CHARACTER CARDS
The Great Library of Alexandria perished in our world … but not in this one. It's grown, expanded, and now controls the knowledge of the world. Vast and a dangerous enemy.
Jess Brightwell, son of book smuggler Callum Brightwell, brother of twin Brendan. A studious boy who also delights in the physical activity of running books through the streets … and in his skill as a criminal. His love of reading sets him apart.
Callum Brightwell is the head of the Brightwell smuggling syndicate, which operates throughout England and has affiliates all over the world. He's a coldly practical man without much, if any, sentimentality.
The Great Library's vast knowledge contains ancient robotic work done on automata … and now, it's perfected these mechanical monsters that guard its institutions and punish wrongdoers. They strike fear in all who see them.
Brendan is Jess's twin, and as different as can be. He's a skilled criminal but an even better liar; he's loyal to his brother and father, but to almost no-one else. He's learned the trade well, and if you want a tricky assassin on your side, he's your man.
Thomas Schreiber meets Jess on the way to Alexandria, and the two immediately hit it off. Thomas is a huge young man with an unexpected and wonderful genius for inventing and creating new automata. But he'll be the one to create the invention that brings them all disaster.
Khalila Seif is, without doubt, the brightest in her class, and possibly of her generation. She's also clever, kind, and devout. She belongs at the Great Library, and all her classmates know it. She's got a brilliant future ahead.
Glain Wathen is a native of Wales, which is currently at war with England, so her relationship with Jess is initially wary. She's not a natural Scholar, but she is a natural soldier, and the Great Library has its own army: the High Garda. Glain's found her destiny.
Scholar Wolfe is a bitter, enigmatic man tasked with teaching this year's arriving aspirants to the Great Library … and he hates it. But his brutal training will strip away their preconceptions about what the Great Library is, and does … and what they have to do to belong.
Dario Santiago is a rich, entitled young noble of Spain, and he'll never let you forget it. He and Jess are antagonists at first sight, and though Dario's bullying tactics work with most, they won't with Jess. But Dario's got depths no one realizes … except possibly Khalila.
Portero is one of Dario's main sidekicks … an opinionated young man of Portugal who, though smart, feels deeply uncomfortable in such a vibrant and diverse environment as Alexandria. He's strong, and when called on, brave. But that might not be enough.
Izumi is a quiet, shy young woman from Japan who shows promise, but has difficulty with some of the requirements that Scholar Wolfe puts the class through, at the orders of the Great Library. She's smart, but is she a survivor?
Guillaume is from the destroyed kingdom of France … razed by the Great Library, its people sent fleeing to exile in other lands. Guillaume is from a family that is whispered to have Burner affiliations, a group that advocates terrorism against the Great Library. Is he a spy in their midst?
Captain Niccolo Santi is Scholar Wolfe's strong right arm in training the students. He's the captain of one of the most elite of the High Garda's companies, but his long career is at risk the more time he spends with his lover and partner … Scholar Wolfe.
There are Serapeums in every city, but the pyramid in Alexandria is the largest in the world. One side of it is for Scholars. One for public. One for the Curia and Archivist who rule the Great Library. There's no more dangerous place on Earth.
Morgan Hault is a fugitive. Originally from England, she's been running and hiding for years, avoiding the High Garda agents sent to identify and find natural talents like hers. If they find her, she'll be imprisoned in the Iron Tower and forced to work for the Great Library … forever.
The Artifex Magnus is the leader of the Artifex division of the Great Library, in charge of engineering, mechanical invention, and the practical side of the Great Library. He's very dangerous, amoral, and loyal only to the Archivist Magister.
Naomi is a Librarian in charge of the Serapeum at Oxford … a city under siege by the Welsh army. When Scholar Wolfe and his students are sent to aid in the evacuation of the Library's personnel and books, she will help them accomplish the impossible.
The Obscurist Magnus, Keria, is a beautiful and mysterious woman rarely seen beyond the Iron Tower … until she comes in search of Morgan. But she shares an unexpected tie with Scholar Christopher Wolfe. She's his mother.
The Iron Tower is a vast, black tower built of a strange metal that helps control the powers of the Obscurists within. A prison, a palace, and a workhouse all in one. It's rumored to be quite a sight … and one you never want to se.
Alexander's Tomb is one of the great wonders of Alexandria, a multi-story monument surrounded by lush gardens. But, as Jess will discover, there are guardians at the tomb one would never expect … and it's no place to be trapped.
Anit is the only surviving child of Red Ibrahim, a "cousin" of Jess's in crime. She's the heir apparent to her father's vast smuggling empire, and a clever, dangerous young woman in her own right.
The Black Archives are a rumor, a myth, a conspiracy theory … but if the rumors are true, the Great Library has suppressed and hidden tens of thousands of books they deem too dangerous to read. As Jess and his friends will discover, it's full of treasures … and threats.
The ancient dungeons running beneath the Forum in Rome have existed for millennia … and they're still in use, as Jess and his friends discover. Now, they're on a mission to defeat them, and rescue a friend.
Elsinore Quest is a Mesmer, a hypnotist with a rare talent and a gift for being forgettable. Mesmers exist on the fringes of society between legal and criminal, depending on the job they take on at the time. He's an important ally in a critical moment.
The Lighthouse at Alexandria is another great wonder of the ancient world. It survives in Jess's reality, and has been built and expanded into the home for Great Library Scholars and researchers of all kinds. Its bright light still shines for ships at sea.
Red Ibrahim is Egypt's equivalent of Callum Brightwell: a brilliant criminal mastermind who operates in the very shadow of the Great Library that seeks to destroy him. He'll be a necessary ally for Jess in the coming days.
The Roman Forum was one of the wonders of the ancient world too, and in Jess's day it's expanded and enhanced. The ancient gods have statues that tower over the landscape, and beneath their feet are entrances to the gates of hell.
Scholar Prakesh is a deaf Scholar who's employed Dario as her new assistant in the Lighthouse … an important, prominent, and well-respected ally with the Great Library.
Thabani Botha is a lieutenant in Santi's High Garda company, and a competent, quietly lethal man. Santi relies on him for a steady hand in dangerous circumstances.
Tom Rolleson—or, as he prefers to be called, Troll—is the squad leader for Blue Squad in Santi's company. Jess is his newest recruit. Troll is a smart, funny, dangerous young soldier.
Zara Cole is Santi's aide-de-camp … a trusted lieutenant who's been by his side for a dozen years. Almost as long as Scholar Wolfe. She and Wolfe share a deeply buried resentment toward each other.
Archimedes, the ancient inventor of the island of Syracuse, was a genius an early type of concentrated laser that could—according to ancient Roman accounts—burn ships at sea. Thomas has modified it as a hand weapon.
The Archivist of the Great Library is the most powerful person in the world … he controls what will and won't be distributed in terms of information and knowledge, and commands what may be the most feared fighting force in history. A good Archivist is a boon to humanity. This one is a curse.
Askuwheteau once aspired to be a Medica, a Great Library-trained doctor. But he was disillusioned and joined the Burner movement in America, and now serves as the doctor in the Burner's capital city of Philadelphia … a city under siege.
The blight of Philadelphia's precious crops is an unnatural disease, one the the townspeople blame on their prisoners … and on Morgan. Worse: they could be right.
The Brightwells have left a London under siege by the Welsh, and retreated to a defensible castle in the north … where Jess and his friends take refuge after escaping from Philadelphia. But is it a haven, or a trap?
The Burners are a fanatical movement that believe that a life is worth more than a book … in direct contrast to the Great Library, who believe that knowledge is all. They started with protests, then demonstrations of book burning, and now they've taken the fight to the Great Library.
The Great Archive is the storehouse of original books that the Library allows regular people to access via the Codex. But there are other Archives. And other Codexes.
Philadephia has been the center of the Burner movement for a hundred years, but it's dying; the High Garda forces surround it, and the people are thin and desperate. Jess and his friends can pity them, even as they understand their resolution.
The printing press changed the world, in our reality. In Jess's, it's been suppressed for hundreds of years. But now that it's loose, it will change the Great Library, forever.
Rafael is Khalila's cousin, a true believer in the Great Library. But even as faithful as he is, he can be used by the Archivist … and discarded.
Willinger Beck is the leader of the Burner movement, and rules Philadelphia. But a fanatic is a dangerous ally, and even worse when he considers you prisoners, as Jess and his friends will discover.