Nantucket Series - Significant Characters

Significant Characters

• Agamemnon: King of Mycenae and titular 'High King' of Bronze-Age Achaea. Welcomed William Walker and his 'magics' in 2AE, but was slow in realising that Walker was taking over the kingdom. Rather than continue as Walker's puppet, he committed suicide during an escape attempt. His death caused unrest in the kingdom.

• Marian Alston (later: Alston-Kurlelo): Captain in the U.S. Coast Guard and commander of the Coast Guard training ship Eagle, later military leader and Commodore of the Republic of Nantucket. Alston was born and raised by farmers in South Carolina and has two sisters. Although a lesbian, prior to the event she had been married and had two children. Her husband, John, divorced her after finding out that she was cheating on him with another woman when they lived in South Carolina. In return for not revealing her sexual orientation in court and saving her from being fired from the Coast Guard, he received custody of their children

• Lucy Alston-Kurlelo: Marian and Swindapa's adopted daughter. Biological child of McAndrews and a Fiernan woman. Found in Walkerburg.

• Heather Alston-Kurlelo: Marian and Swindapa's adopted daughter. Fiernan orphan of unknown parentage. Found outside the ruins of her villages with her dead mother nearby.

• Ian Arnstein: Professor in classical history at University of San Diego, he has some knowledge of ancient languages.

• Jared Cofflin: A Nantucket local and chief of police on the island prior to the Event. A Vietnam veteran, Cofflin served as gunner on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta, receiving the purple heart at least once after being injured in a mortar attack. Following the Event, he is elected the first leader of the Republic of Nantucket by default. In addition to his function as head of state, he also put in time as a harpooner on a whaling ship. He marries the chief librarian Martha Stoddard.

• Pete Giernas: Nantucket Ranger of Lithuanian descent. Leader of the expedition to traverse the North American continent in 11 AE, which concluded with him leading an uprising against the secret Tartessian base he discovered in California. Eventually moved to the New Sconset outport with his two wives to take up the post of chief Ranger.

• Kenneth Hollard: Nantucket teenager who joins the Expeditionary Force to Alba in the first novel and stays in the Republic's fledgling military, eventually being selected to lead the Nantucket mission to Babylonia and command the Allied Armies in the war against Walker's Greater Achaea. Fell in love with and married Raupasha, with whom he emigrated after the war to take up the post of military governor of the Republic's South American outport (New Sconset).

• Kathryn Hollard: Twin sister of Kenneth Hollard, also a veteran of the Alban Expeditionary Force and career military. Second-in-command of the mission to Babylonia, where she met, fell in love with, and married King Kashtiliash. According to the terms of their marriage contract, she would be his only Queen and commander of the armies of Babylon, and their children would be raised for half of the year on Nantucket.

• Alice Hong: An Asian American and a physician. Hong has a sado-masochistic fetish that later evolves into psychotic behavior, according to her own self-diagnosis she is a clinical sadist, that suffer from paranoid tendencies, borderline sociopath and possible antisocial elements. At first believing that Walker only jokes regarding becoming world emperor, she is quick to side with him and later becomes his first wife. She is later also known as The Despotnia Algeos, the Lady of Pain or Avatar of Hekate. She creates an all female military elite, resembling ninjas, known as Claws of Hekate, to whom she is known as the Goddess-on-Earth.

• Isketerol: A Tartessian merchant, early associate of Walker and later King of Tartessos.

• Kashtiliash:King of Babylon, Son of Shagarakti-Shuriash; husband of Kathryn Hollard.

• Swindapa Kurlelo (later: Kurlelo-Alston): A young woman from southern England. She is of the Star Blood line of Kurlelo, of the Fiernan Bohulugi (People of the Soil or Earth Folk), with knowledge of her tribe's spiritual history, culture and ceremonies. She is also recognized as a warrior by her people, reflected by a spear tattoo on her chest. Later domestic partner of Marian Alston.

• Rosita Menendez: A registered nurse, early associate of Walker, later third wife of Isketerol and lesser Queen of Tartessos

• Helmut Mittler: A former East German Stasi agent, Mittler assists William Walker in turning his Greek empire into a police state. Ian Arnstein, a prisoner of Walker and the Achaeans, later manipulates him into murdering Walker and his family. Mittler is in turn slain by Odikweos as a traitor.

• Odikweos: King of Ithakan, quick to see the value in befriending William Walker and learning from him. Accompanied Walker on the campaign to conquer Sicily, staying on as military governor afterwards, before returning to become Walker's right-hand man and chief Achaean lieutenant. Supported Walker's rise to High King status after Agamemnon's death, but was never truly comfortable with the changes Walker was imposing. Conspired with Ian Arnstein to trick Helmut Mittler into assassinating Walker, then executed Mittler himself and took the throne. As High King, he signed a peace treaty with Nantucket that maintained Greater Achaea as a superpower.

• Ohotolarix: One of William Walker's most loyal followers, originally from the island of Britain, designated Alba in this time. He later follows Althea Walker into exile after his lord is murdered, vowing to avenge his death.

• Doreen Rosenthal: a female university astronomy student working in a temporary position at the Nantucket observatory. Rosenthal is of Lithuanian descent and can speak the language. She later marries Ian Arnstein.

• Raupasha: Mittanian princess and sole survivor of the former ruling house. During the Assyrian retreat from the advancing Nantucket/Babylonian armies she killed the Assyrian king when he attempted to rape her, and was only rescued from being burned alive by the arrival of Kenneth Hollard and the Nantucket vanguard. Raised and led Mittanian auxiliaries during the war against Greater Achaea, losing an eye and suffering terrible burns saving the Allied army from being outflanked in the last great battle. Later married to Kenneth Hollard and left Mittani for New Sconset. Her story has parallels with that of the Biblical Jael.

• Althea Walker, of the House of the Wolf: A daughter of William Walker and an unnamed chieftain's daughter from Alba taken prisoner in a raid. She is the only survivor of Helmut Mittler's assassination of her family. At the end of the series, Althea flees with Ohotolarix and a small group of loyalists to carve out a new empire in Central Asian Fergana Valley region, far from the naval might of the Republic of Nantucket.

• William Walker: the main antagonist of the story, is a Coast Guard officer on the Eagle, highly intelligent, self oriented and power hungry. After his defection from the Island, Walker adopts a Wolf's head as his banner and symbol of his house, in reference to Caput gerat lupinum (Latin for "Let his be a wolf's head"), the declaration of outlaw status by a Roman court.