Prince of Thorns

Makin Bortha, or Makin as he is generally called, becomes Olidan’s Captain of the Guards following his predecessor’s failure to protect Jorg’s mother and brother. Jorg first encounters him following his recovery from the hook-briars when Makin is running some boys through basic drills. Makin is later sent to retrieve Jorg and return him to Olidan following the Prince’s abscondment.

Finding Jorg intransigent, Makin gives Jorg his family’s ancestral sword, made of Builder Steel, and protects the young prince in his travels with The brothers. Makin proves himself unfailingly loyal to Jorg even knowing the Prince’s dark temperament and willingness to sacrifice anybody. Makin’s loyalty results in him being stripped of his title upon his return to the Tall Castle and, eventually, causes him to be imprisoned in the dungeons. Though not earned, Makin’s loyalty impacts Jorg enough that he hesitates to leave him in Olidan’s dungeons; he is one of the few people whom Jorg actually likes.

He is an extremely experienced and skilled war fighter and excellent tactician. As one of the brothers’ best fighters—and the only one who knows Jorg’s true identity—Jorg relies heavily upon Makin, though he would be loath to admit it. 

The Nuban, who never reveals his actual name, is the brother being tortured in Olidan’s dungeons when Jorg visits them as a 10-year-old. The Nuban is very large and muscular with dark skin and a broad white smile that contrasts sharply with his skin color. The Nuban encounters a great deal of prejudice since it is widely believed in Jorg’s part of the world that the Nubans are demon worshippers and forsaken by God. Like Makin, the Nuban is one of the very few people whom Jorg likes and the only person whose moral judgment Jorg seems to worry about.

The Nuban is quite taciturn, a quality Jorg appreciates, but makes his disapproval of some of Jorg’s actions apparent with a frown, shrug, or raised eyebrow. He wields a massive, enchanted crossbow from his homeland of Nuba that he recovers from Sageous’s hunter. The Nuban displays great loyalty to Jorg due to the Prince having saved his life twice, once in the dungeons and again from Sageous’s hunter. When Jorg must choose whether to sacrifice him, the Nuban appears to understand and accept Jorg’s choice without judgment.

A powerful sorcerer from the nearer East, Sageous comes to Olidan’s court shortly before Jorg’s departure from it. Sageous is capable of influencing people’s dreams and manipulating them through their dreams. His sleep magic is what allows the brothers to be captured in the first place, and he nearly succeeds in subduing Jorg and the Nuban after their escape long enough for his hunter to dispatch them.

Sageous has soft, brown eyes with long lashes. His skin is entirely covered with magical tattoos that shift and writhe over him. He is able to control Jorg even when Jorg is awake, although Jorg does manage to resist in some ways. As a rival of Corion, Sageous wants to get rid of Corion’s pawn, Jorg, but the Prince discovers the true nature of “the game” before Sageous succeeds. By the time Jorg has returned to the Tall Castle, Sageous has disappeared. 

Corion is Sageous’s rival as another player of “the game.” Corion resides at Count Renar’s court, apparently for the purpose of manipulating the Count. He appears as a withered old man, his skin stretched like wrinkled parchment over a dark husk. For the four years that Jorg spent on the road, Corion was the one controlling him, directing him away from Renar’s lands and getting him to raid Renar’s rivals. Even after Jorg’s ingestion of the necromancer’s heart and return from the dead, Corion is still able to place Jorg under his influence at the tourney. Only pure chance turns Jorg’s seemingly futile act of resistance against Corion’s influence into the sorcerer’s demise.

Father Gomst is Olidan’s court priest, who ministered to Jorg when he was young. Gomst is old, frail, and always ready to flee from danger. When Jorg discovers him hanging in a gibbet, Gomst is relieved at his salvation but quickly horrified by Jorg’s behavior and companions. He finds himself an unwilling companion on Jorg’s mission to the Castle Red and is dismayed when Jorg gives him to the Leucrota to serve as their priest.

Gomst’s piety often appears superficial, and he shies away from the most unpleasant parts of his vocation. After hearing several of the brothers’ confessions, he begs Jorg to be excused from the duty, ignoring his own claim that anyone can be redeemed. Moreover, he is intensely prejudiced against the Nuban although the latter has never harmed him or even spoken blasphemously. He appears to have been killed when the Castle Red was detonated.

Apart from Jorg, Brother Rike is the most dangerous member of the brothers. He is enormous, muscular, and given to lashing out in murderous anger at the slightest provocation. He expresses no interest in anything but his own gain, whether material, sexual, or social.

Brother Elban is the oldest of the brothers and is completely bald and toothless. Besides the Nuban, Elban is the only one of the brothers whom Jorg likes. He is a stalwart fighter, ready to stand his ground but not one to seek a fight recklessly.

Gorgoth is one of the leaders of the Leucrota who leads Jorg through the caves beneath the Castle Red. He is the most dramatically transformed of the Leucrota whom Jorg encounters, appearing as a lumpen hulk with cat’s eyes. He is extraordinarily strong, and his strength is critical to Jorg’s success at several moments. He and Gog are the only surviving Leucrota following the destruction of the Castle Red.

Gog is the elder of two Leucrota brothers. He is an emaciated child, about seven, with black eyes, discolored skin, and horny growths extending from his joints. The brothers are undergoing their Leucrota transformations too early and are intended to be sacrificed to the necromancers for the continued safety of the other Leucrota. Gog survives the necromancers and the destruction of the Castle Red. The blast from the ancient weapon imbues Gog with a blinding white light and a great deal of energy. At the battle at The Haunt, Gog shows that he can now burn people alive from a distance.

Chella is the first of the necromancers Jorg encounters beneath the Castle Red. She appears to him as a lithe young woman covered only in a few ribbons and body paint. Jorg falls under her spell nearly at once but manages to break free at a critical moment to attack her. Her true form is revealed: a desiccated near-corpse kept animate only by dark magics.

She calls up powerful magics and slips away, but Jorg finds her feeding on the Nuban and shoots her with a crossbow bolt that punches through the Nuban. Despite being shot and falling down the deep Builder shaft, Chella survives and reveals herself as an important player of “the game” during her overheard conversation with Sageous.

Though roughly the same age as Jorg, Princess Katherine is his aunt by marriage; her sister is Olidan’s new wife. Jorg is very attracted to her. She gives the impression of being brave—she is not afraid of Jorg when she meets him—and strong-willed, but she also demonstrates a softer side when she hesitates to kill Jorg.

Jorg’s childhood tutor, Lundist is from the far Eastern part of the world. He is old but is still in extraordinary physical condition. Lundist is quite scholarly and relies mostly upon the castle library and the rare books he has brought with him from his homeland. Although he was in a position of authority over Jorg when he was younger, Jorg had some affection for him. Jorg’s destruction of the Castle Red was entirely dependent upon Lundist’s instruction, which allowed Jorg to read the ancient tomes concerning the store of weapons under the castle.

Count Renar rules the Renar Highlands that border Ancrath. The reader does not learn until the very end that he is Olidan’s brother, meaning that he was willing to kill his own nephews in order to assassinate Jorg’s mother. Renar’s bloodthirsty nature is referenced early in the book in the village of Norwood, where Jorg notes that Renar doesn’t take prisoners; he has his men burn both the dead and the living together.