Merchants of Knowledge and Magic - Characters
Calinthe Erytrichos
The main character and narrator. She works for both a Demon Lord and a God—seemingly contradictory careers, though few people are aware that her Demon Lord boss is allied to her God. Per the demands of her religion, she does not use money. She makes her way in life by selling knowledge, information, rumors, or by helping people with tasks.
Calinthe is intersex, with no reproductive organs whatsoever, but disguises herself as a woman and asks others to use she/her pronouns as a means to hide her identity while in Ophidia.
She is a one-of-a-kind hybrid. Her father comes from a species that is commonly believed to be unable to interbreed. Since people have never seen a hybrid like her before, it provokes many into asking questions about her heritage—questions she’s only too eager to answer if it means she gets to ask a question in return.
Art made by Aureolin Flax.
Zakuro Rathmusen
Calinthe’s traveling companion, best friend, and bodyguard. Zakuro is a merchant of magic, a Godblood who enchants objects with magical effects. As a descendent of the Mind God, the Water Goddess, and the Death God, she has three elemental powers: illusionism, liquid transformation, and enchantment. By herself, she can enchant objects with illusions or with the ability to change one liquid into another. When she partners with another Godblood, she can enchant objects with any ability they are willing to allow.
Zakuro was raised in Ophidia, a matriarchal country where women rule over men, intersex, and anyone else they do not deem to be ‘female’, and where Godbloods rule supreme over all. Her mother taught her that Zakuro was superior to all clearbloods and men—all while abusing her and making her believe she was unworthy of being loved.
Art made by Matt DeMino
Lord Williford, Demon Lord of Ignorance
Calinthe’s employer, of a sort. He knows that she’s forbidden from using money, so he grants her with all the goods and services she needs in exchange for secrets collected across the dominion. His magic is fueled by secrets, though not all secrets are equal. The disappearance of one of his harvesters is, for some reason, tied to a very expensive secret. If that secret became known to too many people, significant portions of his magic would vanish and leave his realm defenseless.
Williford is the man, not the Dragon, though the Dragon wishes you to know that he is a sapient entity who has agreed to let Willy ride on his back.
Art made by Flare
Requiem Ryuuga
A merchant of hedonism living on Ophidia. She plays at being a noblewoman—thus a slave owner—and yet her ‘slaves’ are quite sassy toward her. One also happens to be a shinigami—a servant of the Death God—who she has transformed into a horse. Requiem has somehow gotten the attention of Lord Sawyer, the Death God, and has drank enough of his blood to have Death magic.
But what on all the planes could the God of Death want with an Ophidian noblewoman?
Art made by Vii Morte
Kamiko Higangaoka
Heir to House Higangaoka, the wealthiest family in Ophidia. Her mother Mayume, has built the family’s wealth on their guns and gunpowder manufacturing plant. The mother and daughter duo are the only two living people who know every step in the process of making guns and gunpowder—a secret that some might do anything to possess.
Kamiko herself is an octant Mind Godblood with powers of telekinesis. Her mother is a clearblood, suggesting her father was a quarter Mind Godblood, through nobody on Ophidia discusses matters of fatherhood. To them, men are nothing more than animals and slaves. Though Kamiko also sees value in men as chairs and tables.
Art made by Aureolin Flax