rats from early childhood training when they used to let the rats in the dungeons nibble on her and other girls' appendages every night.

One of Cara's more characteristic functions is her comic relief, through her sharp wit and sense of humor, that manifests itself in quick-witted remarks of sarcasm and wryness. Cara is often quick to state the obvious nature of their predicament and lament the fact that if Richard had listened to her, "none of this would ever have happened." As with most Mord-Sith, Cara usually wears her red leather, as she seems to always be expecting trouble. In one of the later books, Cara tries to conceal that she was one of the Mord-Sith that had tortured Richard when he was held captive by Darken Rahl; she is crushed to find he already knew.

She often risks her life and almost dies in multiple attempts to save Richard, most notably being tortured in a horrific way involving rats that brings out her unbridled terror in Temple of the Winds. She cares deeply for Richard as his bodyguard, and would die for him, not simply because he is the Lord Rahl, but because he is her friend and she understands and agrees with what he stands for and why he fights. Having earned that respect and trust from Richard, she has become the closest protector to Richard, due to her ability to travel in the sliph after taking the magic of the messenger, and is considered the unofficial leader of the Mord-Sith.

Cara, having proven her loyalty and sincere respect not only for Richard, but for Kahlan as well, has come to be considered not so much a friend as a member of the family. She carries great respect for Kahlan, who wears the Agiel of Denna, Richard's former Mord Sith mistress. She is the only Mord-Sith at Richard and Kahlan's wedding, and unreservedly moves to Westland in Faith of the Fallen when Richard gives up hope. Cara is among the most affected by Richard's new rule, in that she has learned to truly love others and to be willing to openly show her affection - after a lot of trial and error by using Richard and Kahlan as practice. At the end of the last book in the series Confessor, Cara finally admits openly that she is in love with the D'Haran army's commanding officer General Benjamin Meiffert and becomes the first Mord-Sith ever to get married. At her wedding, Cara wears white leather in commemoration of their fight, of hope and of new life, of the pride of being a Mord-Sith, and out of respect for customs and a sense of equality to her new husband. After her husband Ben's death (The Third Kingdom) she leaves Richard and Kahlan, but in order to return Richard back to life (Warheart) she comes back to them and sacrifices her own life as she always has wanted. Within the television series, she is portrayed as bisexual and remains unmarried.^[1][2]

Rahl family

Darken Rahl

Darken Rahl is the primary antagonist in the first book of the series Wizard's First Rule. He is a wizard, the leader of D'Hara and the son of Panis Rahl, a ruthless dark wizard who was killed by wizard of the First Order Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. He is also revealed to be the father of Richard Rahl, the primary protagonist in the story. (In the television series, he is instead revealed to be Richard Rahl's brother.) After succeeding his father Panis, he became very interested in commanding both additive and subtractive magic, becoming an agent of the Keeper. He is known to rule with an iron fist, and use the Mord-Sith to carry out his torturous commands. He fathers several Rahl children, with all but Richard being "ungifted". After his father is killed by Zedd, he is driven mad and vows revenge, seeking to align with the Keeper and learn the secrets to opening the boxes of Orden to command its power to do his bidding. He spends many years building an army and overtaking the midlands, crushing all who oppose him. He hunts down all spellcasters and confessors, outlawing magic in his attempt to take total control of all. As his knowledge of subtractive magic grows, so does his yearn for power. Eventually, Richard, after learning the evils of his father, journeys through the perilous lands and made his way to the People's Palace in D'Hara, tricking him into opening the incorrect Box of Orden, thus ending his life. Later, it is discovered that without the Sword of Truth, he was doomed from the start. While Richard accidentally brings his spirit back from the underworld in the second book, Stone of Tears, and Rahl attempts to tear the veil between the underworld and the living world, he is again stopped by Richard and continues to plot against him from the underworld. He is briefly seen in Temple of the Winds where, in the Temple, Richard finds that he has hidden away there and finally banishes him for good.

Jennsen Rahl

Jennsen is the half-sister of Richard Rahl, and has spent her whole life fleeing from Darken Rahl with her mother, knowing that if captured, she would be tortured and killed. She is what ancient texts refer to as a "pillar of creation" or "a hole in the world", meaning that Jennsen is completely magically ungifted. Unlike everyone else who has at least a spark of the gift, Jennsen does not have that spark and therefore is not affected by any magic or spell. In addition, she cannot see magic being used and cannot use it herself.

Jennsen was first alluded to in the novel Temple of the Winds and was subsequently introduced in the novel The Pillars of Creation. After finding a dead D'Haran soldier, she encounters a man named Sebastian who says that he is the strategist for Emperor Jagang of the Imperial Order. After the murder of her mother, Sebastian takes Jennsen to meet the Emperor Jagang and then through D'Hara to the Old World to help defeat Richard Rahl, whom she believes is seeking to kill her just as her father, Darken Rahl, was. At the end of the story, Jennsen meets up with Richard, who tells her not to blame him for his father's actions. Jennsen learns that the dead D'Haran she encountered at the beginning of the novel was really an Imperial Order soldier who was disguised and then murdered by Sebastian. Furthermore, she learns that Sebastian sent the quad, also dressed as D'Haran soldiers, to kill her mother. In the end, Sebastian kills himself. After realizing that the Imperial Order was the real enemy and that Richard was nothing like her father, Jennsen joins Richard and Kahlan Amnell in their fight against Jagang. She also has a love interest, revealed to be the big D'Haran Tom. In the novel The Law of Nines, Alexander Rahl is believed to be a descendant of Jennsen in the modern world.

Drefan Rahl

Drefan Rahl is Richard's half brother, the son of a prostitute who was concealed from Darken Rahl's gaze so as to spare him his life since he was born as an ungifted son. His mother thought she would fall into Darken Rahl's good favor if she were to bear him a gifted heir. Drefan is said to have exactly the same build as Richard, and almost the exact face as Darken Rahl. He shares the "raptor gaze" that is common with the Rahl family and he has blue eyes, and was left by his mother with a community of healers called the Raug'Moss or "Divine Wind" in High D'Haran.

In Temple of The Winds, Drefan arrives after Jagang has terrorized the Confessor's Palace in the body of a wizard. Jagang had tortured Cara and left her to die. Drefan healed Cara after the bout and presents himself to Kahlan and Richard as the High Priest of the Raug'Moss.

As the plague sweeps through the Midlands in the fourth book, Drefan is used to aid the people the best he can with his knowledge of healing. When the message from the winds comes, Kahlan is forced into marriage with Drefan. Cara, acting as the protector to Kahlan and Richard, leads Kahlan to Richard's room to consummate the marriage between Drefan and Kahlan. Not knowing that Drefan is actually Richard due to the darkness of the hut they are in, Kahlan feels forced to make love to him so that Richard can be allowed to enter the Temple of the Winds and stop the plague that was started by magic stolen from the Temple. Due to Kahlan enjoying the consummation with the man she believes to be Drefan, she is able to fulfill a prophecy saying that she would betray Richard. Richard walks off into the Temple of the Winds and Kahlan is left with Drefan as her husband.

Drefan soon claims control of the D'Haran empire and he begins to show his unstable nature. He beats Kahlan, Cara and Berdine and forces everyone to refer to him as "Lord Rahl" even though he is not the true master of D'Hara due to his being born without the gift. Upon Richard's return to the world of the living, Drefan attempts to kill him so as to maintain his place of power. He is revealed to be the murderer behind several deaths described earlier in the book and he tortures Kahlan and Cara in the room holding the Sliph, until he is stopped by Richard and killed by the Sliph. In the end, it is discovered that Drefan was always an unstable child and he was not truly the High Priest of the Raug'Moss, as he had claimed to be.

Oba Rahl

Oba Rahl is Richard's, Jennsen's, and Drefan's half brother, the son of a woman working in the people's palace of D'Hara during the lifetime of Darken Rahl. He is roughly the same age as Jensen, and was born with absolutely no spark of the gift and magic cannot be directly used against him. With the help of a sorceress, Oba was concealed from his father at birth. His father, Darken Rahl, would hunt down and kill any ungifted children. Due to the influence of the Keeper's voice, Oba came to believe that he was Darken Rahl's rightful heir.

Nathan Rahl

Nathan Rahl is a powerful wizard and an ancestor of Richard Rahl. He is tall, has broad shoulders, and has shoulder length white hair. Despite his extreme old age (nearly 1000 years old), he is still a handsome man, and is in excellent physical condition. Nathan is clever, witty, and sometimes deceitful, but his intentions are always pure. He is also a Prophet, a type of wizard with the power to partially see the future and pinpoint ways that events could occur. Because of this power, Nathan had been kept prisoner in the Palace of the Prophets for nearly a thousand years. This changes when he and the Prelate of the Sisters of the Light fake their deaths and escape, due to Richard destroying the Palace of the Prophets to keep it from falling into the hands of the Imperial Order.

Nathan appears in different places, such as the People's Palace in D'Hara, throughout the course of the series, apparently following his own path dictated by the prophecies he envisions. In Phantom, he is appointed as Lord Rahl because Richard has his gift sealed by Six and Violet. Nathan mainly stays at the People's Palace in D'Hara, assisting Richard in his quest, and subsequently makes the Palace his permanent home, living with the rest of the Rahl family and aiding Richard and the others where he can with his magical abilities.

Panis Rahl

Panis Rahl appears in Debt of Bones, a prequel to The Sword of Truth series, as a ruthless ruler of D'Hara. Using power and treachery, he turns his attention to seizing control of the Midlands. Panis Rahl throws the might of D'Hara against the Midlands and war rages for many years. As his legions are finally slowed and halted, Panis becomes more ruthless and brutal in his use of magic, killing thousands and wiping out whole villages, towns, and cities. He uses Mord-Sith to capture wizards and sorceresses, and extract everything they know about his enemies' plans. He knows of the boxes of Orden and the Book of Counted Shadows, but is not well enough studied to use them. Instead, he grooms his son, Darken Rahl, to take and open the Boxes of Orden. At the time, the great wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander sides with the Midlands against Rahl and is able to hold Rahl's magic in check. Zedd casts a spell that holds Panis Rahl in his palace in D'Hara, blunting his magic. Enraged by Zedd, Rahl sends a quad after Zedd's wife, Erilyn, and eventually captures Zedd's daughter. Rahl continues to send all kinds of vile people to kill Zedd, even Mord'Sith. Rahl's legions are driven back into D'Hara. An impassable boundary is put up by Zedd between the Midlands and D'Hara to keep the forces of D'Hara at bay. Panis Rahl dies from a blast of Zedd's wizard fire infused with the underworld when he is fifty-seven years old, just as the boundary is going up. His son, Darken Rahl, who was also injured in the blast, succeeds him on the throne of D'Hara.

Alric Rahl

Little is known about Alric other thаn he was the one to find a way to deny the dream walkers access to the minds sworn to him. He also ensured the gift would be passed down to one male Rahl every generation, assuring the continued magical protection of "the bond".

Mord-Sith

The following characters are Mord-Sith, an elite group of women warriors, who subdue others by capturing their magic, created to protect the Lord Rahl of D'Hara.

Berdine

Whereas Cara purportedly has sapphire blue eyes, Berdine's are a clear, light blue. She has thicker hair than her Mord-Sith 'sisters' — long, wavy, and smoky brown. Although muscular and fit, she is more voluptuous and curvaceous than any of the other Mord-Sith with large breasts. Her face has a square jawline and she banters with Richard in a lively sort of humor. Whereas Cara is sarcastic and dry, Berdine is purposefully provocative in order to fluster Richard with the Mord-Sith's favorite game of testing (Blood of the Fold). She is the only known Mord-Sith to understand High D'Haran, a little known dialect of the language spoken in Old D'Hara and was chosen because she was taught High D'Haran by her father. When Darken Rahl discovered her talent, he sent an envoy to take her and destroy her family, covetous of knowing the highly magical language. She helps Richard translate journals written by a wizard they nicknamed Koloblicin (which means 'wise advisor' in High D'Haran), Kolo for short, that lived nearly 3000 years ago when they found his fragile bones in a crypt.

Berdine is revealed to be a lesbian in the third book of the series Blood of the Fold. Beforehand, she consistently worries that Richard will find her repulsive. She has considered being lesbian a devastating secret because Darken Rahl often exploited it in order to amuse himself, having left Berdine and Raina barren from his harsh rapes. Berdine consistently comes onto Richard through overtly sexualized innuendos and innocent questions that set Richard's teeth on edge. When she tells Richard that she and Raina are in love and tries to explain homosexuality to him, he plays the "midwestern" and incredulous farm boy, which helps illustrate the acceptance of her sexuality that he develops. Berdine goes on to explain to him that she has always taken more of a liking to girls since childhood and saying, "Boys didn't interest me that way." Richard, flabbergasted, assures her that they can still be friends on the basis that friends do not need to have everything in common. He asks if she likes peas, she responds affirmatively and Richard says, "Well I hate peas, do you still want to be friends?" With a watery laugh, Berdine protests that it is not exactly the same situation. After her 'confession' the two become good friends, despite Berdine's flamboyant attitude and Richard's prudish ability to be flustered.

Though Cara becomes head of the Mord-Sith, she constantly travels with Richard and Berdine wanes as a major character in the later novels after book six, but she stays behind in the People's Palace of D'Hara to help run the country while Richard travels. She is head of the coalition of Mord-Sith there and acts as a general with far reaching orders to help Richard when he needs enforcement the most. Crushed by Raina's untimely death, she retreats into believing Raina's presence is always there with her. As she reappears in the latter books, she finds companionship once again with another Mord-Sith named Nyda, although her connection with Raina is still intact and profound.

Denna

Denna is described as having long, auburn hair (blond in the television series), height almost equaling Richard's, and brown eyes with the hardness of steel in them. Denna is assigned to torture Richard by Darken Rahl so that he will be compliant and provide the text from the Book of Counted Shadows, which will allow Rahl to open the Boxes of Orden and unleash the Keeper, thus granting himself immortality. Denna falls in love with Richard, due to his insistence on showing her compassion despite the way she treated him. She eventually asks him to kill her to free both himself from Darken Rahl's clutches and herself from her role as a Mord-Sith. She gives Richard her agiel as a token of her love right before he kills her.

After the second tearing of the veil of the underworld, Denna returns as a spirit to save Richard from both his own gift and from the mark of the Keeper placed on him by Darken Rahl. She removes the mark by taking it on herself, meaning that she will suffer for eternity at the hands of the Keeper of the underworld. However, her act of sacrifice on Richard's behalf "disgusts" the Keeper and he refuses to take her, thus allowing her to join the ranks of the good spirits. When Richard and Kahlan are later separated and seek to know if the other is alright, Denna appears and causes a rift in time to briefly reunite the lovers.

After Richard enters the Temple of the Winds, he is visited by many spirits; Denna is one of them. She helps Richard finally decide to leave the temple and return to world of the living. She does this by forcing him to remember the events and emotions of what it was like to be under her control during the events in the first book, Wizard's First Rule.

Her last appearance in the series occurs in the book Confessor, when Richard summons her to the Garden of Life to begin his journey into the Underworld as a step to reversing the effects of Chainfire, where she acts as his spirit guide, but is sent away by Richard when they are subdued by the Beast.

Raina

Along with Berdine, Cara, and Hally, Raina follows Richard to Aydindril in order to protect him. Raina is strong and lean. Although her partner Berdine has more curves than the other Mord-Sith, Raina's muscular lean frame is referred to by Kahlan who (tongue-in-cheek) comments: "Well my breasts aren't as large as yours, Berdine. I think Raina's hands would fit mine better." Raina has a sheet of very long dark brown hair, and almond shaped black, piercing eyes that seem to examine someone for every nuance of strength, weakness, and power. Although it is not explicitly stated, her tan skin and dark coloring allude that Raina might be a more exotic blend than the usual Aryan-typed race of the other Mord-Sith native to D'Hara; Multiple Mord-Sith have pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes, as Darken, Drefan and Panis Rahl did. Raina never is as outspoken as either Berdine or Cara. It has been posited that Terry Goodkind knew from the beginning which character he was going to kill. Raina was purported to be a more reserved woman than her two counterparts. Although she is not shy, she is not as pig-headed as the other two. Raina is revealed to be a lesbian in the third book of the series Blood of the Fold when Berdine tells Richard that she and Raina are in love. During Richard's stay in Aydindril, Raina continues to serve as Richard's bodyguard along with Cara and Berdine until her untimely and ultimately inglorious death from the plague. In a heartbreaking turn of events, she dies laughing in Richard's arms, and one of the most notable moments of Richard's rule was that he wept for her, despite her bloody past.

Rikka

Rikka is described as tall, attractive, with piercing blue eyes and long blond hair. One of twelve Mord-Sith who came to Aydindril at the end of Temple of the Winds, she is surprised that a Lord Rahl is in love. Rikka first appears in Faith of the Fallen when she joins Kahlan at the D'Hara camp during Warren and Verna's wedding. Rikka also appears in Naked Empire, where she helps rescue Zedd from Jagang's camp. She then follows Zedd back to the Wizard's Keep and helps take back the keep. She and Rachel get very close during this time. When Richard comes to The Keep with Cara and Nicci, she stays loyal to him, like Cara, even wanting to leave with them. She ends up staying at the Keep because they use the Sliph to leave and deliver a message to Zedd from Richard.

Constance

Constance is the Mord-Sith who helps Denna to train Richard in Wizard's First Rule. She is killed by Richard when he leaves the People's Palace. She has brown hair, and has known Denna for some time due to them meeting during the training process of the Mord-Sith. Constance told Denna how she could kill her trainer. Constance betrays Denna to Lord Rahl. Shortly after Richard's release from Darken Rahl, Richard kills Constance with Denna's agiel.

Vika

Mord-Sith that was captured by Hannis Arc and became his servant.

Cassia, Vale and Laurin

These three Mord-Sith were captured by Hannis Arc and served him until Richard freed them. After that they became his bodyguards like others.

People from the New World

Adie

Adie is an old and powerful sorceress, long-time friend of Chase and is one of Richard and Zedd's most trusted allies. She is described to be a tall fine-looking woman with a strong jaw line. She wears the simple tan robe of a coarse weave denoting her high station as a Sorceress. She has a mix of fine straight black and gray hair of medium length cut in square fashion about her face. Her eyes are completely white having been blinded while being held captive by the Blood of the Fold. She later learns to use her gift to see and with the help of her gift can see more than a sighted person. Her voice is harsh and raspy because the Blood of the Fold poured acid down her throat to keep her from telling her husband, Pell, that she was not the one who named him a Baneling. She speaks in broken language with a strong accent. In the television version, she refers to herself in the third person. She travels to the Old World and studies with the Sisters of the Light. She also travels the Midlands and learns a great deal about her gift of magic from other sorceresses and soon learns of how rare her strength of power is. For a good part of her life, she uses a crutch, because she has to sever her own foot when a Gripper attaches itself to her. Her foot is later restored by Zedd, although he does not grow it quite long enough, so she still walks with a limp.

Adie was born in Nicobarese under the shadow and rule of the Blood of the Fold. Most recently, she has lived at the mouth of the pass in King's Port, Westland. Many call her the "bone woman" because of the extensive collection of bones she has gathered from her travels in both the New and the Old World. Adie claims that she lived in the mouth of the pass because she became tired of people coming to her all the time wanting spells and potions. She wanted to be left alone to study her "higher summons". The actual reason was to hide from the Keeper. Adie's home in King's Port is destroyed when Zedd attempts to use his magic to study a special bone intricately carved from a dead Skrin. The bones of a Skrin Adie had battled in the past came to life, destroying Adie's home in an attempt to capture her and Zedd and take them into the Underworld.

Duchess Cathryn Lumholtz

A Keltish Duchess who is captured by Tobias Brogan in the Blood of the Fold. She is enchanted and sent on a mission to assassinate Richard. She is killed by a mirswith after handing over Kelton to Richard. She is described as very attractive and fond of luxurious clothing.

Dell "Chase" Brandstone

Dell Brandstone, commonly referred to as Chase, is the leader of the boundary wardens of Westland and an old friend of Richard's. He is also a long-time friend of George Cypher, Zedd, and Adie. He is a big man with a large frame, clean-shaven, with a head of light brown hair that shows no sign of receding but instead gives way to age by going gray at the sides. Despite his size, he is quick when there is need. When outfitted to travel near the boundary or when expecting conflict, he wears a chainmail shirt and is strapped with enough armaments to supply a small army.

Chase lives outside of Hartland with his wife, Emma Brandstone, and his large number of children. He has a hobby of collecting stones of unique shape, color, and texture during his travels, and would tell anyone who would listen where each had come from, and what sort of trouble he had encountered in retrieving it. Chase is rarely flustered or surprised. While he is feared by most people with the exception of children, he treats everyone he meets with respect. After learning that Richard has been appointed as the Seeker of Truth, he dedicates himself to the defense of the Seeker. He continues to fulfill this role, with Richard saving him and his loved ones lives a number of times, until he goes home to Westland to be with his family with his adopted daughter, Rachel.

Rachel

Rachel is a young girl and is introduced in the series as a playmate of Princess Violet, the daughter of Queen Milena of Tamarang. She had short hair, like most non-royalty in the Midlands, which was cut jagged by Princess Violet while she lived in the palace. Rachel originally grew up in an orphanage with many other children, including her brother. It was at the orphanage that Rachel met Brophy. After Rachel's brother was murdered by Demmin Nass, Queen Milena took her to the palace to be the playmate of her daughter. After she had been living in the palace for a time, the wizard Giller entrusted Rachel with the third Box of Orden and instructed her to flee Tamarang, which she did. Rachel was later found by Richard and Kahlan. She is eventually adopted by Chase.

In Stone of Tears, Rachel is given the important job of holding onto the Stone of Tears, a powerful magical object sent into the world by the Boxes of Orden. Zedd instructs her to give it to Richard. Zedd also orders Chase to train her to be a fighter. Rachel does not appear again in the series until Naked Empire, the eighth book in the series. After Zedd is taken from the Wizard's Keep and brought to Jagang, Rikka, Chase, and Rachel appear to save Zedd shortly after he activates the sunset spell to destroy the Imperial Order camp. Rachel and Chase return to the Keep afterward, where Zedd offers to let them stay.

Though she appears in Chainfire, Rachel has a significantly greater role in Phantom. She is captured by Samuel and taken to Tamarang under Princess Violet where she is returned as her "playmate". She escapes and takes the Box of Orden which Samuel stole from Tovi and goes with Chase back to the Keep to give Nicci the Box of Orden. In Confessor, Rachel is forced to return to Tamarang by Princess Violet. She alters the pictures Violet has drawn on the caves resulting in Violet dying and Richard Rahl recovering his gift. She is captured by Six and escapes with the aid of Shota (disguised as Rachel's mother) and Gratch. In the book's final chapter, it is revealed that Rachel's ability to alter drawn spells is indicative of her royal blood, and she becomes the Queen of Tamarang.

Shota

Shota is a powerful and feared witchwoman who resides in Agaden Reach. She can take on many different forms, and has the ability to look and sound exactly like any woman, which she uses many times throughout the series to guide or help Richard without him knowing it. She says that her natural form is of an average height attractive brunette that wears a very thin, light, grey dress with many different levels of flaps. She apparently loves Richard and wanted him to stay with her.

While the mountains and the swamp around her home are dangerous and full of deadly creatures and objects, her home is actually a grand castle in a beautiful valley that seems to be stuck in the season of spring. For the majority of the series, she keeps Samuel with her in her valley as her servant/follower. Zedd snuck into her valley right before he crossed the boundary into Westland to steal the Sword of Truth from Samuel, who was not named Seeker of Truth by a wizard, therefore he was not a true Seeker, like Richard, and his appearance was horribly altered when the sword was taken away. For this reason, Shota and Zedd do not trust or like each other. Throughout the series, Shota helps Richard and Kahlan through very indirect methods involving her unique form of prophecies. Some of the most notable are giving him the knowledge he needs to obtain the book left for him by the last living War Wizard, the drive to kill Darken Rahl, killing Six, and telling Rachel how to have the Mud People save him from dying in the Underworld.

Princess Violet

Princess Violet is introduced to the series as a little girl with stubby fingers, a plump neck, a big nose, and long, dull, brown hair. She is the daughter of Queen Milena and the heir to the throne of Tamarang. She often wore pink or pale blue satin dresses and jewelry that was too large for her. She enjoyed causing pain and misery to her playmate Rachel while she was in the palace, as well as modeling her mother's fine jewelry. She had a high, squeaky, snorting laugh.

After being injured by Richard in Wizard's First Rule, Violet does not appear in the series again until Phantom, where it is revealed that she survived and was later healed by the witch woman Six. She is also revealed to have the gift of using magic in drawings. It is revealed several years after the events in Wizard's First Rule that Six entered Tamarang's royal castle posing as a healer and regrew Violet's tongue and repaired her jaw. Since then, Violet and Six ruled Tamarang together with an iron fist, despite the fact that the Imperial Order had conquered most of the Midlands. Eventually, Six grew exasperated with Violet's ingratitude and ill-temper and seized the throne herself, reappointing Violet to the position of court artist. In the caves in Tamarang, Rachel is lured inside where she finds out the "ghosty gobblies" are going to kill her thanks to the drawing made by Violet. With a Rachel making a quick alteration to make the drawing of Rachel look like Violet, Violet is killed by those phantoms.

Irena

The sorceress of Stroyza. Samantha's mother. Was killed by Richard for her crimes. She's responsible for Zedd's death.

Samantha

Irena's daughter, a teenager girl, resident of Stroyza. Gifted. Potentially very powerful sorceress. Helped Richard to save his frends and her mother from the Third Kingdom. After Richard killed her mother she claimed vengeance. Tried to kill Kahlan and succeeded (almost). After that tried to kill Richard and his friends, but accidentally died doing it.

People from the Old World

Annalina Aldurren

Prelate Annalina "Ann" Aldurren is a main character in The Sword of Truth series. Ann has been the Prelate of the Sisters of the Light for nearly eight-hundred years and is a sorceress of rare power. She is a short, stout woman who looks to be in her seventies but is actually close to one thousand years old, after living under the spell at the Palace of the Prophets. She often wears plain, black or grey wool dresses, which marks her as the leader of the Sisters of the Light. She and the prophet Nathan Rahl are in love. In the book Blood of the Fold, she fakes her death after an attack of three Sisters of the Dark. Ann is murdered by a few Sisters of the Dark in the presence of Nicci. This occurs in the tomb of Rahl ancestors, where normally the gift would be muffled but when the Sisters linked their gifts, they succeeded in killing Ann and taking Nicci hostage for Jagang.

Jagang

Jagang is the main antagonist in books 3-11. He is a Dreamwalker and has the power to take over others minds. However, those sworn to the Lord Rahl, Master of D'Hara, are protected from the Dreamwalkers' powers by an ancient enchantment. With this power, Jagang managed to become emperor of the Imperial Order, which controls all of the Old World. His most striking and noticeable feature is his eyes, which contain no pupil or iris; only inky black eyes devoid of any color. He is described to be a short, but very muscular man with a shaved head and a braided beard. He wears a wool vest and multiple piercings including a gold chain from his left nostril to his left ear. Despite Jagang's fearsome appearance and prodigious strength (with many characters in the book believing he could crush a human skull with one hand), is it a mistake for anyone to believe Jagang to be unintelligent. He is in fact very intelligent and well read. Whenever he captures a new city, he has teams of servants who bring him any books that he believes are of note, and has read many, if not all, of the books he has captured. Also, by reading books through the minds of the Sisters of the Light and Sisters of the Dark that he has enslaved, he also knows quite a lot about magic and magic theory, despite being unable to utilize the knowledge himself. He frequently questions his sorceresses about matters of magic that he already has the answers, well before they do, simply to determine if they will lie to him.

Nicci

Nicci is introduced as one of Richard's teachers at the Palace of the Prophets and a Sister of the Dark. She is described as an extremely beautiful and very powerful sorceress with long blond hair and blue eyes, who most people in the Imperial Order come to know as "Death's Mistress" or Jagang's "Slave Queen." Jagang has an ongoing obsession with Nicci. In the television series, she is initially portrayed by dark-haired Jolene Blalock, but her spirit is later resurrected in the body of a blond woman.

Nicci grew up in a fairly wealthy home, with a hard working father who owned his own armor producing factory. Her mother was ensconced with the ideas of The Order and fell sway to the teaching of people such as Brother Narev. Nicci was emotionally abused as a young girl by her mother, who made her believe she was never good enough or appreciative of her life under the reign of the Order. Later, at a relatively young age, she was taken to the Palace of the Prophets where she remained for many years.

Upon meeting Richard, Nicci's personality changes. To understand this change, she kidnaps Richard, bringing him to the Old World in a futile attempt to make him accept the ways of the Order. By her own volition, she becomes his quasi-wife. As time passes, Richard begins teaching Nicci what life is about and why it is so valuable. Upon seeing the statue Richard carved, named "Life", she knows that her beliefs and life in the past have been a sham, and she is forever changed. She accepts Richard's philosophy of the sanctity of life and humanistic potential and swears fealty him and his wife, Kahlan. From that moment on, Nicci becomes one of Richard's closest allies and friends. She is the only person on Richard's side, besides Richard himself (and Kahlan to a certain extent), to possess Subtractive magic, and plays a vital role in the conclusion of the series. Nicci is in love with Richard, but has resolved to never act on her feelings due to her respect and loyalty towards Kahlan.

Six

Six is a witchwoman from the Old World, introduced in the tenth book of the series, Phantom. She is one of the few people not affected by the Chainfire spell and her abilities are similar to Shota's. She appears to be even more feared than Shota. She collaborates with Princess Violet, later Queen Violet, to capture Richard Rahl. She concocts an elaborate plan to use the artisan ability introduced in Wizard's First Rule to deprive Richard of his gift. At the end of Confessor, Six is killed by Shota, who took the appearance of her mother.

For witchwomen, the seventh daughter is special. Her mother's choice of the name Six for her sixth daughter is meant to be derisive. Six kept the name as a display of power.

Verna Sauventreen

Verna Sauventreen is a main character in the series. She is a Sister of the Light and the only Sister, of the three who set out, to return to the Palace of the Prophets after discovering Richard. She helps him escape and fulfill prophecies and becomes one of his closest friends and advisors. She later becomes Prelate of the Sisters after Ann fakes her death and then becomes in charge of the gifted forces with the D'Haran Army.

Warren

Warren is a wizard and later prophet from the Old World who lives at the Palace of The Prophets in Tanimura. Richard meets Warren not long after coming to the Palace, who is interested in him because he is the Seeker of Truth and "The Bringer of Death" as described in several prophecies Warren has been studying. Over the duration of Richard's time at the Palace, Warren and Richard became fast friends. After leaving the Palace, Warren, along with the Sisters of Light, helps Richard's fight against the Imperial Order. In Faith of the Fallen, he marries Verna. Near the end of Faith of the Fallen, Warren is killed by Gadi, an assassin from the old world.

Creatures

Brophy

Brophy was born a human but was transformed into a wolf after he was found innocent by the Mother Confessor of the crime he was accused of. When Brophy was a man, he sometimes used his large size to persuade people to do as he wished. He also had a bad temper but it only came out when he was wronged and being cheated. He was a trader in things of dubious nature at the gray edges of law - things of magic, such as artifacts, books and living creatures of magic. His business and wealth allowed him to support various orphanages and see to it they had what they needed to take care of the children. Brophy was wrongly accused by Demmin Nass of the murder of a young boy, who was Rachel's brother. Because of his reputation and being seen around orphanages, no one was surprised when he was accused of the murder of a little boy. Brophy submitted to the Mother Confessor, Kahlan Amnell, to prove his innocence. Kahlan's wizard, Giller, then turned Brophy into a wolf in order to allow him to continue to live his life. The change took away some of the magic of the Confessor, and gave him enough concern for himself to start over with a new life.

As a wolf, Brophy is huge with fierce yellow eyes and thick, charcoal-colored fur from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. He has a mate, the leader of his pack, in the forest near the Rang'Shada Mountains. Together, they have a litter of six pups, who are almost grown. After sensing Kahlan's presence, Brophy leaves his pack to follow Kahlan and is later killed by Nass after trying to protect Kahlan.

Gratch

Gratch is a short-tailed gar who Richard befriends while Richard is traveling to the Palace of the Prophets. Gratch's mother attacked Richard, presumably intending to feed herself and Gratch. Richard kills Gratch's mother in self-defense, but, despite believing that he should, cannot bring himself to kill Gratch. He leaves baby Gratch to fend for himself, not expecting to see the gar again. However, Gratch follows Richard, and, along the way to the Old world, they become friends. Even after arriving and settling in, when Richard leaves the palace, he finds that Gratch is waiting for him. Richard then secretly cares for and feeds the young gar while he continues his training as a wizard. Richard continues this care until Gratch has grown to a respectable age; in the meantime, Richard and Gratch build a stronger friendship. Eventually, fearing for Gratch's life, Richard is forced to send Gratch away. Because Gratch has a very limited vocabulary, he cannot understand why Richard wants him to go. It is through this action that Richard finally realizes why Kahlan sent him away to the palace. Gratch and Richard are later reunited and fight alongside each other until Gratch finds a gar that he loves. Richard discovers that Gratch and the other short-tailed gars were created as a defense against the mriswith, and so is able to see and fight successfully against the mriswith. As a short-tailed gar, Gratch is quite intelligent and is, to a limited extent, able to communicate with Richard and his friends. While people sometimes refer to Gratch as Richard's pet, Richard insists that Gratch is a friend. Gratch appears primarily in Stone of Tears and performs several important tasks for Richard. He delivers a letter to Kahlan, transports Zedd (with the help of a lightness spell) and Rachel, and serves as a military commander for the gars (a status obtained by virtue of his relationship with Richard). Gratch passionately loves both food and wrestling.

Samuel

Samuel is a smart, hot, horrid creature with a small head, bright yellow eyes, red lips, sharp teeth, a shrill scream, and fetid breath who is obsessed with obtaining the Sword of Truth. Despite his size, Samuel is overwhelmingly strong (stronger than Richard) with big, powerful hands, long, sinewy fingers, and sharp nails. Spaces between his teeth are packed with spongy, gray debris. His heavy breath reeks of rot. Dark patches cover his hairless, waxy head. His feet are as disproportionately large as his hands and arms. His arms are so long that even as he stands erect, he often casually draws lines and circles in the dirt of the road with his fingers. His belly is round and full. There is no hair on him anywhere, and his skin looks like it has not seen sunlight in years. Short dark pants held up with straps is all he wears as he bounds along in his odd, skittering gait.

Samuel can speak a basic form of the common language, although his voice is often more of a hissing sound, and his laughter is more of a gurgling sound. Samuel's yellow eyes often change quickly between a taunting grin, greed, fierce hate and wide-eyed fear. They shine like twin lanterns in the dark. From time to time, when left alone, Samuel will occasionally snatch up a stick or rock or any other item and say, "Mine! Gimme!" to no one in particular, only to soon lose interest and drop his latest find. If given the chance, Samuel will slit the throat of those he dislikes without a second thought.

Samuel was the former Seeker of Truth, the direct predecessor of Richard. Samuel was brought to his current abject state by the strength of the Sword of Truth's magical manipulation of his anger. He lives in the Agaden Reach with his mistress, the witchwoman, Shota. He came to her many years before the start of the series, desperate for help, but she could do nothing for him, besides take pity on him. Zedd traveled to the Agaden Reach and took the Sword of Truth from Samuel and Shota and brought it with him to Westland. He was later bewitched by the witchwoman Six, after having the Sword of Truth returned to him when Shota demanded it as payment for helping Richard. He used this to rescue Kahlan from Sisters of the Dark, and was later Confessed and killed, in the final novel.

Scarlet

Scarlet is a powerful red dragon, who is much larger than her depiction on the cover of Wizard's First Rule. Originally, she is the unwilling mount and enforcer of Darken Rahl, who stole and hid her only egg in order to control her. In an effort to find his friends, Richard takes an enormous gamble and seeks her help. A sentient, magical, talking creature, she ambushes Richard, eats his horse and proceeds to 'toy' with him before attempting to eat him as well. Richard saves himself by informing the dragon that he knows the whereabouts of her stolen egg, and will rescue it if she promises to help him find his friends. They agree, though the dragon states Richard's reprieve is only temporary, and that she may later decide to eat him. Richard is released, rescues the egg, and for that she became his friend, and has helped him several times later, both as a ride and with firepower (literally). She gives Richard a magical tooth, which he wears around his neck, and with it he can summon her, but only when he is in great need of her help, she warns. Despite her friendship with Richard, she is still a dangerous predator and thought nothing of devouring the whole village of Mud People if she felt like it. She has the greatest respect for Richard as a Seeker, though frequently teased at each subsequent meeting that she might still eat him. She eventually had her son, Gregory, from the rescued egg and she is mentioned in the concluding book, by the same Gregory, though she was weak and ill because of the world's loss of magic. Her ultimate fate is never revealed.

The Sliph

The Sliph is a being of magic that was created in the great war between the Old World and the New World 3,000 years before the series takes place. This is referred to numerous times throughout the series. The Sliph was a product of this war. The Sliph is housed inside wells located throughout the new and old world. One such well is in the bowels of the Wizard's Keep in Aydindril. The Sliph is a liquid metallic substance that bears the face of a woman. The Sliph is used by wizards and other people who have the gift to travel over great distances. The only price to travel is to have both additive and subtractive magic. If a person without magic is to travel in the Sliph, they will die. In order to travel in the Sliph, the traveler must breathe in the silvery liquid that makes up the Sliph. Breathing in the Sliph is said to be pure rapture and upon exit from the Sliph, many of the travelers find it a true horror to breathe her out and inhale the air. It is never said how long it takes to travel in the Sliph for every time she is asked she replies, "I am long enough to travel."

The Sliph came to being in the war 3,000 years before Richard Rahl's time and was created by the wizards in the Wizard's Keep. She had been a prostitute that was used by the wizards often. One wizard thought to use her in a different way and created the Sliph by twisting her with his magic. After the Towers of Perdition are created to close off the New and the Old Worlds, the room holding the Sliph was closed and she was put to sleep until a new master (one controlling both additive and subtractive magic) could awaken her. After destroying the Towers of Perdition, Richard finds the door sealing the Sliph's room blasted open and he awakes her during The Blood of The Fold to travel to the Old World. The Sliph holds no true alliances; she allows anyone to travel with her and she does not reveal who her "clients" are until they are no longer living. Even though she appears neutral, Richard is the Sliph's true master and she therefore serves him.

Lucy

Another creature absolutely identical to the Sliph (first appears in Warheart) but she can travel only between Stroyza and the Wizard's Keep .

References

External links

• Official Terry Goodkind website