Empire of Silence

The Marlowe family is a palatine family who rule the province of Meidua on the planet Delos. The family owns the castle named Devil’s Rest, and their primary business is uranium-mining, as this element fuels the interstellar ships used by the empire and large trade corporations. The family sigil is a “red devil capering, trident in its hands” (25), and their motto is “the sword, our orator” (25).

The current head of the family is Lord Alistair Marlowe, the Archon of Meidua and Hadrian’s father. Cold, calculating, and cruel, Alistair rules his people through fear and intimidation and shows no affection to his sons, Hadrian and Crispin, or to his wife, Lady Liliana. Though Alistair’s family is wealthier due to its uranium mining, Liliana’s family, the Kephalos family, is of a higher rank and is far more powerful. Liliana’s mother is duchess of the planet of Delos and a vicereine appointed by the emperor. Her marriage to Alistair is political, and she shows no affection for her children, preferring the company of women and spending most of her time at her summer palace. However, she does briefly become Hadrian’s ally, helping him to escape his home world in the aftermath of Gibson’s banishment.

Crispin, Hadrian’s brother, is younger by four years and is Alistair’s favorite. Larger, stronger, and more brutish than Hadrian, Crispin has little intelligence, and he obediently follows Alistair’s example of callousness and cruelty. Crispin is Hadrian’s primary foil in the first third of the novel and acts as a major obstacle to Hadrian’s perceived role as heir to the Marlowe family. The two brothers are opposites in almost all respects.

Alistair is the primary antagonist in the first half of the novel because he actively controls Hadrian like a pawn on a chess board and thwarts Hadrian’s efforts to escape by banishing Gibson. Later in the novel, the absent Alistair still plays an antagonistic role because Hadrian’s fear of being discovered and sent home to his father motivates many of his decisions on Emesh.

Tor Gibson is a scholiast—a scholar and advisor who has been trained to suppress emotion and memorize vast tracts of information. Gibson has served the Marlowe family for generations. Hadrian does not know how old he is, but he guesses that Gibson is at least 700 years old. Wise and soft-spoken, the scholiast is a classic example of the mentor archetype. As Hadrian’s tutor and friend, he takes on a fatherly role, inspires Hadrian’s love for languages, and gives the protagonist a sense of compassion and justice that the rest of the Marlowe family lacks. His teaching and encouragement are instrumental in Hadrian’s plan to escape Delos. When he is whipped and banished for his part in Hadrian’s plan, he takes the blame to spare Hadrian. Even after his banishment, his aphorisms and advice linger in Hadrian’s mind, forming a significant part of the protagonist’s moral compass and worldview.

Cat is an unhoused 16-year-old girl from Borosevo on the planet Emesh. She befriends a desperately wounded Hadrian and teaches him how to survive as a beggar and petty thief. Despite her poverty, she demonstrates great kindness when she saves Hadrian during a storm and shares her meager supplies with him. Her mother died of a deadly malady called the Rot several years before. Cat is one of the few people on Emesh who knows about Hadrian’s past and identity. She enjoys stories about his home world as well as the adventure stories he tells her as entertainment. They become lovers during the two years they are together. When she dies of the Rot, her loss emotionally devastates Hadrian, and he is haunted by the memory of her.

Switch is a myrmidon fighter in Hadrian’s group at the Colosso. He is a young off-worlder man who was sold into indenture by his parents and kept as a male dancer and sex worker. When his contract ended, Switch elected to join the fighting pits. His real name is William, after the Emperor, but he chooses to keep his entertaining name. The other myrmidons often disparage and insult him because he initially has no fighting experience. Under Hadrian’s tutelage, his skills vastly improve. He and Hadrian are close friends and plan to pool their resources and buy a ship after their contract ends. However, Switch is horrified to learn Hadrian’s identity and breaks off their friendship. They reconcile later, when Hadrian asks Switch to be his second in the duel against Gilliam. Switch and the other myrmidons represent the first real family that Hadrian has ever had.

The Mataro Family is the ruling family of the planet Emesh. They maintain control over Emesh with the consent of the Chantry, which permits them the use of terraforming technologies. In exchange, the Chantry mandates that the Mataros bring the native species, the Umandh, into “the light of the Chantry” (480) by eradicating their native culture. The head of the family, Count Balian Mataro is married to his husband, Lord Luthor Astin-Shin-Mataro, who was formerly a member of the Wong-Hopper Consortium and is now Balian’s Minister of Finance. They have two children: a 21-year-old son named Dorian and a 19-year-old daughter named Anais. When Balian discovers Hadrian’s identity, he keeps Hadrian under his control and makes him a language tutor. Balian intends to marry Hadrian to Anais in order to add Hadrian’s superior genetic heritage to the family line.

Gilliam Vas is a secondary antagonist. He is a Chanter, a priest of the Chantry, and the illegitimate son of the Grand Prior of Emesh, Ligeia Vas. He is also an intus (a genetically inferior palatine who was born naturally rather than being genetically engineered). As an intus, he has physical deformities, including hunched shoulders, mismatched eye colors, a crooked nose, and shortened, misshapen legs.

Hadrian’s distaste for Gilliam’s physical appearance quickly gives way to his hatred for Gilliam as a person. Cruel and arrogant, Gilliam wields his power with vicious enjoyment, using threats, physical violence, and the legal system to enact his will. As a Chantry fanatic, he is convinced that Hadrian and Valka are heretics who have infiltrated the count’s household to destroy them from within. When he insults Valka, Hadrian challenges him to a duel. This moment forces Hadrian to reveal his identity, alters his relationships with Valka and the Mataro household, and leads to Gilliam’s own death by Hadrian’s hand.