Characters in the Realm of the Elderlings

This article discusses the characters in The Realm of the Elderlings, a fictional world created by Robin Hobb for her book series The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy, The Rain Wild Chronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy . This page does not attempt to be a comprehensive listing of all the characters and their histories, but a general overview of the most important ones.

It is the tradition of the Six Duchies to name children after a virtue. This is thought to impress the importance of the virtue on the child so that he or she will grow up embodying that virtue. While it is practiced throughout the kingdom, the noble houses are particularly fond of the tradition.

Due to the complex nature of the Farseer family, characters are ordered by age.

The bastard half-brother of King Shrewd and great-uncle to Fitz. Due to an accident when he was younger, his face is covered with pox-like scars. He rarely ventures outside the false walls and hidden chambers of Buckkeep Castle; when he does, it is only under the alias of Lady Thyme. Chade is the royal assassin for the Farseer line and takes Fitz as his apprentice. He keeps a pet weasel, Slink.

In features, he is very much a Farseer (his brother Shrewd especially resembled him in later life), although, it is noted, his eyes are a surprising green (most Farseer eyes are dark). When he is first introduced, his life consists largely of a secret chamber, "good food and wine, and a weasel for a companion", and secret missions for the King.

The elder half-brother of King Shrewd, Chade Fallstar was the son of King Bounty (Shrewd's father), and a female soldier, conceived out of wedlock whilst the army of The Six Duchies was on a campaign in the Sandsedge region. The soldier later wed and died while Chade was still a child, at which point the husband set his stepson upon a mule with a necklace that had belonged to Chade's mother, and sent the child to Buckkeep.

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