Four Ruined Realms

Mikail is another main character in Four Ruined Realms. He is from the realm of Gaya, and his real name is Adoros, but he uses other aliases. Mikail is tall and athletic and has teal eyes. Aeri considers him “pretty,” and Sora considers him a “demigod” due to his fighting prowess and intelligence. Mikail worked as the royal spymaster of Yusan; this makes him a “dangerous man” and gives him an “easy confidence and swagger” (31). In the previous novel, he was Euyn’s lover, but he refuses to share Euyn’s bed in Four Ruined Realms because of Euyn’s deceptions and violent tendencies.

Mikail is a strategist and is continually plotting. He keeps the death of Sora’s sister a secret, and Sora suspects that he is hiding something but doesn’t guess what. Royo also thinks that Mikail is untrustworthy. Mikail frequently struggles with loving Euyn, and their relationship develops the theme of The Complex Morality of Killing. When Euyn sacrifices himself to save the others, Mikail admits to loving Euyn and wanting to be with him in the next life. Euyn’s death sends Mikail into a killing frenzy. Mikail feels responsible for putting his friends in the situation where Euyn is killed, thinking that his biggest flaw is hubris. He also comes to realize that his “friends [are] the closest thing [he’s] had to family since Ailor” adopted him (395). At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be Gayan royalty, which means that he can obtain and wield the Flaming Sword and the Water Scepter.

Sora is a poison maiden, meaning that she can detect and wield poisons after being tortured for years as a girl in a poison school in Yusan. Her “body is likely poison” (101), and her “hand trembles from poison aftereffects” (30). Many characters comment on Sora’s beauty. She is described as stunning, with violet eyes and black hair. Mikail notes that “[s]eduction comes easily to Sora, but she is also effortlessly charming and unfailingly kind” (217). Sora was born into the lower class and believes that her parents sold her into indentured servitude. Her goal is to rescue her sister, Daysum, from a similar fate. Sora is generally thought to be dead and uses the alias Yunga. Her first love was Hana, who goes by the name Zahara in this novel, but she is also romantically attracted to Tiyung.

Partway through the novel, Euyn reveals that Sora’s father refused to sell her and that her uncle, Seok, forged the signature that took away her freedom. Sora loves books and would have been a priest in a Temple of Knowledge, but women are not allowed to pursue that vocation in Yusan. Sora comments on gendered oppression most frequently in the novel. She is empathetic and forgiving—she forgives Aeri before the others, forgives Euyn, and even spares the life of a Marnan guard. In the battle in the palace near the end of the novel, Sora uses a vial of poison to save the others. After Euyn’s death, she is concerned about Mikail, and she laments Royo’s rejection of Aeri’s love, demonstrating that she believes that love is the most important thing.

Euyn is a lean 23-year-old and uses the alias Donal. He is Baejkin, the son of King Joon and brother of Aeri, but he doesn’t think he is because his mother lied to him about his lineage. After hearing her lies, he still claims to be the crown prince of Yusan. In addition to hiding the information about Sora’s father, he hides the fact that he plans to give the Golden Ring to Joon in order to regain his position as prince, and his character does much to develop the theme of The Morality of Secrets and Lies. Euyn only loves Mikail but is confused when Mikail is hesitant about their relationship, not realizing that his views and secrets are driving a wedge between them.

Euyn changes some of his problematic views over the course of the novel but still advocates for genocide in Wei, as well as for killing a priest. He is extremely talented with a crossbow and saves his friends from animal and human attacks with this weapon. Mikail describes Euyn as “[p]rince, criminal, villain, hero. Liar and unfailingly true. He is all of that and more. There is no easy way to describe Euyn, and maybe [Mikail has] always loved that” (277). At the end of the novel, Euyn sacrifices himself. He believes that he can’t wield the Golden Ring and gambles with Queen Quilimar over it. It turns out that Euyn can wield the ring, revealing his true royal lineage, but he is killed despite this. At the end of his life, Euyn focuses on his love for Mikail: “It is such a blessing to think of love in the end. I feel nothing but gratitude” (358). Euyn’s death saves his friends and causes Mikail to admit that he loves Euyn.

Royo is a strongman (a fighter) who was born and raised in Yusan. He has “amber-colored eyes” and is frequently described as strong but not intelligent. Royo is bigger and slower than the other men. His weapon of choice is a battle axe, but he carries and uses a variety of other weapons. He is from a low socioeconomic class, like Sora. They both “are guided by absolute right and wrong. They don’t possess the flexible morals of those with power” (13). In other words, Royo is one of the most honest characters in the book and is unforgiving when others lie.

About halfway through the novel, Aeri learns that Royo is a good cook and a considerate lover. They have sex after Royo saves Aeri from drowning, which causes him to recall his mother’s death. (She was a good swimmer who supposedly drowned). In the Temple of Knowledge, he discovers that he has Keeper blood, meaning that his mother or another family member dedicated themselves with blood at a temple. At the end of Four Ruined Realms, Royo learns that Aeri has been lying about having the Sands of Time and refuses to be romantically involved with her.

Tiyung is the sixth and final point-of-view character in the novel. He is 22, Seok’s son, and a prince in Yusan. However, he was thrown into Idle Prison at the end of the previous novel and spends most of Four Ruined Realms imprisoned. Tiyung is in love with Sora, and her former love, Zahara, helps Tiyung obtain food and light in prison because he freed Zahara’s little brother from indentured servitude. Tiyung hears that he is supposed to be killed in a way that looks like an accident while in prison. This makes him suspicious when he gets a cellmate. Tiyung is initially pretentious when he meets his cellmate, who turns out to be Ailor, Mikail’s adopted father.

Fighting his royal impulses, Tiyung shares Zahara’s food with Ailor. Tiyung opens up to Ailor, admitting that he has killed people and that he seeks redemption. Ailor says to Tiyung, “The important thing is that you want redemption. That alone makes you better than most” (288). This inspires Ailor to sacrifice himself to save the younger man. At the end of the novel, Zahara helps Tiyung escape from prison, but they have to return to Yusan because Seok takes control of Qali Palace.

Ailor is Mikail’s adoptive father, a retired king’s guard, and 40 years old. Ailor admits that he killed women and children, in addition to men, because he was ordered to. Shortly before he sacrifices himself for Tiyung, Ailor says that he is too old to obtain redemption for these deaths. Tiyung thinks, “Ailor’s true colors did come out at the end, and those were of a man willing to give his life for a stranger who showed him kindness. A man who thought of his son with his last breath” (309). Mikail mentions Ailor early in the novel, vowing revenge if Ailor is killed, but Ailor doesn’t appear until about halfway through. Mikail hasn’t learned about Ailor’s death by the end of Four Ruined Realms.

Fallador is from Gaya and reminds Mikail of home. They both have warm brown skin and similar personalities. Fallador is the first person whom Mikail meets with in Khitan, which makes Euyn jealous. Fallador shares information about Quilimar with Mikail, and Mikail thinks, “It’s truly terrible to talk to someone so much like me” (406). Mikail believes that Fallador is an exiled Gayan prince, but at the end of the novel, Fallador admits that he is not of royal lineage, but Mikail is.

Gambria is Fallador’s cousin. She is short, a “quiet beauty,” and “barely a hundred pounds, but she’s as formidable as a mountain” (233). Gambria gives Mikail incorrect information about one of the exceptions to the Rule of Distance: the resting place of a dead Marnan leader. However, this is unintentional. Gambria’s wife, Lyria, is from Marna and is out of the room when Gambria and Mikail discuss the dead leader. When Gambria discovers her mistake, she and her wife travel to save Mikail and the others in the Marnan cave. Before meeting her wife, Gambria had a romantic relationship with Quilimar: “Both direct, ambitious women, they became quick friends and more” (302). They broke up when Quilimar was forced to sleep with her husband to produce a royal heir.

Queen Quilimar is from Yusan but married, against her will, the King of Khitan. After conceiving a son with the king, she killed him. She tried multiple times to kill her brother King Joon, including when he ordered her marriage. Quilimar is 33, “but she looks younger” (332). She hides the fact that she doesn’t have royal blood until her secret is revealed by Luhk. Not being a Baejkin, she can’t wield the Golden Ring that she owns. She is described as “ruthless and more than apt for slaughter” and “a queen who makes King Joon run for cover” (84, 322-23). Part of the reason why Quilimar didn’t want to marry a king is because she is “[l]ong thought to only be attracted to women” (302). Gambria was her lover.

After Quilimar and Gambria broke up, Quilimar took General Vikal as a lover, making her a foil to Gambria. Vikal is around 40 years old, tall, and loyal to Quilimar. Aeri observes that Quilimar “really loves her. Does that make [Quilimar] better or worse, or does loving someone not affect our value at all?” (387). Quilimar kills Euyn because she is told that he has a weapon and tries to capture the others, making her an antagonist. Afterward, she becomes an ally to Aeri and her friends because Aeri can wield the Golden Ring and because all the other realms have come to Khitan to start a war.

Ambassador Zeolin is from Yusan and lives in Khitan. In his late fifties, he is a “tall, thin man with dignified gray hair” (57). Mikail dislikes Zeolin and has to physically threaten him to get any information. Zeolin is part of a plot to assassinate Quilimar to gain political power. At the end of the novel, Zeolin switches sides and aligns himself with Quilimar, an act of treason because, as the ambassador, he is supposed to be loyal to Joon. Mikail remains annoyed with Zeolin and kicks him down the palace stairs when he is sent by Quilimar to ask for a truce between her and Mikail’s group.

Luhk is a minor character who works as a priest at the Temple of Knowledge. He was away from the temple when his fellow priests were murdered. Luhk respects women more than people from Yusan; he aids Sora and Aeri in their quest for knowledge about the exceptions to the Rule of Distance and about the relics of the Dragon Lord. As someone who “speaks all languages fluently” (155), Luhk is part of the parley between the realms at the end of the novel.