Corlath, the king of the Hillfolk, serves as an important character and Harry’s love interest. He enters the story as the mysterious and imposing king who comes to the Outlander Residency seeking an alliance against the encroaching Northern threat. His kelar allows him to perceive threats others cannot, and his power sets him apart not only from the Homelanders, but often from his people. 

From the beginning, Corlath’s role is that of the protector. His sense of duty to Damar runs deeper than politics; it is a sacred burden. After the Homelanders dismiss his diplomatic overtures, Corlath sees Harry, triggering the events of the rest of the novel. His kelar compels him to return and kidnap her from the Residency. Corlath is uncomfortable with the act, but he goes through with it anyway due to his compulsion and sense of duty. He is not a tyrant, but a man doing what he believes he must, even when it makes him uneasy.

Corlath is constantly balancing the role of a king with the vulnerability of a man torn between personal desire and public responsibility. As Damar faces an invasion from the North, he must plan for war, but he is not an infallible general. When Harry challenges Corlath about his decision to ignore Ritger’s Gap, Corlath responds poorly. However, he does not punish Harry or seek retribution for her defiance. Instead, he meets her return with quiet joy, wearing her sash as a token of his belief in and love for her. They marry and rule as king and queen together, granting the characters a traditional happy ending.

Colonel Jack Dedham is introduced early in the story as a former officer in the Homeland military who now commands the fort at the edge of the Damarian border. His career, however, has been marred by his political outspokenness and his refusal to conform unthinkingly to the Homelanders’ policies of dismissal and condescension toward the Hillfolk. He is a rare figure among the Homelanders, one who respects the wisdom of the colonized rather than dismissing it. Jack’s position thus places him in an ambiguous role: Technically loyal to the Homeland, but emotionally and intellectually aligned with Damar. He, like Harry, has a dual identity.

His relative isolation gives him the freedom to make independent decisions, something he exercises once Harry returns with news of an imminent Northern invasion. Jack’s ability to see beyond orders and into the truth of the situation enables the critical alliance between Harry’s renegade band and the Hillfolk, which ultimately wins the war. Without him, the defense at Ritger’s Gap would likely have failed. Nevertheless, he never undermines Harry’s authority in the situation. He follows her lead, recognizes her military skill, and remains in the background when she takes command during battle.

After the war, when the story shifts from battle to rebuilding and diplomacy, the novel states that Sir Charles’s efforts at opening diplomatic relations with Damar would have failed without Jack’s actions. However, like Harry, he does not return to Istan or the Homeland. Instead, he follows her into the Hills and eventually becomes one of the Queen’s Riders.

Mathin is Harry’s mentor among the Hillfolk, assigned to do her training by Corlath shortly after her arrival. Rather than coddle Harry or underestimate her, Mathin treats her with the impartial severity due a soldier-in-training. This approach is critical to Harry’s eventual transformation into Harimad-sol. Mathin, more than anyone else, is responsible for helping her become a capable warrior by equipping her with the skills she needs to earn the respect of the Hillfolk.

However, Mathin is not only a mentor to Harry, but a living embodiment of the cultural ideals of the Hills. He is loyal, restrained, and deeply honorable. He follows duty not for reward or recognition, but because it is right. Mathin is sparing with words, and when he does speak, his dialogue is often thoughtful and precise. When Harry is afraid or self-critical, he usually offers her the words she most needs to hear to steel her resolve.

Mathin’s near-death in the final chapters is a critical emotional moment in the novel. After the climactic battle, Harry is devastated to find him among the wounded. In another intense use of her kelar, Harry saves Mathin and the other injured. That she spends so much energy to ensure his survival reflects not just her friendship with him, but the crucial place he holds in her identity. He trained her, and never doubted her, and for this she is loyal to him in turn.

Luthe is an ancient seer who lives alone in a hidden valley and fulfills the standard fantasy trope of the ancient, wise seer whom the hero goes to for knowledge, in the vein of Merlin or Gandalf. He exists outside the normal bounds of human aging and experience and is a being of immense knowledge who is simultaneously gentle and detached. His immortality is not portrayed as enviable: It is a burden that has isolated him from others. He has lost much to time, including people he loved and fought beside, including Aerin.

Luthe’s role as a liminal figure, living at the edge between life and death, and human and other, gives him a unique wisdom. He helps characters see the broader patterns of time and choice. Harry feels this in Luthe’s hall. She describes the days spent there as dreamlike, outside the forward rush of destiny that awaits her below the mountains. When Harry speaks to Luthe for guidance, he does not tell her what to do with her kelar, or how to lead an army, or even how to love Corlath, but gives her the clarity to choose for herself.

In the final chapter, McKinley writes that Harry and Corlath often travel back to Luthe’s valley, bringing their children with them. The return visits reinforce the idea that wisdom, healing, and memory are ongoing processes. Luthe’s role does not end when the sword is sheathed and the war is over; it continues in the cultivation of peace and the telling of stories.

Thurra is the antagonist of the novel, a mysterious Northern war leader threatening the people of Damar. His army is first described in hushed tones by the Hillfolk, who recognize the signs of a coming invasion. The early chapters of the novel establish a sense of gathering darkness on the northern border. The threat of Thurra’s approach is so strong that Corlath’s kelar drives him to seek aid from the Homelanders despite his cultural mistrust of them. Thurra’s army is described as dark, unnatural, and numerous, and their power lies not only in numbers but in sorcery. 

The critical and unsettling core of Thurra is his fundamental unknowability. He does not speak. The reader never learn his motivations, his past, or his inner life. He is described only through the observations of others: His terrifying presence, the unnatural pallor of his horse, the eerie silence of his army. Even the physical description of him during battle is vague and impressionistic, and he appears more like a monster than a man. He cannot be reasoned with or understood. Instead, Thurra is the figurative dragon to be slain. Like many archetypal villains, his presence justifies the forging of a hero. Without him, Harry would never fully claim her power, or unite the fractured peoples of Damar.

Richard Crewe is Harry’s older brother and, at the beginning of the novel, he is already in Istan, serving as a civil servant. He is responsible for Harry’s relocation after their father’s death. Richard represents the Homelander part of Harry’s identity. He is a figure of logic, decorum, and tradition. As Harry later learns, Richard knew that their great-grandmother was one of the Hillfolk. However, rather than tell his sister about this, he kept the information from her, worried that it would further alienate her from her already tenuous position in their society. Despite his attempts to keep her from it, Harry ends up confronting and embracing this part of her identity anyway.

Despite his actions, Richard is not an antagonist. For all his stability, he, too, has been estranged from a part of himself. When he learns that his missing sister has reappeared, he heads out to join her at Ritger’s Gap. She inspired him to embrace the part of his identity that he’d ignored. Like his sister, he doesn’t return to Istan, instead joining the Hillfolk. After the war, he marries Kentarre, the leader of the filanon archers, and moves with her to the western edge of Damar. His marriage is followed by a series of reciprocal visits between the queen and her brother, which play a crucial role in reopening communication between the City and the filanon, who had long withdrawn from the king’s domain.