Because there are a lot of characters in this story, I maintain a list of those who have been introduced and information about them, because I often refer back to these older characters and events. Hopefully, this makes things a little easier for people to track. This page has a list of all the characters who have been introduced in the story up to the current chapter, and it may contain major spoilers for previous books. To mitigate this, as each book is finished, I’ll have a separate list set up which is current up to the end of that book, i.e., the cast list of book one will contain information about the first book and no information about events in the second book. These characters are sorted loosely by how central they are to the story, because the cast does get rather large.

Kyoko Sugiyama: The main character of this story, the narration of the books is entirely from her perspective. She’s a Japanese-American woman in her thirties, who looks like a teenager thanks to her heritage, and looks like a delinquent one thanks to the extensive tattoos ;in Japanese her name is written 杉山今日子. Her mother was a raiju, a creature in Japanese folklore associated with storms, and being only halfway human has an immense impact on Kyoko’s life. She moved from Tokyo to Pittsburgh mostly to run away from bad memories. She doesn’t have a lot of friends, and spends a lot of time alone in a house she can afford thanks to a substantial inheritance from her mother, who died when she was a child.

Saori: A kitsune of uncertain origin and nature. Kyoko met her in the suburb of Fox Chapel, an exceptionally on-the-nose place for one of the fox-like kitsune to live. Saori was not the one who chose this home; rather, it was one offered to her by a mysterious benefactor, who helped her out of a similarly mysterious bad situation. She avoids discussing the whole topic like the plague. She likes to listen to extremely unusual music, consumes an impressive amount of sugar and caffeine, and her driving makes most people very glad to get out of the car alive.

Pepper: An old friend of Kyoko’s, though they’ve only ever interacted online; Pepper spends a lot of time online to hide from the physical reality of life and her abusive family. She goes through an endless array of usernames, all of which are bad puns about pepper. She’s the kind of person who can use hermetic and mantic in a sentence but misspells common words constantly, and she has nightmares about squid that Kyoko doesn’t want to know about.

Andrew: An older werewolf, and one of the most respected in Pittsburgh. He’s experienced and reasonably strong, but a lot of that respect is because he’s smart, has good organizational skills, and looks out for people.

Audgrim: While his proper name is Auðgrímr Eyvindson, Audgrim is a half-blooded dvergr who has long since given up on correcting English speakers. The dvergar have long had an interest in this city, and is currently the supervisor for the local dvergr investments and security company. A relatively close ally and acquaintance before the story starts. He’s the one who called her asking for a favor at the opening of Seed and Trellis.

Caleb Moorhead: Kyoko’s oldest friend in the area, a human who went to university at the same time she did. He is now a practicing attorney and expects to make partner with a criminal defense firm in the near future. He’s concerned about her. She’s been pulling away from him because she knows that she will not be able to maintain the illusion of being a normal human with him for much longer.

Cassie: She probably has a longer name, but she just goes by Cassie. She’s an older werewolf, one of the stronger ones in Pittsburgh and respected by the others, but often has an unusually modern presentation for an old wolf. She’s got a very good head in a crisis.

Derek Staver: A werewolf, one of the younger wolves in the local pack. He’s a decent guy who always gives the impression of being a puppy, even in skin. He’s a casual friend of Kyoko’s, and invites her to events sometimes. In particular, he hosts barbecues sometimes for the pack, and she tends to be invited. One of these parties got ugly when a small group of faeries picked a fight, claiming to be offended at not getting an invitation. That brawl went poorly for them, and involved Kyoko decking a small troll, which got her a fair amount of respect from the local pack. He’s terrible at poker.

Hope Robbins: Owns the coffeehouse Softened Dreams in Pittsburgh, and insists very strongly that it is in fact a coffeehouse rather than a coffee shop or cafe. In principle it’s also an art gallery, but mostly it’s used for her personal collection. Relies heavily on her close companion Lacuna to enforce the coffeehouse’s policy of neutrality and nonviolence. Kyoko has never quite been able to get a read on her, and isn’t sure whether she’s human or something else.

Jack Tar: Powerful mage, possibly the most powerful urban druid in the world. Extremely modern in his inclinations and presentation. Lives largely as a vagrant, homeless and wandering various cities, mostly in the northeastern United States. Fluent in Japanese, but his language use is strange in any given language or format, in one way or another. A relatively close ally of Kyoko in Seed and Trellis.

Lacuna: Pale, silent nonhuman figure who is literally always present and active at Softened Dreams. Extremely devoted to Hope for unclear reasons. They never talk, but they can sign and write fluently when the feel the need. Lacuna is quite personable if you can look past that, and past their generalized strangeness. Kyoko considers them somewhat of a friend, but she doesn’t understand them and that’s unnerving to her. Keeps the peace at Softened Dreams with probably-lethal force. What they actually do to people isn’t clear, but the people aren’t there anymore when they’re done.

Maddie: Her full name is Madison Cavendish, but she very rarely uses that name, and goes by Maddie in almost all contexts. She’s human, but there’s a strong element of blood in her signature. She tends to do everything intensely, and she’s very hypervigilant, having panic attacks if she’s not early to events and meetings. She makes jewelry, using crystals that look almost exactly like rubies, emphasis on almost. She sells that jewelry often, or gives it away as gifts. She’s a personal friend of Kyoko’s, and they bonded over shared hobbies and interests.

Anthony Hayes: Somewhat shady proprietor of a funeral home in North Shore. He’s a relatively decent person, but he does sometimes illicitly dispose of bodies for various people, at a steep cost.

Chris: A friend of Saori’s, a petty criminal in Pittsburgh who was affiliated with the Tribe. She met him when a mutual acquaintance recommended her services for a smuggling job, one that required a bit more in the way of subtlety than Chris could manage. They remained friends afterwards, mostly because he was heavily into street racing and she’s a lunatic who finds human driving skills rather quaint. Murdered before Kyoko actually meets him.

Martin: Tribe-affiliated mage in Seed and Trellis, who was keeping watch over Chris’s body. He feels calm about that, and his magic feels calm a well.