The Hurricane Wars

Alaric Ossinast is the secondary antagonist and Talasyn’s love interest in The Hurricane Wars. He is described as tall, with wavy dark hair and glinting silver eyes. He is a Shadowforged warrior, serving on the front lines of the Hurricane Wars on the side of the Night Empire as leader of the Shadowforged Legion. Alaric serves as both an antagonist and romantic interest in this enemies-to-lovers romance. As the son of Emperor Gaheris Ossinast and heir to the Night Empire, Alaric is a foil to Talasyn, as they are both heirs to political dynasties, bound by their obligations to their rulers and family members.

Alaric is devoted to his father even when his father is cruel to him. Aethermancy allows Alaric to feel connected to his father, especially with their communication in the In-Between: “As a child, he’d clung to the fanciful notion that the In-Between was special, something that belonged to him and his father alone. Perhaps there was a small part of him that still believed so now” (173). Alaric maintains a childlike fixation on the In-Between, as he believes it represents closeness to his father, while his father uses the In-Between to taunt Alaric and treat him with callous cruelty, even torturing him when he failed to kill Talasyn after their first meeting on the battlefield.

When Alaric sees how Elagbi treats Talasyn with kindness and care, he begins to realize that his relationship with his father is an unhealthy one, built on threats and pain instead of trust and love. He begins to understand that “he had longed for someone to give a damn about his welfare. For a parent, for anyone, to stand up for him” (196). After his mother left when he was a young teenager, his father became even more violent and tempestuous, leaving Alaric alone to raise himself as a young man and warrior.

Alaric finds that Gaheris has an emotional hold on him despite his lack of paternal affection. Gaheris tries to poison Alaric’s relationship with Talasyn, leading Alaric to doubt Talasyn’s motivations: “Even as that thought filtered into his head, Alaric’s instincts warned him that it was spoken in Gaheris’s voice. Last night had felt honest and raw. It had to have been real” (463). Because his father has always made him feel unloved, he doubts the love and affection that Talasyn shows him. These insecurities, coupled with Talasyn’s difficulties in forming relationships, will strongly impact the course of their marriage in the sequel novel A Monsoon Rising, as the Night of the World-Eater looms, and the covert machinations of the Hurricane Wars continue.

Urduja Silim is the Dragon Queen, or Zahiya-lachis, of the Nenavar Dominion. She is the mother of Elagbi Ivralis and the grandmother of Talasyn/Alunsina Ivralis. She is described as regal and awe-inspiring, with white hair, black eyes, and olive skin. Urduja, as leader of Nenavar, is a deeply pragmatic and realistic woman who seeks to always place the good of her nation above all other concerns. This places her in direct conflict with Talasyn, who seeks to use Nenavarene political power to help the Sardovian cause against the Night Empire. She and Talasyn argue frequently, even at one point having a “screaming match” because “Urduja had declared it too risky for Talasyn to continue frequenting the Sardovian hideout in the Storm God’s Eye” (153). Urduja is risk-averse and does not want to take any action that could imperil the Nenavar Dominion, while Talasyn’s more impulsive nature motivates her to follow her emotions when it comes to decision-making. Urduja is an unemotional woman, as she reminds Talasyn and Elagbi that “sentimentality will get us nowhere at the moment” (156), illustrating her logic-driven approach to life and leadership.

Gaheris Ossinast, the antagonist of The Hurricane Wars, is the Night Emperor and leader of the Kesathese Night Empire. He is the son of Ozalus Ossinast, the prior leader of Kesath and inventor of the stormships, and father of Alaric Ossinast. Gaheris was previously married to Sancia Ossinast, but Sancia fled, leaving both Gaheris and Alaric behind. Alaric remembers how Gaheris changed after Ozalus’s death: “Alaric remembered how that night had marked a change in Gaheris, manifesting in little cruelties and obsessions that piled up over the years until Sancia Ossinast finally fled under cover of darkness” (233). Sancia found Gaheris so cold, unkind, and abusive that she left, begging Alaric to go with her, but Alaric felt both connected to and controlled by Gaheris, therefore choosing to remain in Kesath.

The aforementioned “obsessions” are a key aspect of Gaheris’s character, as he constantly works to instill paranoia within Alaric, telling him over and over, “All around us are enemies. Remember this, my son” (170). This paranoia isolates both Gaheris and Alaric from the rest of the world, as they believe all other nations and people are against them and the Night Empire. Gaheris seeks to overtake as much of the world as he can. In this way, he experiences little character development throughout the novel, though Alaric’s perception of him does change, as by the end of the narrative Alaric realizes that Gaheris’s desire for conquest will never be sated.