As I’ve been working on a Senta and the Steel Dragon Encyclopedia, I’ve been reexamining my characters in that book series.  There are a lot of them– literally hundred.  The important characters, by design, fit nicely into triangles– sets of three characters that work push and pull against each other.  Some triangles strengthen each corner and some (love triangles, in particular) threaten to tear apart.  Here are some of the ways the characters fit together.

Senta, Zurfina, Bessemer: Zurfina is guardian to both Senta and Bessemer, though she seems devoted more to one than the other.  Senta and Bessemer have an extremely strong bond, as they must since they are the title characters of the series.

Iolanthe, Terrence, Augustus: The three Dechantagne siblings, who each have very different feelings toward their brothers and sister.

Iolanthe, Terrence, Yuah: Iolanthe and Yuah (her dressing maid) have a very strained relationship, and Terrence is often the straining point.  He is the only man Iolanthe respects, and the one Yuah desperately loves.  He has a sort of ambivalent love for them both.

Yuah, Zeah, Egeria: Zeah and his daughter Yuah are very close, and the addition of Egeria as Zeah’s love interest puts the two very different women in a sort of admire/fear relationship.

Iolanthe, Calliere, Staff: Iolanthe and her two love interests.

Hero, Honor, Hertzel: Three siblings escaping a police state to arrive in a new and very different world.

Senta, Graham, Saba: All three of these characters grow up together and each is friends with the other two, though in different intensities.

Zurfina, Kesi, Labrith: The two wizards who both want Zurfina’s power, and whom she dismisses as not worth her interest.

Terrence, Yuah, Pantagria: Terrence and the two women he loves– one real and one not so much.

Some of these relationships fall within the confines of one book, while others continue throughout the series.  And there are about 300 more characters, so I could point out about 900 more triangles.