User:LostRunes

Descriptions of Csevet (I’ve been putting together a list of descriptions for my own reference, and thought other people might find it useful too, so here it is. Under the readmore you’ll find quotes from the book along with their Kindle locations. I’ve included descriptions of both his appearance and his related mannerisms, because the contrast between his behaviour at the beginning of the book and how he acts later is quite pronounced and might be useful. It’s not every quote, because some of them don’t say anything new or specific; if you think I’ve missed something important, please let me know! I also have posts for Maia, Csethiro, the nohecharei and other assorted characters.) Csevet is a full-blooded elf with pale skin, white hair and eyes “the color of rain”. He looks around nineteen or twenty years old, but is apparently closer to twenty-five. (I personally think this is an unintentional inconsistency, but this isn’t the post for my opinions on that.) He does not wear rings on his hands, but his ears are pierced (as seems standard in the Ethuveraz). It is unclear how tall he is, except that he is a full head taller than someone who is described as “stocky” (but never actually as short). He is graceful, elegant, and usually, but not always, good at masking his emotions. The messenger was maybe a year or so older than Maia himself, but elegant even in his road-stained leathers. He was clearly full-blooded elvish, as Maia was not; his hair was milkweed-pale, and his eyes the color of rain. [L88] as the messenger deliberately and with perfect dignity prostrated himself on the threadbare rug. [L92] as graceful as a cat. [L96] The messenger knelt to retrieve it before Maia could and handed it to him without a flicker of expression. [L114] The messenger was watching him, as impassive as ever; only the angle of his ears betrayed his interest. [L126] He at least succeeded in startling the messenger out of his stone face for a second: his eyes widened, and then he smiled. [L299] and he flicked the ivory toggle with a plain-lacquered fingernail [L1032] “This is Oshet, Serenity,” said Csevet, as triumphant as a retriever presenting his master with a dead duck. [L1037] (…Okay, this one is just here because I think it’s hilarious.) Oshet rose obediently; he was a full head shorter than Csevet, [L1042] “The government has ground to a halt,” he said, seated at the foot of the dining table, immaculate and poised as always. [L1442] Then, deliberately, he set down his cup, stood up, and with infinite grace prostrated himself beside the table. […] Csevet stood up again, unruffled and perfect, […] [L1451] He smiled, a warm beautiful smile that made his face suddenly, momentarily alive, and sat down again. [L1454] Csevet froze in the middle of tidying a stack of papers, his white, ringless hands suddenly tense. [L1579] “We apologize, Serenity,” Csevet said, the tips of his ears turning pink. [L2273] “There was an incident,” Csevet said, the blush spreading from his ears to his face, “when we were first a courier. We would prefer not to discuss it, but…” He cleared his throat and twitched his ears straight. “It is perhaps the case that we bear a grudge against Dach’osmer Tethimar.” [L2276] “Or both,” Csevet said, then shook his ears out with a jingle of silver rings. [L2636] Csevet’s pale skin flushed rose. [L2936] He saw the weight fall off Csevet’s shoulders, and Csevet’s returning smile was better than his own. [L4592] he was in the middle of trying to compose a letter that would be merely stiff rather than embarrassingly awkward when Csevet jerked back from the pile of correspondence as if he’d found it to contain a coiled viper. “Csevet?” Maia said, more than a little alarmed. There could be no actual snake, but Csevet’s ears were flat and his expression too carefully blank. “We beg pardon, Serenity,” Csevet said, his voice cool and remote, revealing nothing. But his ears had yet to rise. “We were merely startled.” [L4826] [“]We were sent there, nearly ten years ago now, [L4858] […]We were fifteen,[”] [L4878] Csevet blushed a delicate, pleased pink [L5201] A momentary gleeful grin made him look no older than Idra. [L5716]

Descriptions of Csethiro (I’ve been putting together a list of descriptions for my own reference, and thought other people might find it useful too, so here it is. Under the readmore you’ll find quotes from the book along with their page numbers. It’s not every quote, because some of them don’t say anything new or specific; if you think I’ve missed something important, please let me know! I also have posts for Csevet, Maia, the nohecharei and other assorted characters.) Csethiro is twenty-two years old, with a narrow face, a long nose, a weak chin and blue eyes. She is noted to be not pretty. She has white skin, and as she has only elven heritage she presumably has white hair as well. Her voice is deep and carries well. Currently known as “Dach’osmin Csethiro Ceredin”, she will be called “Csethiro Drazharan, Ethuverazhid Zhasan” after her marriage. “Osmin Duchenin is a very accomplished and beautiful young lady; she is something of a rival to the widow empress. On the other hand, Dach’osmin Csethiro Ceredin, who is the great-niece of Arbelan Drazharan, is equally accomplished, but of a more scholarly bent” (p. 144) “Dach’osmin Ceredin and Osmin Duchenin are the most established courtiers of the women who are close to Your Serenity in age— which means that both they and their houses are ambitious and therefore very likely to pursue a marriage.” (p. 144) Dach’osmin Ceredin was austere and immaculate in pale green watered silk; cloisonné beads, crimson and gold, were wound through her hair and hanging from her ears. The contrast made the vivid blue of her eyes— the same brilliant color as Arbelan Drazharan’s— stand out like a shout of defiance in her white, well-bred, characterless face. (p. 209) she was as unreadable as a porcelain doll, (p. 209) Dach’osmin Ceredin stood beside her father, politely impassive, not a flicker on her narrow face or a twitch of her ears to indicate she was even listening. (p. 210) Her voice was deep for a woman’s, and it carried in the emptiness of the Receiving Room like a tolling bell. (p. 210) she was well, but not lavishly, dressed in pale brown velvet, and her greeting when she came up on the dais was polite and not unamiable, but brisk, like a woman who had a more important appointment to get to. (p. 218) In contrast to the perfect, impersonal penmanship of the letter she had sent, her signature was dense and ferociously energetic; he saw that she used the barzhad, the old warrior’s alphabet, instead of the secretary’s hand favored by the court and thus perforce all of the Ethuveraz who did not have the freedom to be idiosyncratic. (p. 218) She curtsied in a sweep of bronze and red-purple, but she was frowning, and Maia was not entirely surprised that she opened on the attack. (p. 221) her colorless skin flushed a hard, painful red. (p. 222) When Dach’osmin Ceredin raised her head, there was a light in her vivid eyes that hadn’t been there before, and when she spoke, her speech was faster, more clipped, and rich in the animation it had previously lacked: (p. 222) [“]She wrote us a most dutiful letter upon the signing of your marriage contract, and we hope that perhaps we may come to know her better, but we can tell you nothing except she is our brother’s grandchild and she is two-and-twenty.” (p. 268) Her hair shone beneath the candles of the Untheileian’s myriad chandeliers, and she had eschewed the obvious lapis lazuli, dressing it instead with black lacquer combs and strands of emeralds to pick up the subtle green embroidery on her gray gown. (pp. 349-350) She grinned suddenly, an urchin’s expression. (p. 351) And with an odd quirked smile that made her face seem properly lived in for the first time, she curtsied and descended from the dais. (p. 353) a woman’s voice, deep and clear and carrying. (p. 373) She took two strides, then turned back to say, sharp and sudden, a sword sliding out of a scabbard, (p. 373) She was not at all pretty, her nose too long and her chin too weak, but her eyes were sharp and full of light, and even of kindness. (p. 417)

Descriptions of the nohecharei (I’ve been putting together a list of descriptions for my own reference, and thought other people might find it useful too, so here it is. Under the readmore you’ll find quotes from the book along with their Kindle page numbers. It’s not every quote, because some of them don’t say anything new or specific; if you think I’ve missed something important, please let me know! I’ve also done Maia, Csevet, Csethiro, and other assorted characters.) This one is in a different format, because there aren’t as many descriptions to reproduce for each character. This list does contain spoilers. Deret Beshelar is an elf who appears to be around twenty-three or twenty-four. He wears his (presumably white) hair in a topknot, which is apparently the norm for soldiers. His eye colour is not specified, but is probably pale blue, green, or grey, like most other elves. a sober-faced young man dressed as a soldier and with a soldier’s topknot, but wearing the Drazhadeise seal on a baldric across his chest. (p. 43); this disapproving wooden soldier. (p. 43); Beshelar said, “Serenity,” in such a flat, withering voice that Maia knew he had heard the phrase as an attempt at flattery. (p. 43); One of them was about Csevet’s age, the other two about Beshelar’s age— four or five years older— (p. 57); the stiff, shocked disapproval of Beshelar at his elbow. (p. 51); Beshelar looking as polished as a toy soldier, (p. 193); Beshelar was as picture-perfect as ever; (p. 305); Beshelar was scarlet in the face. (p. 312); “You’re the color of old cheese,” Cala said, quite audibly. (p. 376); All four nohecharei went shades of red; (p. 376); Cala and Beshelar were both going red, (p. 426) Cala Athamaza is an elf, and the same age as Beshelar. He is tall, skinny, and angular. He has pale blue eyes and wears thick round spectacles. His nose is long and high-arched. He wears his (probably white) hair in a queue, (a braid rather than a ponytail, judging from Dazhis), which is apparently the norm for mazei. this second young man, now kneeling in the doorway. He, too, wore a baldric with the Drazhadeise seal, but it looked almost incongruous over his shabby blue robe. As he stood again, unfolding a remarkable length of bony leg, Maia saw that he was taller than Beshelar, as gawky as a newborn colt. The pale blue eyes behind their thick round-lensed spectacles were myopic, gentle, and the one beauty in a face dominated by a long, high-arched nose. His untidy maza’s queue did nothing to flatter him, but he was clearly not the sort of man who would ever care. (p. 44); the vague blue eyes (p. 52); kind blue eyes. (p. 62); about the same age as Beshelar and Cala (p. 74); Cala’s angular shape (p. 126); even Cala had made an effort, although he must have borrowed the robe from someone else, for while it was a bright, even blue, it was an inch too short in the sleeves. (p. 193); Cala’s color went from bad to worse, (p. 276); Cala’s bloodshot eyes and increasing pallor, as if he were bleeding slowly to death from an invisible wound; (p. 285); he was even pinker than the Adremaza. (p. 288); Cala was pale and tired-looking, but no longer seemed distraught. (p. 305); Cala’s long white fingers (p. 308); his voice was too sharp, not like him. (p. 376); All four nohecharei went shades of red; (p. 376) Cala and Beshelar were both going red, (p. 426); Cala’s smile was beautiful, (p. 426) Dazhis Athmaza is an elf, also in his early twenties. He wears his hair in a braid until it is cut off. His eye colour is not specified. His clothes are less shabby than Cala’s. The Second Nohecharei proved to be in many ways indistinguishable from the First. A lieutenant and an athmaza, about the same age as Beshelar and Cala, the one starched and polished, the other shabby and unworldly— although this maza’s robe was of a newer, brighter blue, and his hair held a braid better than Cala’s. But Maia noticed that the new lieutenant, Telimezh, seemed nervous of Beshelar as well as of his emperor, while the maza Dazhis seemed anxious only that Cala should not forget to go to sleep. (p. 74) It was no more than five minutes before Dazhis was brought in. His hair had been cropped, and he wore, rather than the maza’s blue robe to which he was no longer entitled, a black and shapeless garment that would be his shroud. (pp. 297-298) Telimezh is an elf, the same age as Beshelar, Cala, and Dazhis. His eye colour is not specified. He presumably wears his hair in a similar style to Beshelar. His first name is never mentioned. (Thanks to @extra-penguin for the correction!) The Second Nohecharei proved to be in many ways indistinguishable from the First. A lieutenant and an athmaza, about the same age as Beshelar and Cala, the one starched and polished, the other shabby and unworldly— although this maza’s robe was of a newer, brighter blue, and his hair held a braid better than Cala’s. But Maia noticed that the new lieutenant, Telimezh, seemed nervous of Beshelar as well as of his emperor, while the maza Dazhis seemed anxious only that Cala should not forget to go to sleep. (p. 74) Telimezh’s face was bone-white and grim, (p. 300); All four nohecharei went shades of red; (p. 376) Kiru Athmaza is an elf in her late thirties, though Maia at first mistakes her for a young man. It is unclear whether the “scholar’s braid” she wears her hair in is the same style that Cala and Dazhis wear, but it seems likely. a young man in a maza’s blue robe every bit as shabby as Cala’s. (p. 286);He was quite short and slightly built, with white hair in a long scholar’s braid and pale green eyes. His nose tended toward the aquiline, but his chin was softly rounded, and he … Maia’s gaze skipped down before he could stop it, and then he stared disbelievingly, first at Kiru Athmaza and then at the Adremaza. “Should that not be nohecharo?” (p. 287); a voice that was not even close to deep enough to be a man’s. (p. 287); she was older than he had thought. She had to be a good ten years older than Cala or Dazhis, if not more. (p. 288); Make that fifteen years older than Cala— (p. 288); All four nohecharei went shades of red; (p. 376) Kiru’s voice was soft and rather rough, but she held strongly to the melody, and the kindness of it made his throat hurt in a way that Min Vechin’s beautiful voice never would. (p. 387)