The Price of Magic is just a couple of weeks away, so it’s time to start looking at the many characters in the book.  Most have appeared in previous books.  I’m not going to tell you what happens to them in The Price of Magic, but if you haven’t read the earlier Senta books, Spoiler Alert.

We first met Kieran Baxter as one of the officers on the H.M.S. Minotaur in Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur.  We don’t run in to him again until Book 4: The Young Sorceress, when he is marooned on a deserted island.  We know he’s there for years, because he’s only just been rescued when he meets Senta again at the end of Book 5: The Two Dragons.  In Book 6: The Sorceress and her Lovers, he is one of the aforementioned lovers, traveling around the world with Senta.

Baxter is one of the most important characters in The Price of Magic.  Only one other character is a greater player in this story, and I know what you’re thinking– it’s not Senta.

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Spoiler Alert
And finally, we have our last characters from Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 0: Brechalon.

Madame De La Rosa: Madame De La Rosa is a very old seer. She is an expert in divination, and it is she that Smedley Bassington comes to for information. This is her only appearance in the story.

Amadea Jindra: In Brechalon we meet Amadea Jindra as Madame De La Rosa’s apprentice. She is a major part of the storyline in Book 3: The Drache Girl. I’ll fill in more about her when I get to that book.

Professor Merced Calliere: Calliere is a brilliant scientist and inventor. He is Edison, Westinghouse, and Babbage all rolled intellectually into one, but his attitude is all Tony Stark. He is a happy go lucky academic, who is clearly smitten with Iolanthe, though whether she thinks of him as anything more than another resource remains to be seen.

That’s it for Brechalon. In a day or so, we’ll start looking at the characters from the new book in the series: The Price of Magic.  Some of them are the same.  Some are new.  But as it takes place 17 years after Brechalon, people and things are different.

Spoiler Alert
There are several characters in Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 0: Brechalon that appear entirely or mostly in flashbacks.

Smedley Bassington: Wizard Bassington appears mostly in flashbacks though he appears in the present in one chapter. Bassington is an important character in the series and plays a large part in Books 3 and 5. He is a paramour of Zurfina and he is a government wizard. He is also, as we find out, a great manipulator. I had a very clear image of what Bassington looked like. His appearance is based on Stephen King. I set up my copy of the Dark Tower to the author’s photograph whenever I was writing him. I had been carrying the name Smedley around for a while, and it just seemed to fit. He has his part to play, and plays it. I really enjoyed writing him in Book 3: The Drache Girl. He is a great foil for Senta.

Master Akalos: Master Akalos was the Dechantagne tutor, a cowardly little man, and not very important to the story. He is referenced once or twice, but Brechalon is the only place we see him, and that in a flashback.

Iphegenia Dechantagne: The mother of Terrence, Iolanthe, and Augie is murdered by her husband, as we see in a flashback in Book 0. I don’t think she is ever mentioned again, but she plays an important role nonetheless, in shaping the Dechantagne siblings. I love the name Iphegenia, and have always been fascinated by the myth of Agamemnon’s sacrificing her. I would have used the name somewhere, but it fits here.

Lucius Dechantagne: The father of the Dechantagne’s, he is only spoken of in the later books, having died some time before Brechalon, and having lived without facing real punishment for his wife’s murder, though it does cost him his standing in society and his hereditary title.

Jolon Bendrin: As we find out in book 0 flashbacks, Jolon Bendrin is a rapist. He is mentioned only briefly in book 1, but finally makes a satisfying appearance in the flesh in book 5.

Simon Mudgett: The man who was in bed with Iphegenia Dechantagne when her husband kills her. He is mentioned once more in the series. I pulled Simon out of nowhere, but Mudgett I have been saving for a while. The name comes from Herman Webster Mudgett (aka H. H. Holmes), America’s first serial killer.

Spoiler Alert

Augie Dechantagne
Augustus P. Dechantagne is the third of the Dechantagne siblings in the Senta and the Steel Dragon saga and is probably the least important. He is least important to the story and he is least important in his own life. Augie is a happy go lucky rake– the kind of guy that everybody loves and who can get away with anything.

Augie plays a big part in Book 0 and Book 1, particularly the latter. When we meet him in Book 1, he is in Birmisia. This is important because as a result of his knowledge, his family decides to build a colony there. Augie is a lieutenant in the artillery, so he is obviously intelligent, but being in the son of a wealthy family, he is generally unambitious (the exact opposite of sister Iolanathe) and is never serious about anything (the exact opposite of brother Terrence).

Lt. Arthur McTeague
McTeague was created for Book 0, and he doesn’t appear again in the series. He is Augie’s co-commander and friend. We don’t learn much about McTeague, other than he is a likeable friendly guy, like Augie. The name Arthur comes from my own family– a cousin and a grandfather, both of whom I am very fond. McTeague comes from the book McTeague by Frank Norris, about a sociopathic dentist. I read it in college and liked it.

Colour Sergeant Bourne
I needed a sergeant for my two lieutenants, and who better than Colour Sergeant Bourne. He is named of course, for the character (based on a real person) in the movie Zulu. This is especially fitting, since Zulu is not only one of my favorite movies of all time, but was an inspiration for the combat scenes in Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur.

Spoiler Alert

Nils Chapman and Karl Drury are characters in Brechalon, Book 0 of the Senta and the Steel Dragon Series. They were both created for specifically for this book.

They are both guards in Schwarztogrube, the ancient fortress in which the Kingdom of Greater Brechalon imprisons wizards and sorcerors who either break the law or defy the govenment. Chapmabn is a fairly innocouos fellow and Drury is vile and evil. Both have the misfortune of being on Schwarztogrube while Prisoner 89 (Zurfina) is there.

When I was writing this I was thinking specifically of one particular detail. Zurfina calls Chapman “my pet,” a name she later reserves for Senta. When we find out Chapman’s fate, it adds a whole new level to the Zurfina/Senta relationship.  It was one of those moments where I giggled madly as I was writing.

Both Chapman and Drury were names that have been floating around in my head for years. Nils and Karl were chosen to reflect their ethnicity and personality.

Spoiler Alert

Zeah Korlann is one of the main characters in the Senta and the Steel Dragon story, and plays a prominent part in Book 0: Brechalon. When we first meet Zeah, he is the head butler for the Dechantagne family, having served in that position since he was a young man. His father and grandfather also worked for the Dechantagnes, as does his daughter Yuah.

Zeah is a member of the minority Zaeri religion and this defines him. He also, at least in the early books, has a pronounced stammer. This speech impediment is exacerbated by proximity to his employer, Iolanthe Dechantagne. Zeah is one of the few genuinely decent and nice people in the story and he makes a great foil to play off many of the others– Iolanthe, Terrence, and even his own daughter.

Yuah Korlann, Zeah’s daughter, is one of the most important characters in the series.  She has probably the most important arc for any of the characters and it is one of the most tragic in some ways.  It is a story of rise and then fall.

When we meet Yuah in Book 0: Brechalon, she is Iolanthe Dechantagne’s dressing maid, a position for which there is no up side.  She has grown up in the Dechantagne household and even attended lessons with Terrence, Iolanthe, and Augie when they were children.  She loves Augie like a brother, hopelessly pines for Terrence, and her relationship with Iolanthe is complicated to say the least.  Iolanthe seems to enjoy putting Yuah in her place.

Yuah is a Zaeri, the minority religion, and this poses problems for her, especially considering there seem to be few Zaeri of marrying age aroud.

When I wrote the first draft of The Voyage of the Minotaur, Yuah was named Ewa.  I changed it to match her father’s name and because I kept mispronouncing it in my head.  I like the name though, so someday I’m going to have a character named Ewa.

Spoiler Alert

Senta’s immediate family appears in Book 0: Brechalon and Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur. Some of them make appearances later in the series, including the upcoming Book 7: The Price of Magic.

Granny (Admeta Mae Goose): I didn’t use Granny’s name until book 5. I just liked that her name was Granny Goose. Granny loves kids and has cobbled together a family of her own grandchildren and the children of a couple of neices and nephews. All the kids in the household are related, but not necessarily siblings.

Bertice Haver is the oldest and is already working in Brechalon.

Geert McCoort is closest in age to Senta, and has to go to work in Book 0. His last name is a nod to author Frank McCourt, though I changed the spelling. His older brother is Maro McCoort.

Didrika Goose is a toddler who joins the family in Book 0 when her parents die. Her baby sister is Ernst Goose, and is still in a crib in Book 1.  By book 7, these girls are almost grown women.