The Kumbric Witch is the primordial figure of evil in Oz's mythology, a pre-human entity associated with the flood, the creation of Animals, and the origin of wickedness itself. She appears not as a living character but as a legend, a contested symbol whose meaning shifts across the novel's competing religious and political narratives, and whose name is invoked to explain everything from the nature of evil to the Wizard's own magical pretensions.
The expression "Bear down on the rod and foil the child" is the concluding aphorism of a Quell poem recited by Madame Morrible at a poetry soiree at Crage Hall, and it encapsulates the authoritarian ideology of the Wizard's regime, advocating for strict discipline and the suppression of individual liberty. The line recurs in the narrative as a thematic touchstone, linking the political oppression of Oz to the personal trauma of Elphaba, who internalizes its punitive logic as a form of self-loathing and a justification for her own violent actions.
Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, delivers a provocative and self-aware epigram about the nature of evil during a dinner party at the home of Avaric, the Margreave of Tenmeadows, shortly after she has murdered Madame Morrible. The remark crystallizes her performance of wickedness and her ironic detachment from the moralizing conversation around her.
The Clock of the Time Dragon is a traveling mechanical theater and prophetic device that appears in the novel as a central symbol of spectacle, moral corruption, and the erosion of traditional faith in Oz. It is a towering wagon-mounted clockwork contraption featuring a green leather dragon, dozens of moving puppets, and a dwarf handler, which stages cruel, personalized satires that expose the secrets of its audience and incite violence. The Clock catalyzes the crisis that leads to Elphaba's birth under a curse, haunts the memory of her father Frex, and later resurfaces in the novel's final act as a vehicle for revelation, embodying the novel's inquiry into the nature of evil, the manipulation of truth, and the inescapable weight of the past.
The Wicked Witch of the West is the public identity and political epithet adopted by Elphaba Thropp, the green-skinned protagonist of Gregory Maguire's novel, a title she embraces as a defiant act of self-definition against a society that has already condemned her. The name becomes a weapon of the disenfranchised, a mask of power worn by a woman who has been systematically stripped of every other form of belonging—family, love, community, and forgiveness—and who ultimately uses the role to wage a lonely war against the Wizard's tyranny.
The Arjiki Tribe is a Vinkus mountain clan led by Prince Fiyero, whose territory centers on the stronghold of Kiamo Ko. The tribe's identity is defined by its nomadic pastoralism, its distinctive blue diamond facial markings, its chieftainship structure, and its fraught relationship with the Wizard of Oz's expanding imperial power.
Shiz University is the premier institution of higher learning in Oz, where Elphaba, Glinda, and Nessarose receive their education and where the political and magical currents of the nation first converge in their lives.
Arianne Martell, the daughter and heir of Prince Doran Martell of Dorne, is a central figure in the Dornish political scheming of A Dance with Dragons. After her failed plot to crown Myrcella Baratheon, she is confined but eventually reconciled with her father, who reveals his long-term plans to her and tasks her with a crucial role in the coming war.
Balon Swann is a knight of the Kingsguard under King Tommen Baratheon, sent to Dorne as an envoy to escort Princess Myrcella back to King's Landing. He is a capable, wary, and honorable knight, but his mission is entangled in the political machinations of both the Lannister court and the Martells of Dorne, where he becomes a pawn in a larger game of thrones.
Bloodbeard is the savage commander of the Company of the Cat, a free company contracted to Yunkai during the siege of Meereen. A roaring giant with a ferocious appetite for slaughter, he embodies the most brutal and dishonorable aspects of the sellsword trade, making no secret of his disdain for rival commanders and his eagerness for bloodshed.
Caggo Corpsekiller is a fearsome sellsword captain of the Windblown, distinguished by his curved Valyrian steel arakh and his role as the Tattered Prince's right hand. He is a brutal, efficient killer who commands respect through violence and is instrumental in the company's most dangerous missions, including the attempted dragon theft in Meereen.
Daario Naharis is the flamboyant Tyroshi captain of the Stormcrows, a sellsword company in the service of Daenerys Targaryen. He becomes the queen's lover and a trusted commander, but his violent nature and low birth create a tension between his personal desires and her political necessities, ultimately leading to her sending him away as a hostage to secure a fragile peace.
Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight, is a former smuggler turned King's Hand to Stannis Baratheon, whose journey in A Dance with Dragons takes him from a shipwrecked envoy to a secret mission that could determine the fate of the north.
Godric Borrell, Lord of Sweetsister, is a gruff, pragmatic island lord who rules the Sisterton coast with a wrecking lord's cunning and a smuggler's hospitality, sheltering Davos Seaworth after the storms scatter Stannis Baratheon's fleet and weighing the shifting loyalties of the War of the Five Kings with cold, self-interested calculation.
Godry Farring, called the Giantslayer, is a knight of the stormlands and a fervent queen's man in the service of Stannis Baratheon. He is defined by his arrogance, cruelty, and a hunger for glory that outstrips his actual martial accomplishments, most notably his claim to have slain a giant during the battle beneath the Wall. Throughout the campaign in the north, he serves as a vocal advocate for the red god R'hllor, a harsh critic of Jon Snow, and a persistent threat to the king's captive, Asha Greyjoy, whom he repeatedly urges to be burned as a sacrifice.
Goghor the Giant is a formidable pit fighter from Meereen, one of the most celebrated champions in the fighting pits of Slaver's Bay. After Daenerys Targaryen conquers Meereen and frees the slaves, Goghor becomes a freedman and a vocal advocate for reopening the pits, eventually serving as one of King Hizdahr zo Loraq's personal protectors.
Haldon Halfmaester is a learned, sharp-tongued tutor and healer in the service of the exiled prince Aegon Targaryen, acting as a key member of the conspiracy to restore the Targaryen dynasty.
Hother Umber, called Whoresbane, is the uncle of the Greatjon Umber and a northern lord who, after the Red Wedding, aligns with Roose Bolton and the Freys at Winterfell, where his presence underscores the fractured loyalties of the north.
Jon Connington, once Lord of Griffin's Roost and Hand of the King to Aerys II Targaryen, returns from exile as the disguised sellsword "Griff" to lead the Golden Company in a secret invasion of Westeros, raising the banner of the feigned prince Aegon Targaryen while concealing his own fatal greyscale.
Jorah Mormont is a disgraced Westerosi knight, exiled for slave-trading, who becomes a key figure in Daenerys Targaryen's early campaign before his betrayal is discovered and he is banished. His arc in A Dance with Dragons is defined by a desperate, humiliating quest for redemption: he captures Tyrion Lannister in a Volantene brothel, intending to deliver him to Daenerys as a gift to win back her favor, only to be enslaved himself and ultimately reduced to a broken, branded sellsword who must choose between serving the queen he loves and the freedom he craves.
Leaf is a child of the forest, one of the last of the race that once inhabited all of Westeros. She serves as a guide and teacher to Bran Stark after he reaches the cave of the Three-Eyed Crow, explaining the nature of the greenseers, the history of her people, and the fate that awaits Bran if he accepts his powers.
Septa Lemore is a mysterious woman traveling with the exiled company on the Shy Maid, posing as a septa to tutor the hidden prince Aegon Targaryen in the doctrines of the Faith, while her own past remains deliberately obscured.
Missandei is a young Naathi scribe and translator who serves as Daenerys Targaryen's most trusted attendant, confidante, and emotional anchor throughout the queen's reign in Meereen. Her quiet wisdom, linguistic gifts, and unwavering loyalty make her indispensable to Daenerys, while her personal tragedy—the loss of her brothers to slavery and war—deepens the queen's resolve and humanity.
Othell Yarwyck is the First Builder of the Night's Watch at Castle Black, a stolid and unimaginative man who consistently opposes Jon Snow's decisions regarding the wildlings and the restoration of the Wall's abandoned castles.
Reznak mo Reznak is the perfumed, obsequious seneschal of Meereen under Daenerys Targaryen and later under King Hizdahr zo Loraq. A small, damp man who bathes in perfume and speaks a corrupted form of High Valyrian, he serves as a constant, sycophantic presence at court, offering counsel that is often self-serving and suspect. His unwavering devotion to protocol and his eagerness to please whoever holds power mark him as a quintessential courtier, and his role becomes increasingly ambiguous as the peace with Yunkai unravels, making him a figure of deep mistrust for Daenerys and her inner circle.
Salladhor Saan is a Lysene pirate prince and sellsail who serves Stannis Baratheon as a naval commander, only to abandon him after the disastrous voyage from the Wall to White Harbor, disillusioned by unpaid debts and the ruin of his fleet.
Tristifer Botley, a young ironborn nobleman, is a devoted follower of Asha Greyjoy who abandons his home and kin to stand by her after her defeat at the kingsmoot, only to be repeatedly rebuffed in his romantic aspirations.
The Old Blood (Valyrian: Qeldēñi Ēdrō) is the term used in the Free City of Volantis to denote the noble families who can trace their unbroken descent from the dragonlords of Valyria. They alone are permitted to dwell within the Black Wall, the city's innermost fortified district, and they alone are eligible to stand for election as triarch. The Old Blood's claim to racial and political supremacy is the central ideological pillar of Volantene society, and their resistance to Daenerys Targaryen's abolition of slavery forms a key geopolitical pressure in the eastern theater of the novel.
The Children of the Forest, also known as the singers or those who sing the song of earth, are a non-human race of diminutive, long-lived beings who were the original inhabitants of Westeros. They are deeply connected to nature, the old gods, and the weirwood trees, possessing powerful magic including greensight and skinchanging. By the time of the main narrative, they are a dying race, with only a few score remaining in hidden caves beyond the Wall, where they serve as guides and teachers to the last greenseer, Brynden Rivers, and to Bran Stark.
Giants are a race of colossal, hairy humanoids native to the lands beyond the Wall, now nearly extinct. In A Dance with Dragons, they appear as remnants of a dying species, serving as both a source of brute strength and a poignant symbol of a world that is passing away. Their presence at the Wall, first as enemies and later as uneasy allies, underscores the desperate alliances forced by the coming of winter and the Others.
