The Realm of the Elderlings

by Robin Hobb

FitzChivalry Farseer is a royal bastard, raised in secret and trained as an assassin by the king's own spymaster. He carries two forbidden magics — the telepathic Skill of the Farseer royal line and the Wit, a beast-bonding power punishable by death. Across five interconnected series spanning decades, Fitz navigates the political treachery of the Six Duchies, the merchant intrigues of Bingtown and its sentient liveships, and the dragon-haunted Rain Wilds — always accompanied by his wolf Nighteyes and the enigmatic Fool, whose love for him transcends every category. Robin Hobb's masterwork is fantasy at its most intimate and devastating.

90 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.

Characters

• Alise Kincarron — A Bingtown scholar who traded a loveless marriage for a dragon expedition — finding in the Rain Wilds the purpose and passion that her comfortable lif
• Althea Vestrit — The Vestrit daughter who should have inherited the liveship Vivacia — a sailor to her bones, fighting for her birthright in a world that thinks women
• Bee Farseer — Fitz's unexpected daughter — born impossibly small and pale, dismissed as simple by everyone except her father, harboring a White Prophet's gift that
• Brashen Trell — A disgraced Trader's son who found his way back to the sea — a cindin-addicted sailor whose competence is matched only by his talent for self-sabotage
• Burrich — The stablemaster who raised a bastard prince as his own — a proud, stubborn man who suppressed his own Wit magic out of shame and spent his life prote
• Captain Leftrin — Captain of the liveship barge Tarman — a rough, honest Rain Wild riverman who fell in love with a Bingtown scholar and captained the expedition that c
• Chade Fallstar — The king's hidden assassin — a pox-scarred bastard who spent decades in secret tunnels shaping the fate of the Six Duchies, loving his great-nephew Fi
• Civil Bresinga — A young nobleman caught between his Old Blood heritage and the Piebalds' violent agenda — used as a pawn to get close to Prince Dutiful.
• Dutiful Farseer — The prince who inherited a stolen throne and an impossible legacy — raised believing Verity was his father, discovering Fitz was, and learning to be a
• Dwalia — A Servant of Clerres — a fanatic collector of White children who kidnaps Bee and will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and believes absolutely in he
• Elliania Blackwater — An OutIslands narcheska who married into the Farseers — fierce, proud, and burdened with a political marriage that required Prince Dutiful to slay a d
• Etta — Kennit's whore turned pirate queen — a woman who clawed her way up from nothing, loved a monster with open eyes, and found her own power in the wrecka
• FitzChivalry Farseer — The Farseer bastard — a royal assassin who carries two forbidden magics, buries everyone he loves, and keeps getting back up because someone still nee
• FitzVigilant — Chade's son, assigned to guard Bee — a young nobleman trying to prove himself worthy of a father who never publicly claimed him.
• Galen — The Skillmaster who corrupted Buckkeep's magic from within — a zealot who used his position to build a coterie loyal to Regal and nearly destroyed the
• Hap — Fitz's foster son — a wandering boy adopted during the exile years, who wanted to be a minstrel and became the closest thing to a normal child Fitz ev
• Heeby — Rapskal's scarlet dragon — the first of the stunted generation to achieve true flight, proving that even diminished dragons can reclaim the sky.
• Icefyre — An ancient dragon entombed in glacier ice — the last male dragon, buried alive for centuries, freed by the quest that defines the Tawny Man trilogy.
• Keffria Vestrit — The dutiful Vestrit daughter who married Kyle and watched her family fracture — a woman who spent years being the responsible one and was repaid with
• Kennit — The pirate king of the Cursed Shores — a charming, monstrous man who convinced everyone, possibly including himself, that his ruthless ambition was a
• Kettle — An ancient woman hiding in plain sight — centuries old, carrying the guilt of a long-ago Skill-murder, who joins Verity's quest as an unassuming camp
• Kettricken — A Mountain princess who married into the Farseers and held the Six Duchies together through war, betrayal, and the loss of the husband she barely knew
• King Shrewd — The old king who held the Six Duchies together through cunning and compromise — murdered by his own son, mourned by the bastard grandson he used as a
• Kyle Haven — The outsider who married into the Vestrits and ruined everything — a Chalcedean-minded man who saw a liveship as property and his family as assets to
• Lady Patience — Chivalry's eccentric widow — a scattered, brilliant woman who defied every expectation by defending Buckkeep when the warriors couldn't, armed with no
• Laudwine — A Piebald leader who lost an arm to persecution and his mercy along with it — fighting for Wit-users' rights with a violence that undermines the cause
• Malta Vestrit — The spoiled Vestrit girl who became an Elderling queen — transformed from a selfish teenager into a political powerhouse by dragon magic, captivity, a
• Mercor — The wisest of the Rain Wild dragons — a golden dragon whose inherited memories are more intact than most, making him the reluctant leader of a generat
• Molly Chandler — The chandler's daughter Fitz loved first and longest — a woman who built a life from nothing, raised children alone, married the wrong man for the rig
• Nettle Farseer — Fitz's firstborn daughter — raised by Burrich, ignorant of her true parentage, who grew into the most powerful Skillmistress the Farseers have produce
• Nighteyes — Fitz's wolf — a Wit-bonded partner whose blunt animal wisdom and fierce loyalty kept a broken man alive for fifteen years, and whose death left a woun
• Paragon — The mad liveship — a vessel driven insane by abuse and tragedy, whose figurehead turns to face the wall and who kills his crews, until Brashen Trell i
• Perseverance — A stable boy who followed Bee into captivity and became her most loyal protector — earning his name the hard way.
• Prilkop — The previous White Prophet — a dark-skinned man who served his age and should be resting, but keeps getting pulled back into the fight because prophet
• Prince Chivalry — The Farseer prince who abdicated over a bastard son and died in exile — more myth than man to the child he never acknowledged, casting a shadow that s
• Prince Rurisk — Kettricken's brother — a warm, sickly Mountain prince whose friendship with Fitz was one of the few uncomplicated goods in the Farseer trilogy, cut sh
• Rapskal — A cheerful Rain Wild keeper who fell too deeply into Elderling memories — becoming as much ancient warrior as modern boy, with all the glory and dange
• Regal Farseer — The youngest Farseer prince — a vain, ambitious schemer who murdered his father, tortured his nephew, and sold out his kingdom because he believed he
• Reyn Khuprus — A Rain Wild Trader born marked by the magic in his blood — who fell in love with Malta Vestrit through dreams before they ever met, and followed her i
• Ronica Vestrit — The Vestrit matriarch — a Trader grandmother holding her family together through the worst crisis in Bingtown's history with nothing but will, connect
• Rosemary — A child spy who grew up in shadows — recruited by Regal as a mole in Kettricken's household, later reclaimed by Chade to serve the Farseer throne prop
• Sedric Meldar — Hest's secret lover turned dragon keeper — a man who came to the Rain Wilds planning to steal dragon parts for profit and stayed because a dragon gave
• Selden Vestrit — The youngest Vestrit — marked by dragons from childhood, traded as a curiosity, and eventually transformed into a true Elderling whose humanity bridge
• Shine Fallstar — Chade's daughter, raised in ignorance of her father — a spoiled noblewoman thrown into crisis who discovers reserves of courage she didn't know she ha
• Sintara — A stunted dragon too proud to admit her limitations — bonded to Thymara, whom she treats with imperious contempt that slowly, grudgingly becomes somet
• Sorcor — Kennit's loyal first mate — a straightforward pirate who genuinely believes in freeing slaves, unable to see that his captain believes in nothing but
• Spark — A street-smart spy in Chade's network — resourceful, tough, and loyal to the Fallstar legacy even when the old spymaster can no longer direct her.
• Starling Birdsong — The minstrel who followed Fitz for the sake of the song — ambitious, sharp-tongued, and willing to trade on secrets when fame requires it.
• Swift — Burrich and Molly's son — Witted like his father, stubborn like his mother, determined to live openly with the magic Burrich spent a lifetime suppress
• Tarman — The oldest liveship still sailing — a flat-bottomed river barge with a quiet, deep intelligence, bonded to Captain Leftrin through generations of trus
• The Fool — The White Prophet of his age — a shape-shifting, gender-fluid seer who wears a dozen identities across decades, all of them orbiting one fixed point:
• The Pale Woman — The false White Prophet — a rival seer who allied with the OutIslands raiders and tortured the Fool, believing that her vision of the future was the o
• Thick — The simple-minded servant with the strongest Skill in Buckkeep — proof that the magic doesn't care about intelligence, dignity, or social standing, on
• Thymara — A Rain Wild girl born with too many changes to be allowed to live — who survived because her father loved her more than custom, and who became an Elde
• Tintaglia — The first dragon to return to the world — arrogant, magnificent, and completely indifferent to human concerns except when humans have something she ne
• Verity Farseer — The good king who destroyed himself saving his kingdom — a quiet, steady man who poured his life into the Skill to fight the Red Ships until there was
• Vindeliar — A White-born man with a broken gift — able to cloud minds and rewrite memories, controlled by Dwalia through cruelty and manufactured dependency.
• Vivacia — A liveship quickened by Vestrit blood — a sentient wooden ship torn between the family that made her and the pirate who claimed her, carrying dragon m
• Web — An Old Blood elder who came to Buckkeep as ambassador for the Wit community — a calm, wise man whose patience with prejudice masks the steel underneat
• Wintrow Vestrit — A priest dragged from his monastery to serve on a slave ship — a gentle, spiritual boy forced into violence by a father who couldn't accept a son who

Locations

• Aslevjal — A frozen island in the OutIslands — where the Pale Woman built her stronghold, where Icefyre lay entombed in glacier ice, and where Dutiful's quest re
• Bearns — The northernmost coastal duchy — proud, independent, and bearing the brunt of the Red Ship raids with a stubbornness that rivaled the sea itself.
• Bingtown — A Trader city built on ancient Elderling foundations — where fortunes are made in wizardwood and exotic goods, where liveships dock, and where the Ves
• Buck — The heart of the Six Duchies — the coastal duchy that holds Buckkeep Castle and the Farseer throne, where every political crisis eventually comes home
• Buckkeep Castle — The Farseer seat of power — a fortress of dark stone rising from sea cliffs, honeycombed with secret passages and haunted by the ghosts of every basta
• Chalced — A militaristic slave state south of the Six Duchies — ruled by a Duke obsessed with immortality, culturally brutal, and perpetually threatening its ne
• Clerres — The stronghold of the Servants — an island fortress where White-born children are bred and imprisoned for their prophetic gifts, the final destination
• Cursed Shores — The treacherous coastline between Bingtown and the Pirate Isles — where ships disappear, serpents hunt, and the boundary between civilization and wild
• Farrow — The largest inland duchy — Regal's power base after he abandoned Buckkeep, where he built a fraudulent inland court while the coast burned.
• Forge — A coastal village where the Red Ships first demonstrated Forging — stripping the humanity from captives and sending the hollow shells home to terroriz
• Jamaillia — A southern empire ruled by a dissolute Satrap — wealthy, corrupt, and constantly meddling in Bingtown's affairs while pretending to be its protector.
• Jhaampe — The Mountain Kingdom's capital — a city of elegant timber and stone where the Sacrifice rules, where Fitz was first poisoned by Regal's agents, and wh
• Kelsingra — A lost Elderling city reclaimed by dragons and their keepers — the ancient capital of a civilization where humans and dragons lived as partners, now a
• Moonseye — A border fortress between the Six Duchies and the Mountain Kingdom — the gateway through which Kettricken came and through which Fitz's fate was often
• Pirate Isles — A scattered archipelago of pirate havens — where Kennit built his kingdom from freed slaves and stolen ships, turning lawlessness into something that
• Rain Wild River — A toxic, acidic river cutting through ancient forest — the highway to Elderling ruins and the barrier that defines Rain Wild civilization.
• Rippon — A southern coastal duchy — warmer than the northern duchies, with a seafaring tradition that makes its people more worldly and more vulnerable to raid
• Shoaks — A coastal duchy south of Buck — agricultural heartland and trading center, less dramatic than the northern duchies but essential to the kingdom's econ
• The Mountain Kingdom — A realm of peaks and passes ruled by a 'Sacrifice' — a culture where rulers exist to serve, not command, and where Kettricken learned the values that
• The OutIslands — An archipelago of harsh, proud islands — the source of the Red Ship raiders who terrorized the Six Duchies, later allied through Dutiful's marriage to
• The Six Duchies — A cold, proud kingdom on the northern coast — six duchies united under the Farseer throne, besieged by raiders from the sea and rotting from betrayal
• Tilth — A fertile inland duchy known for agriculture — the breadbasket of the Six Duchies, quiet and prosperous.
• Trehaug — A Rain Wild city built in the canopy of enormous trees — where the Rain Wild Traders excavate Elderling ruins and the acid river below makes ground-le
• Withywoods — Fitz's country estate — a quiet manor where he tried to build the simple life he always wanted, until the Servants burned it down around him.

Items

• Elfbark — A bitter herb that suppresses the Skill — used medicinally for pain and depression, but strategically as a weapon to cripple Skill-users.
• Forging — The Red Ships' most terrible weapon — a process that strips away empathy, compassion, and every human connection, leaving a shell that remembers how t
• Skill Pillars — Ancient standing stones carved with Elderling runes — portals that transport Skill-users instantly between locations, remnants of a civilization that
• The Rooster Crown — An ancient wooden crown carved with prophetic symbols — a White Prophet artifact whose meaning and power are understood only by those who have lived b
• The Skill — The Farseer royal magic — a telepathic power that lets its wielders reach across distances, heal, command, and ultimately dissolve into a current of c
• The Wit — The Old Blood magic — the ability to bond with animals, sharing mind and heart, persecuted as beastly perversion by a kingdom that fears what it doesn

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