Who's who: Elayne, Temoc, and the King in Red
“You’re about to bring God Wars weapons to bear on the Chakal Square protestors.”
“I don’t need a lecture about proportional response. They chased off a commando squad. They’ve started to sacrifice people. Their gods are awake, and gathering strength. If we don’t stop this now we’ll be fighting full-scale Wars in weeks.”
“You haven’t stopped fighting them in forty years.”
“Nor has Temoc. Nor have you.”
Last First Snow, 309
Who are Elayne Kevarian, Temoc Almotil, and the King in Red?
In a series of necromancers, saints, priests, and sorcerers, three characters stand tall – figuratively and literally, they’re all described as really damn tall – above the rest: Elayne Kevarian, Temoc Almotil, and the King in Red.
(The King in Red may be both tallest and most powerful, but Elayne and Temoc can hold their own.)
They are peers, the three of them battling in the God Wars, and are easily the most powerful POV characters we’ve seen so far in the Craft and Applied Theology. They are also the triad of protagonists of Last First Snow, which may be my personal favourite Craft book.
They have all made decisions (and mistakes) which have led to where they are today. They each have fought and killed and maimed and survived, but each has learned a different lesson from that past. Today they remain locked in a battle for the future, representing three different sides. All three will make a huge impact on the future of the series, and the Craft world.
In depth series to come for each of these characters, but for now read on for a basic introduction to Elayne Kevarian, Temoc Almotil, and the King in Red.
There are some minor spoilers here because there’s not really any other way to talk about characters, but I’ve kept them as minimal as possible.
Who is Elayne Kevarian?
This is not an official likeness, but when I saw Captain Marvel my first thought was ELAYNE
You’re not a warrior anymore, Temoc had said.
A peacemaker. A restorer of life. That was what she wanted to be. A counsellor.
And so far she had failed.
Soon, at least, the fires would go out.
-Last First Snow, chapter 61
A major player in Three Parts Dead and Last First Snow, with supporting roles in Full Fathom Five, Four Roads Cross and Wicked Problems, Elayne Kevarian is a badass corporate lawyer slash necromancer who served on the front lines of the God Wars. She is Tara’s mentor, Kopil’s old friend, Kai’s nemesis, and Temoc’s several-time saviour.
As a partner in necromantic law firm Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, Elayne travels the world solving other people’s problems with as little bloodshed as possible. Resplendent in a pinstriped suit and iron grey hair, Elayne is an intimidating figure to most who meet her, but has a (relatively) soft centre hidden under her steely exterior.
But who is Elayne as a person?
Despite her POV in Three Parts Dead, we don’t learn all that much about Elayne’s past – though we know she will do almost anything to get the outcome she wants. Elayne plays her cards close to her chest and doesn’t even let the reader guess her play. It isn’t until Last First Snow that we get a deep dive into Elayne Kevarian. And wow is it a deep dive.
79 years old in Three Parts Dead but looking a few decades younger, Elayne was a child when she came into her powers, was hunted down by her family and neighbours, and ran away to join the ranks of Craftsfolk fighting in the God Wars. She was still a child when she became a soldier herself – and by all accounts she was fearsome.
“I burned down a forest to kill one man. It didn’t work. So I followed him across a mountain and a desert into another jungle’s heart. I killed five gods hunting him. Small gods, but still. I should have died myself. I almost did. He hurt my friends. Someone I loved tried to turn me from the hunt, and I didn’t listen.”
Last First Snow, 139
In Last First Snow we learn a lot about Elayne’s past through memories and flashbacks, which we will go into in a future article. Suffice to say that she is part of a traumatised generation and her way of dealing with the horrors of the God Wars was to move as far past them as she can. A rare Craftswoman who seems to have an understanding of religious people, Elayne shows genuine compassion for the priests in the Church of Kos, for Temoc and his fallen gods, Seril and her children and more. She has no interest in the melodrama and power plays of her peers and colleagues, and seemingly less desire to ‘go full skeleton’ and ascend to becoming a Deathless Queen.
Yet she remains an iron-willed Craftswoman who will do close to anything to win a case, including risking her own life and others (see this article for a lot more on that). However, unlike many of her peers, she has morals she will not bend and lines she will not cross. She despises Denovo for his abuses of power, turns against Temoc for his return to a bloodthirsty religion after saving his life countless times, and ends a many-decade friendship with the King in Red over crimes against humanity. And she’s clearly working behind the scenes on something major – more on that also to come in a future article.
Elayne sees something of her younger self in Tara, and tacitly supports Tara’s decision to go on a different path than her own. Maybe if Elayne had her time again, she would do the same.
Other characters associated with Elayne: Tara Abernathy; Temoc Almotil; the King in Red; Belladonna Albrecht; Mina Almotil
Places associated with Elayne: Alt Coulumb; Alt Selene; Dresediel Lex
Organisations associated with Elayne: Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao; Grimwald Holdings
Who is Temoc Almotil?
Note that Temoc is described as having much darker skin than in this cover image
A fallen hero, last surviving priest, deeply flawed father, and freedom fighter-slash-terrorist, Temoc Almotil has a complex role in the Craft Sequence. Depending on your reading order, you may meet him as a reformed warrior trying to chart a new way in a present he doesn’t understand, trying to be the best father and husband he can be in Last First Snow. Alternatively, you may see him through his now-adult son Caleb’s point of view in Two Serpents Rise where he appears as a fanatic, a terrorist, a cold-blooded killer who tortured his son and left his family in favour of a fruitless terror campaign.
But who really is Temoc?
Temoc is the last Eagle Knight, an ancient bloodline of warrior priests dedicated to bloodthirsty Quechal gods. His gods and his city fell in the God Wars at the hands of Craft armies led by the King in Red. Elayne saved his life; both young adults killing and sacrificing in a war they had no part in starting. In the years since, Temoc wandered the desert, found a new purpose as husband to Mina and father to Caleb, tried to reform his religion as its only priest, and stood up for the rights of his people.
Then came the Skittersill Rising, in Last First Snow. And that was the end of that.
“I told my faithful to follow their hearts. They wanted more. Their eyes accused me of cowardice. I went to the Square to serve, and as I served my congregation gew. The gods are closer than ever before to accepting our new, bloodless path.”
“And the cult of Temoc grows with your church.”
“Do you want me to desert them? I trained to serve and fight. It took me years to learn peace. What would be left if I turned my back on service?”
Last First Snow, 44
If he had a LinkedIn profile, Temoc would be described along the lines of: a purpose-driven agent of change who is looked to as a leader by his community, championing the rights of the people against big corporations and non-representative government.
And that’s what he’s doing in Last First Snow. Temoc didn’t want to become a leader or representative of an oppressed community, but when asked he took on the mantle and wore it heavily. Temoc is deeply aware of sacrifice in a way few other characters are; he lost everything except his life in the Wars, and now he has a family he knows what he – and everyone in the Skittersill – is risking. But he can’t say no to people who need him to lead, to fight, to sacrifice again. He trusts in his remaining gods to protect his family, and leaves for battle, knowing he can never go home again.
In Two Serpents Rise he, in his own way, constantly looks out for Caleb despite disagreeing with every life choice his son has made. Through Caleb’s POV it’s hard to see that, but seeing Temoc from a different angle in Last First Snow makes his actions far clearer. He better than anyone knows what the forces he is fighting against and he will do anything to try and bring them down, no matter the personal cost.
We learn in Wicked Problems that Temoc has spent most of the time following Two Serpents Rise imprisoned in Shenshen Prison in the Shining Empire. Broken out by Dawn and Mal Kekepania, he joins their revolution.
*Note: in the books Temoc is described as having darker skin than in the cover image used above
Other characters associated with Temoc: Caleb Altemoc; Mina Almotil; Kopil / the King in Red; Chel; Kal Alaxic; the Major; Elayne Kevarian; Dawn; the Arsenals
Places associated with Temoc: Dresediel Lex
Organisations associated with Temoc: the Eagle Knights; the Arsenals
The only Deathless King we see in depth, the King in Red – also known as Kopil – is the CEO of Red King Consolidated, victor of the battle for Dresediel Lex, and de facto leader of the city. Almost immortal, Kopil exists in skeletal form with an unspeakable amount of power. He is also a ridiculous drama queen whose interactions with Elayne are truly iconic.
We see Kopil in most depth in Last First Snow, particularly through the eyes of Elayne Kevarian, his old friend and war buddy. He also features heavily in Two Serpents Rise as Caleb’s boss, and has a scene stealing cameo in Four Roads Cross where he interacts with Tara Abernathy, and flies in to save the day / battle his enemies in Wicked Problems.
But who really is the King in Red?
Kopil was born in Dresediel Lex before the God Wars. We know little of his life prior to the Wars – not how he came into his powers, where he lived, anything about his family. All we know is that he loved a man called Timas who was sacrificed to the Quechal gods by the Eagle Knights. Kopil dedicated his life to revenge and then rebuilding Dresediel Lex as a paradise of Craft.
Kopil took on the title of King in Red during the God Wars; in the choose-your-own-adventure games set in the world of Craft (one of which features Kopil) we learn about war names.
Back in the God Wars you and the other Craftsmen gave one another names—when dreams of victory soured to sick jokes, when the fight was all that drove you on, when the things you'd done, and the things done to you, broke you so much your old names no longer fit. War names were guards against horror; war names were masks you wore to pretend the atrocities you suffered and inflicted did not touch the meat beneath
City’s Thirst
Even after the war, Kopil largely goes by his War Name, which is fairly indicative of his state of mind. Despite leaving flesh and, allegedly, human emotion behind, Kopil is clearly traumatised as all hell and never stopped living in a battle mindset. The God Wars, Elayne says, never ended for Kopil. He even uses the stone where his lover was sacrificed as a desk. Even in the future he built from the ashes of the Wars, he can’t build something for himself.
In the books, we see Kopil entirely in his Deathless King skeletal state, bedecked with a cane, red robes, and a crown inset into his skull. However, in City’s Thirst we see him pre-skeleton. Even in human form he remains intimidating.
The King in Red descends from the train. Kopil is—there aren't words for what he is. In form and figure he's a Quechal man, enormously tall, bald, dark, crimson-robed, with long limbs and an actuary's grace, as if expecting he'll one day be called to account for his every movement. As if the world rests on his shoulders, and he's strong enough to stand anyway.
He presses against the eye. It hurts to look at him, like it hurts to look at the sun. He descends from train to sand. His footsteps are the unraveling of time.
City’s Thirst
How much one sees of Kopil in the game depends on the decisions one makes while playing; there are a great many paths, including some designed specifically for few people to reach them. Yet he is clearly the same character we see later: over-dramatic, immensely powerful, and willing to do just about anything to reach his goals.
At the end of Two Serpents Rise, Kopil is convinced by Caleb to donate the funds to see up a new kind of organisation to fix parts of the world damaged by the God Wars and the Craft in general. We see little of the King in Red after this moment, but it’s the biggest change in direction he appears to have made in the sixty years since the end of the Wars.
As the most powerful character we’ve seen thus far, Kopil must play a role in the future of the Craft Sequence – but what might it be?
Other characters associated with Kopil: Elayne Kevarian; Temoc Almotil; Caleb Altemoc; Teo Batan; Tan Batac; Timas
Places associated with Kopil: Dresediel Lex
Organisations associated with Kopil: Red King Consolidated; Twin Serpents Group
What do you think? Let me know in the comments, on Twitter or whatever it’s called these days. And don’t forget you can subscribe to be the first to hear about new articles and fun projects in the pipeline.
