The expression 'Evil is an absence of the inclination of matter to be at peace' is a philosophical proposition articulated by an agony aunt during a dinner party at Avaric's town house in Shiz, shortly after Elphaba's murder of Madame Morrible. It represents one of several competing definitions of evil debated by the guests, framing evil not as a positive force or an act but as a privation—a lack of the natural tendency of material existence toward equilibrium and harmony. The statement is immediately dismissed by Avaric as 'Pigspittle,' and the subsequent conversation reveals the characters' inability to agree on a stable definition of evil, a thematic uncertainty that pervades the novel.
The overdressed traveler betrays more interest in being seen than in seeing is a maxim coined by Galinda during her first day at Crage Hall, Shiz University, as she observes her fellow new students. The saying crystallizes her initial worldview—a belief that the true traveler's accessory is the novel world itself, not ostentatious jewelry—and serves as a marker of her early, performative intellectualism. The phrase is immediately weaponized against her by Madame Morrible, who uses it to mock Galinda's pretensions and to bind her into a subtle campaign of social manipulation against her new roommate, Elphaba.
The Free State of Munchkinland was a short-lived secessionist state declared in the late spring of the narrative, following the assassination of Nessarose's predecessor and the burning of a grange. It was established by Nessarose, the Eminent Thropp, who became its political head of state after orchestrating a revolt against the Wizard of Oz. The state was born from a series of grievances, including the reported rape of Munchkinlander maidens, the Massacre at Far Applerue, heavy taxation, and the despoiling of country meetinghouses by the Wizard's soldiers. Nessarose's leadership was marked by a strict unionist theocracy, and the state's existence was precarious, facing the threat of retaliation from the Wizard's forces. The state's end came with Nessarose's death, when a tornado dropped a house on her head, leading to the collapse of the secessionist government and the eventual reunification of Munchkinland with Oz.
Maester Aemon Targaryen, the blind, 102-year-old maester of Castle Black, is a pivotal figure of wisdom and moral clarity in A Dance with Dragons. His final act is to counsel Jon Snow to "kill the boy and let the man be born," a brutal lesson in leadership that Jon must apply to survive. Aemon is then sent south to Oldtown for his own safety, a journey that removes the Watch's most experienced counselor at its most desperate hour.
Aenys Frey is a son of Lord Walder Frey who leads the Frey contingent in the northern campaign alongside his half-brother Hosteen Frey, serving as a seasoned commander in Roose Bolton's army during the aftermath of the Red Wedding.
Ben Plumm, known as Brown Ben Plumm, is the pragmatic and self-serving captain of the Second Sons, a sellsword company whose loyalties shift according to the winds of fortune. A mongrel of mixed blood who claims a drop of dragon blood, he initially serves Daenerys Targaryen in Meereen, but when the tide of war turns against her, he betrays her to join the Yunkish alliance. His actions embody the sellsword's creed of survival above all, and his eventual return to Daenerys's side, driven by self-interest and a wager on her ultimate victory, marks him as a quintessential survivor in the game of thrones.
Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled queen of the Seven Kingdoms, struggles to rule the conquered city of Meereen while facing a siege from the slaver cities, a rebellion within her walls, and the growing wildness of her dragons. Her arc in A Dance with Dragons is defined by the tension between her desire for peace and the violent demands of power, culminating in her decision to marry the Meereenese nobleman Hizdahr zo Loraq to secure a fragile truce, only to see it shatter when she is forced to flee on her dragon Drogon during a riot in the fighting pits.
Gilly is a young wildling woman, the daughter and wife of Craster, who becomes a pivotal figure in the Night's Watch's efforts to protect the infant son of Mance Rayder and Dalla from being burned as a sacrifice by Melisandre.
Hizdahr zo Loraq is a wealthy Meereenese nobleman of ancient Ghiscari lineage who becomes Daenerys Targaryen's king consort, only to be deposed and imprisoned after the chaos of Daznak's Pit. His political maneuvering, his repeated petitions to reopen the fighting pits, and his eventual marriage to Daenerys form a central thread of the Meereenese plot, as he represents the old slaving aristocracy that the dragon queen must either co-opt or destroy.
Hodor is a simple-minded, gentle stableboy of immense strength who serves House Stark at Winterfell and later becomes Bran Stark's indispensable carrier on the journey beyond the Wall. His defining trait is his inability to speak more than the single word "Hodor," yet his physical power and unwavering loyalty make him the literal vehicle that transports the crippled Bran through the haunted forest and into the cave of the Three-Eyed Crow.
Illyrio Mopatis, the enormously fat Magister of Pentos, is a master manipulator and secret architect of the Targaryen restoration, whose wealth, cunning, and decades-long friendship with Varys have made him the indispensable financier and plotter behind the plan to place a Targaryen on the Iron Throne.
Jhogo is a Dothraki bloodrider of Daenerys Targaryen, one of her three sworn protectors who share her life and are bound to her by blood oath. He serves as her whip, a symbol of his role in her khalasar, and remains fiercely loyal to her even after she marries Hizdahr zo Loraq and is forced to send him as a hostage to the Yunkai'i. His captivity underscores the fragility of the peace Daenerys has forged and the constant threat of betrayal that surrounds her.
Mace Tyrell, Lord of Highgarden and Warden of the South, is the ambitious but often ineffectual head of House Tyrell who maneuvers to secure his family's power during the War of the Five Kings and its aftermath, ultimately becoming Hand of the King to Tommen Baratheon.
Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, is a former man of the Night's Watch who abandoned his vows to unite the free folk against the threat of the Others. His capture by Stannis Baratheon and subsequent execution by fire at the Wall is a pivotal event that masks a deeper deception: Melisandre's glamor saves Mance's life, allowing him to be sent on a secret mission to rescue Arya Stark from Ramsay Bolton, a quest that ultimately fails and leads to his recapture.
Meera Reed is the daughter of Lord Howland Reed of Greywater Watch and the elder sister of Jojen Reed. She is a skilled huntress and fighter, fiercely protective of her brother, and becomes one of Bran Stark's most loyal companions on his journey beyond the Wall to find the Three-Eyed Crow.
Mors Umber, called Crowfood, is an elderly uncle of the Greatjon and a fierce northern warrior who lost an eye to a crow and his daughter to wildling raiders. He becomes a key figure in Stannis Baratheon’s campaign for the north, demanding Mance Rayder’s skull as a drinking cup and a pardon for his brother Hother before he will commit his strength to the king.
Obara Sand is the eldest of the Sand Snakes, the bastard daughters of Prince Oberyn Martell of Dorne. A fierce, angry, and mannish warrior, she embodies the thirst for vengeance against House Lannister that drives her sisters, yet she is ultimately bound by her oath to serve her uncle, Prince Doran, and his long-laid plans.
Pretty Meris is a Westerosi woman turned sellsword and torturer for the Windblown, a free company in Slaver's Bay. Her scarred, earless face and cold, dead eyes mark her as one of the company's most feared enforcers, and she commands a patrol of Westerosi deserters sent to feign defection to Daenerys Targaryen.
Rolly Duckfield, known as Ser Rolly or simply Duck, is a knight of the Golden Company and a member of the conspiracy to place Aegon Targaryen on the Iron Throne. A former armorer's apprentice from Bitterbridge, he was knighted by Jon Connington and serves as a trainer and protector to the young prince, embodying a loyal, straightforward, and physically imposing figure within the company.
Toregg the Tall is the eldest son of Tormund Giantsbane, the formidable wildling chief. He serves as a key intermediary between his father and Jon Snow during the negotiations that allow the free folk to pass through the Wall, and later becomes a prominent figure among the wildling warriors who pledge to follow Jon south to confront Ramsay Bolton.
Tormund Giantsbane, the wildling chieftain known by a dozen boastful titles, is the last great leader of the free folk after Mance Rayder's fall. His decision to lead his starving, freezing people through the Wall—and to accept Jon Snow's terms of surrender—marks the decisive moment when the ancient enmity between the Night's Watch and the wildlings gives way to a fragile, necessary alliance against the Others.
Tyrion Lannister, the disgraced dwarf son of Lord Tywin Lannister, flees Westeros after murdering his father and his lover Shae, embarking on a journey across the Narrow Sea that transforms him from a vengeful kinslayer into a cynical sellsword and political player in the game for the Iron Throne.
Viserion is a dragon, one of the three born from the funeral pyre of Khal Drogo, named by Daenerys Targaryen for her brother Viserys. He is cream-and-gold in color, with molten gold eyes and golden horns and spinal crest. Chained in the darkness beneath the Great Pyramid of Meereen, he grows increasingly wild and dangerous, a symbol of the cost of Daenerys's attempt to rule through peace and compromise.
Walder Frey is the ancient, cunning, and ruthlessly pragmatic Lord of the Crossing of the Twins, whose orchestration of the Red Wedding made him the most reviled man in Westeros and a pivotal figure in the War of the Five Kings.
The tigers were a political faction in Volantis, composed of the Old Blood who favored military conquest to restore the Valyrian Freehold's dominion after the Doom.
Barrow Hall is the seat of House Dustin in the northern town of Barrowton, a wooden castle that serves as the political and military headquarters for Roose Bolton during his campaign to consolidate control over the North. It is here that the Boltons orchestrate their alliance with the Freys, plan the siege of Moat Cailin, and prepare for the wedding of Ramsay Bolton to the false Arya Stark, making it a key location for the Bolton-Lannister power structure in the region.
The Bay of Ice is a frigid, stormy sea on the western coast of the North, separating the mainland from the Iron Islands and serving as a vital but perilous route for raiding, trade, and travel.
Bear Island is a remote, heavily forested island in the Bay of Ice, ruled by House Mormont. Known for its fierce, independent women and its isolation from the politics of the Seven Kingdoms, the island serves as a symbol of northern resilience and the martial spirit of its people, particularly through the actions of Alysane Mormont during Stannis Baratheon's campaign.
The Causeway is the only dry road through the Neck, a narrow, elevated log-and-plank road that runs through swamps and bogs, and its northern end is plugged by the ruins of Moat Cailin. Its strategic choke-point nature makes it the decisive gateway between the North and the southern kingdoms, and its capture by Roose Bolton's forces in A Dance with Dragons seals the return of Bolton power to the North and the final collapse of ironborn resistance in the region.
Chroyane, the festival city of the Rhoynar, was the most beautiful and richest city on the river, but its wealth and beauty tempted the dragons of Valyria, who destroyed it during the Second Spice War. Now a drowned ruin in the Sorrows, it is a place of fog, stone men, and despair, where the river itself seems to run in circles and the dead whisper to the living.
