Kaz Brekker
The novel’s protagonist, Kaz is a 17-year-old lieutenant in Ketterdam’s Dregs gang. He wears dark, austere clothing and always wears gloves and carries a cane with a crow’s head on it. He’s known as Dirtyhands…
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Inej Ghafa
Inej, who’s known as the Wraith, is Kaz’s “spider” and a member of the Dregs, though she hasn’t gotten the Dregs’ tattoo. A Suli girl who was raised in Ravka by a family of…
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Jesper Fahey
Jesper is a member of the Dregs. He is a gambling addict, a gun-loving sharpshooter, and is secretly a Fabrikator Grisha. He hides his identity, though, because he doesn’t want to be kidnapped or…
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Wylan Van Eck
Wylan is Van Eck’s teenaged son. After Wylan leaves Van Eck’s house, Kaz brings him onto the Ice Court team ostensibly as a demolitions expert—but he notes that while Wylan is okay at making…
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Pekka Rollins/Jakob Hertzoon
Pekka Rollins is the biggest boss in Ketterdam’s Barrel. He owns several brothels and the Emerald Palace, a gambling establishment. In addition to earning money through these brick-and-mortar businesses, he also regularly tricks unsuspecting new…
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Nina Zenik
Nina is a Heartrender Grisha and a member of the Dregs. In Ketterdam’s White Rose brothel, she uses her power to work on people’s minds, helping them feel better after traumatic events. She started to…
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Matthias Helvar
Matthias is a former drüskelle witch hunter and the final member of Kaz’s crew. Kaz rescues him from Hellgate prison, where he was incarcerated for slave trafficking based on Nina’s false accusation. As…
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Tante Heleen
Tante Heleen is the proprietor of the Menagerie (also known as the House of Exotics), a Ketterdam brothel. Cruel and powerful, Tante Heleen is identifiable by her ostentatious peacock feathers and her massive diamond choker…
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Jarl Brum
One of the novel’s antagonists, Jarl Brum is the commander of Fjerda’s drüskelle force. As he did with Matthias, he personally recruits boys to join the drüskelle and trains them to hunt Grisha…
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Van Eck
Van Eck is a wealthy mercher in Ketterdam. He’s involved in testing jurda parem on Grisha indentures, and he hires Kaz to rescue Bo Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court. However, though he insists that he’s…
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Jordie
Jordie was Kaz’s older brother. He is deceased in the novel’s present. An idealistic and trusting boy, Jordie fell for Pekka Rollins’s trick and signed away all the brothers’ money to Rollins, expecting…
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Per Haskell
Per Haskell is the elderly leader of the Dregs gang. His main interest is building model ships, so Kaz effectively runs the gang. Haskell still takes a cut of all Kaz’s earnings, however, and he…
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Kuwei Yul-Bo
Bo Yul-Bayur’s teenaged son, Kuwei, is the person actually in Fjerdan custody—Bo Yul-Bayur is dead. Yul-Bayur accidentally created jurda parem to protect Kuwei, who’s an Inferni Grisha. Kuwei doesn’t know exactly what his…
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Bo Yul-Bayur
A Shu scientist, Bo Yul-Bayur accidentally created jurda parem in his lab, and the Fjerdans then arrested him. Kaz and his crew are tasked with rescuing him from the Ice Court. They only learn later…
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Anya
Anya is a Healer Grisha who’s indentured to Councilman Hoede. Joost has a crush on her. She’s selected as the Corporalki Grisha to try jurda parem—and though Hoede and his associates believe she’ll…
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Councilman Hoede
Councilman Hoede is a member of the Merchant Council and a well-off mercher in Ketterdam. He volunteers two of his indentured Grisha, Yuri and Anya, to take jurda parem as an experiment. This…
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Minor Characters
Oomen
A member of the Black Tips gang, Oomen is a terrifying killer with a reputation for smashing heads. During the ambush on the Dregs at the harbor, he pursues Inej and wounds her. Kaz, however, rescues Inej, captures Oomen, and throws him overboard after interrogating and mutilating him.
Joost
Joost is a young new member of the stadwatch who’s stationed at Councilman Hoede’s house. Though he has a crush on the Grisha Anya, it’s implied that he dies with the other guards in attendance when Anya ingests jurda parem and tells the guards to wait.
Rutger
Rutger is a stadwatch guard who dies when the Grisha Anya takes jurda parem and takes control of the assembled guards’ minds.
Retvenko
Retvenko is a jaded Grisha Squaller who’s indentured to Councilman Hoede.
Big Bolliger
Big Bolliger is a member of the Dregs. When Kaz discovers that Bolliger is double-crossing him and is working for the Black Tips, he has a paid guard shoot Bolliger and then forces Bolliger to leave the city—if he survives.
Dirix
Dirix is a Dregs member who’s killed when rival gangs ambush Kaz’s crew while they’re leaving for Fjerda.
Rotty
Rotty is one of the Dregs. He comes along on the voyage to Fjerda, though he stays on the Ferolind and knows little, if anything, about the heist on the Ice Court.
Geels
Geels is a lieutenant for the Black Tips gang. Though he tries to one-up Kaz and bring down the Dregs, Kaz gets the better of him.
Rojakke
Rojakke is a dealer at the Crow Club whom Kaz fires for stealing money.
Zoya
Zoya is a Ravkan Squaller Grisha who was one of Nina’s mentors.
Filip
A young employee of Pekka Rollins, Filip was the one to bring Jordie and Kaz to Rollins.
Specht
A member of the Dregs and a former Navy man, Specht captains the Ferolind on its journey from Ketterdam to Fjerda and back.
Nestor
Nestor is a Fabrikator Grisha who used to be Nina’s friend and classmate. But when she reunites with him, she learns that he was captured by the Shu and forced to take jurda parem, which ultimately leads to his painful and disturbing death.
Mikka
Mikka, Van Eck’s indentured Grisha, is a Tidemaker who can control water. Van Eck doses Mikka with jurda parem as part of an experiment to see how the drug affects Grisha.
