Characters in The Sword of Truth

This is a list of notable characters from Terry Goodkind's epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth.

Major characters

Adie

Adie is described as 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. Embroidered around the neck of her frock, she displays the red and yellow symbols of her profession as a warning to those who would seek her out.

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 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 thanks to the Blood of the Fold pouring acid down her throat to keep her from telling her husband Pell that she was not the one who named him a Baneling.

While Adie is an old and powerful sorceress, age has not diminished the handsome features of her weathered face. She is taller than Kahlan, but not as tall as Richard. For a good part of her life, she used a crutch, having had to sever her own foot when a gripper attached itself to her while she foolishly stopped to rest while traveling in the pass through the boundary between Westland and the Midlands. Her foot was later restored by First Wizard Zedd, although he did 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, about 4 hours ride from Southaven.

Many call her the bone woman due to her extensive collection of bones she has gathered from her travels in both the New and the Old World. Many consider her to be bad luck due to several people dropping dead from seemingly nothing more than their hearts just stopping, although these were said to be people she didn’t like, most of the people of Southaven refuse to go near her home for fear they too would drop dead.

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", although the actual reason was to hide from the Keeper.

Adie's home in Kingsport was destroyed when Zedd attempted 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 Adie and Zedd and take them into the Underworld.

Adie is a long-time friend of Chase. She is now also good friends with Richard and especially Zedd. In fact Adie soon becomes one of Richard most trusted allies in the war against the Imperial Order.

When Adie was a young woman she traveled to the Old World and studied with the Sisters of the Light. She also traveled the Midlands and learnt a great deal about her gift of magic from other sorceresses and soon learnt of how rare her strength of power was.

Cara

Cara is described as being a woman of remarkable beauty with icy-blue eyes and long blond hair that is kept up in the traditional braid worn by all Mord'Sith. She is tall, though not as tall as Kahlan. Her training as Mord'Sith has provided her with a lean and very muscular form. She is powerful and more than a match for any foe. She was taken for training as Mord’Sith at a very early age and is still haunted by her fears of rats from that time in her early training. Cara has a sharp wit and even sharper sense of humor that manifests itself in quick-witted remarks of sarcasm and dry humor. 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. Cara didn't want Richard to know, but when he was the captive she had been there and used her agiel against him. She was upset to find out that he already knew about it.

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, and calls Kahlan a sister of the Agiel.

She is among the most affected by Richard's new rule, and in that she has learned to truly love others, and to be willing to openly show her affection for them. The proof of this is in her relationship with the D'Haran General Benjamin Meiffert. 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 now considered the unofficial leader of the Mord'Sith. At the end of the last book in the series, "Confessor", Cara became the first Mord'Sith ever to get married. Richard said she was an example of everything that everyone had just fought for. She married Commander Benjamin Meiffert. Cara wore her white leather.

Berdine

She has blue eyes just like Cara, and a loose braid of wavy brown hair. She is the only known Mord'Sith to understand High D'Haran, which is a dialect of the language spoken in D'Hara. She helps Richard to translate journals written by one wizard named Kolo who lived nearly 3000 years ago. It helped Richard to find the Temple of the Winds and the sliph, which can transport anyone with both side of the magic anywhere she has been to. Upon the murder of the Duchess Lumholtz, Richard discovers a strange thing: she has no nipple on her left breast. Richard has asked Berdine, Cara, and Raina to show their breasts. Berdine protests loudly but resigns to his orders. Cara and Raina discovered that Berdine had no nipple on her left breast, just like the Duchess. Cara and Raina were dismissed while Richard forced the spell cast upon Berdine to nullify and therefore saving her from possibly murdering Richard. Berdine is also a lesbian it is revealed in book 3 Blood of the Fold when she tells Richard that she is in love with Raina, and Raina returns those feelings. She goes on to explain to Richard that she has always taken more or a liking to girls since childhood and saying "boys didn't interest me that way".

Minor characters

Giller

Giller is a wizard of the second order in The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. He appears only in "Wizard's First Rule". Giller gave his life to create Wizard's Life Fire, protecting Rachel and the last Box of Orden. He did so right before Darken Rahl could complete the final hook in the cut with which Rahl was performing his anthropomancy, thus depriving Rahl of the knowledge of the carrier of the box. The ashes left by Giller's Life Fire tasted sweet because he had given his life to defend another, instead of for selfish means, such as to spare himself pain.

Innkeeper Bill

Bill is the proprietor of an Inn and dry goods store in the town of Southaven in Westland, near what used to be King's Port. He is a stout man with a shiny, shaved head, curly eyebrows, and curly black hair on his thick, husky, muscled arms that seem to compete with his beard. He typically wears a shirt with no sleeves and an apron that looks like it could never have been white. He often has a dry voice and a toothpick rolling around in his mouth. Unlike the other men of Southaven, Bill keeps his eyes where they belong when he looks at women. He is tough and hardened but doesn't appear devious (although appearances are deceiving). His son, Randy, is a lanky young man who helps him run things.

The inside of his Inn reflects the condition of Southaven as a whole. Oil lamps light the main room, which is usually filled with a fog of pungent pipe smoke. The tables, all arranged in a haphazard fashion, are rough, some no more than planks and barrels. There are no chairs, only benches. A door leads to the kitchen, and on the other side of the room, in the shadows, a stairway (minus the handrail) leads up to the guest rooms. The floor is mottled with dark stains and spills, with a series of paths through the litter.

Most of the guest rooms are windowless and feel bare and naked and have a rank smell to them. The ceilings are lower than what is comfortable. The walls next to the bed are covered with years of spit. The only furniture is typically a 3-legged table and a small, short bench. A single oil lamp usually sits on the table, glowing weakly and providing the only light for the room.

Bill is an approved supplier for government officials needing supplies while near Southaven, and is reimbursed from Hartland. Although most of the residents of Southaven disliked the boundary wardens, Bill appreciated how they kept some of his other customers at bay and brought an income from the government with their business at the Inn and the dry goods store. He is a close acquaintance of Chase.

Demmin Nass

Demmin Nass was the right hand of Darken Rahl, the lightning of the Master's dark thoughts, a good friend of his since they were boys, and a man as big as any in D'Hara. He had sharply chiseled muscles and his chest was covered with skin as smooth as that of the young boys he had a weakness for. In stark contrast, his face was riddled with pockmarks. His blond hair was cropped close enough to cause it to stand up in a collection of spikes. A streak of black hair started in the middle of his right eyebrow and continued back over his head, to the right of center, which made him recognizable from a distance, a fact appreciated by those who had cause to know of him. His voice was deep and coarse.

The weakness for young boys Demmin Nass had would occasionally get him into trouble, such as when he had the trader Brophy arrested for the murder of a young boy (Rachel's brother), but who submitted to a Confessor to prove his innocence. Demmin Nass was castrated by Kahlan and forced to eat his testicles, then he was killed at the hands of Kahlan Amnell after he revealed to her the apparent death of Richard, invoking the Con Dar.

Dennee

Dennee was a confessor and a good friend of Kahlan Amnell. She was a frail girl, as frail as her mother. After Kahlan's mother died, Dennee's mother took Kahlan in and comforted her. The two girls were thrilled that they were to be sisters, as they called themselves from then on, and it helped ease the pain Kahlan had from losing her mother.

Dennee did not have the strength of power that Kahlan did, and over time, Kahlan had become her protector, guardian, shielding her from situations that required more force than she could bring from within. For Dennee, it sometimes took several days to recover her power, as opposed to an hour or two for Kahlan. Dennee hated taking confessions, hated seeing the look in their eyes, and often Kahlan would go in her sister's place because she wanted to spare Dennee the torment of the task. Dennee never asked Kahlan to go in her stead, she wouldn't, but the look of relief on her face when Kahlan told her she would do it was words enough.

Dennee was killed by a quad sent by Darken Rahl before the series began as she was walking to meet Kahlan during one of her confessions. She had wanted to walk Kahlan home since Kahlan had taken the confession for her. Kahlan found her in the brush at the side of the road, moaning in mortal pain. She had been thrown there, discarded. Her arms were brutally broken and laid useless at her sides, bent in places where they shouldn't be bent. Blood trickled from one ear. Her dress was pulled up over her legs. Her last wish was for Kahlan to kill Darken Rahl. Kahlan had her buried along with a necklace with a small bone on it that Kahlan had worn since childhood and that her mother had given her (and that had originally been a gift from Adie while Kahlan was still in the womb). Dennee had always been fond of that necklace.

Abigail

Abigail is a girl, about the same age as Zedd, from the land of Pendisan Reach. She grew up in the town of Coney Crossing, where she knew every person living in the town. She had fine, dark brown hair that covered her ears, but no more. She often wore a crimson dress and a magic bracelet made of two wires intricately twisted together in interlocking circles, which her mother, Helsa, had given her. The bracelet would often give off an odd tingling sensation and get unusually warm, especially around great magic. Her mother had told her to wear it always and it would someday be of value.

Abby's mother was a sorceress who died before she could see her granddaughter. Abby herself did not inherit the gift (known as a "skip" because the gift skipped her), something that she often felt ashamed about. The people of Coney Crossing depended on her mother. She helped those who were ill or hurt. She advised people on matters of community and those of family. For some she arranged marriages. For some she meted out discipline. For some she bestowed favors available only through magic. She protected the people of Coney Crossing. She was revered openly. By some, she was feared and loathed privately.

While her mother was alive Abby had been shunned in subtle ways; after her mother died the shunning became more overt. It had been expected by the people of Coney Crossing that she would serve as her mother had served. People didn't understand about the gift, that it often wasn't passed onto an offspring; instead they thought Abby selfish.

Abby's father, husband and four year old daughter, Jana, were all captured by D'Haran troops under the command of Anargo. Jana was Abby's last chance at having children after the death of another son at birth. She left for Aydindril to seek help from the First Wizard, Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander.

Anargo

Anargo was a commander of a large military unit of the D'Haran army under the command of Panis Rahl during the first war between D'Hara and the Midlands. His unit was very large, it was rumored it was larger than the annual locust swarm that went through Pendisan Reach every year. At the end of the war, Anargo's unit was stationed in Pendisan Reach, primarily in the town of Coney's Crossing. Like most D'Haran units, Anargo had sorceresses and wizards under his command who used magic to imprison the people of Coney Crossing and the surrounding areas. The D'Haran troops would use these captives as shields, to blunt the deadly magic, spears, and arrows the Midlands army sent against them. They would drive the captives forward, "dulling the enemies' weapons on their own women and children".

The Midlands troops trapped Anargo's unit in Coney's Crossing shortly after Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander developed magical horns that turned the tide of the war. Midlands troops led by Sanderson swept in from the north while troops led by Mardale cut up from the south. General Brainard in the south sent half his troops north along the Kern River to block off their retreat into D'Hara.

Brophy

Brophy was a trader in things of dubious nature at the gray edges of law. These things were things of magic, such as artifacts, books, stones, statues, staves, etc. However, some of the things of magic he traded were living creatures of magic. Brophy was wrongly accused by Demmin Nass of the murder of a young boy (Rachel's brother). 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.

When he was a man he was as big for a man as he was for a wolf. He sometimes used his size to persuade people to do as he wished. He had a temper as big as his muscles. However, it only came out when he was wronged and being cheated.

Brophy's business was dangerous, and therefore very profitable. He made enough money to support his "hobby" that almost no one knew of. He had a weakness: children. As he traveled around in search of things to trade, he would stop at orphanages and see to it they had what they needed to take care of the children. All the gold he made ended up in different orphanages, so the children could be cared for and not go hungry. He twisted the arms of the people running the orphanages to swear them to secrecy. He didn't want anyone knowing. He didn't have to twist very hard. Because of his reputation and being seen around orphanages, no one was surprised when he was accused of the murder of a little boy.

As a wolf, Brophy was huge, and his thick fur was a charcoal color from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. Fierce yellow eyes glowed from his dark head. He found a mate in the forest, the leader of his pack, with him at her side. They made a den near the Rang'Shada Mountains. Brophy and his mate had a litter of six fine pups, who were almost grown when Brophy died.

amuel

Samuel is a wiry, ashen, putrid-smelling, disgusting little creature with a pallid head, bulging yellow eyes, bloodless white lips, sharp teeth, and a shrill scream, who is obsessed with obtaining the Sword of Truth. Despite his size (he isn't very tall), Samuel is powerfully 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 hasn't 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. He lives in the Agaden Reach with his mistress, the witch woman, 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. Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander traveled to the Agaden Reach and took the Sword of Truth from Samuel and Shota and brought it with him to Westland. He later decided to follow the witch woman Six, and had the Sword of Truth returned to him. He used this to rescue Kahlan from Sisters of the Dark, and was later killed, in the final novel.

Samuel bears a number of striking resemblances to Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings".

Denna

Denna was a Mord'Sith and a captor of Richard while he was in custody of Darken Rahl. Denna was assigned to torture Richard so he would be compliant and provide the text from the Book of Counted Shadows which would allow Darken Rahl to open the Boxes of Orden and unleash the Keeper, thus granting himself immortality. Denna fell in love with Richard, due to his insistence on showing her compassion despite the way she treated him. She eventually asked him to kill her to free both himself from Darken Rahl's clutches and herself from her role as a Mord'Sith. She gave Richard her agiel as a token of her love right before he killed her. After the second tearing of the veil of the underworld, Denna returned 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 removed 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 "disgusted" the Keeper and he refused 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 Richard to remember the events and emotions of what it was like to be under her control during the Wizard's First Rule.

Her last appearance in the series occurs in the book Confessor, when Richard summons her to the Gardens of Life to begin his journey into the Underworld as a step to reversing the effects of Chainfire, where she acted as his spirit guide. While the Beast followed Richard into the Underworld, Denna couldn't protect him from it, so Richard sent her away so he could deal with the Beast.

Constance

Constance was also a Mord'Sith in The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. She was first introduced when Denna invited her to "break" Richard Rahl with her agiel. Denna would not leave Constance alone with him though, scared that she might insert the agiel into his ears. She was killed shortly after by Richard Rahl after he killed Denna.

Hally

One of the four Mord'Sith to travel to Aydindril to protect Richard. She is described as blond-haired, blue-eyed and tall, just like Cara. Like all Mord'Sith, she wears blood red leather from head to toe. She was killed shortly after Richard met them in an alley. Mriswith invaded General Reibisch's office and killed some soldiers and as well as Hally (Blood of the Fold) It is worth noting that after her death, Richard Rahl had all of the D'Hara soliders present perform a devotion in her memory.

Raina

Along with Berdine, Cara, and Hally, she followed Richard to Aydindril to protect him. She has dark hair and eyes that seem to examine someone for every, nuance of strength, weakness, and power. She is shorter than Hally and Cara. She went along with Cara and Berdine to protect Richard until she died in his arms at the hands of Emperor Jagang, who started the plague (Temple of the Winds). She took great care in taming chipmunks, always giggling when they ate out of her hands. Along with that and her and Berdine's secret love, Raina, under Richard's new rules, learned to put aside the hardships of being Mord-Sith and let her emotions free.

References

External links

* [http://www.terrygoodkind.com Official Terry Goodkind website]
* [http://www.terrygoodkind.net Unofficial Terry Goodkind website] (endorsed by Terry Goodkind)