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Galen is the good guy. I don't know much about Meldorath. But, Midius Maido is bad. You can see it with his acts and his whole interaction with the king when he tells Wilhelm about Riva's attack on Hillport.

It seems like Galen is set up to be the main protagonist in the story, but I'm not sure who the main antagonist will end up being. While Riva has caused quite a lot of damage in Hillport, it seems like Meldorath poses the largest threat, since he is such a powerful magical figure and is the source of fear for many in Voulhire, especially the king.

Olabode Joshua wrote: ↑09 Oct 2020, 04:03 Midius Maido is the biggest bad guy. He could have stopped the Riva Rohavi from destroying Hillport, yet he didn't. Riva wanted independence, although that doesn't justify killing the people of Hillport. Obviously, Galen and his friends were the good, good guys.

I totally agree with you. In their bid to for independence they killed people. It could have been avoided.
Yes!! Galen was definitely one of the good guys.

I agree that the protagonist is definitely Galen, based on the traits Tysz gives his character. As for the antagonist, there are many possibilities. On one hand it could be Midius Maido, the cunning chancellor or the Riva Rohavi because they are against the success of Voulhire. As for Meldorath, his actions are questionable. Riva wouldn't have attacked Hillport were it not for Lord Meldorath's anonymous tip to Riva.

As this is a fantasy, the good and the bad changes according to the situation. Riva are bad in this book but they could turn out to be good in the next book!!!!!!!!
Tysz has the ability to turn a negative character into a positive one in a matter of seconds. I would like to wait until the end of this series to decide who is bad/good.

In this book, there are many different forces that are acting to pull Voulhire apart; though the Riva Rohavi were the most obvious ‘bad guys’, there were also others acting behind the scenes that were causing damage in many different ways, and this could turn out to be more detrimental than outright violence.
On the other side, I think that Galen was likely the most ‘good’ of the ‘good guys’. However, I think there is more to his character than just that, and that he is also hiding some secrets from his past.
The ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in this story are not so black and white; this is one of the things that makes this series so interesting.

Two main characters, Galen and Lord Eldus, are good and honest characters in this part. Riva Rohavi are the terrorists. I haven't reached any conclusion about Meldorath's character.

a_r_egerton wrote: ↑05 Oct 2020, 09:13 Slaughtering half the people in a town definitely earned Riva Rohavi major bad guy status -- no matter how noble they believe their goals to be. I really wanted Lord Eldus to live and develop into a protagonist, but that didn't happen. Galen, so far, seems to be the protagonist. At the very least, he's a good POV character for introducing the reader to Voulhire. Every thime he learns something, the reader does as well.

Maido and Meldorath both seem like they could cause trouble down the line. Beth of Caromentis has apparently joined forces with Meldorath and could also develop into an antagonist.

Yes, it was devastating how King Eldus and his wife and daughter were killed. Also, the death of the people who were taking shelter at there castle make me hate Riva Rohavi even more.

Other than Galen (for now) and maybe King Wilhelm, they're all bad guys or have their own agenda or both: Maido is rotten, Riva Rohavi are terrorists, Meldorath is definitely evil (even if not of the things they accused him of).

For me, the protagonist would definitely be Lord Eldus. I loved how earnest Lord Eldus was in making a better change for Hillport, and I thought it would be lovely to read how he achieves it. The horrible slaughter of Hillport citizens including Lord Eldus's family by Riva Rohavi sent a shiver down my spine. The riva are the antagonists for sure.

In this book, I also thought of Galen as the good guy and the Riva Rohavi as the bad guys. Even though Galen came from a war-torn land, his thoughts showed his inner innocence and humility which made me like him a lot. As for the Riva Rohavi, I was aghast at how easily they could slaughter all those innocent people. I feel like there is more to Meldorath's story than what meets the eye, so I will need to read the sequels in order to get a better understanding of his character.

I felt there were many "good guys". Galen is an obvious one, as was Lord Eldus. I think King Wilhelm would also fall into this category, as would Lord Eldus's son, Marshus. On the "bad guys" list, I would say Meldorath would top it, followed closely by Riva, and then that snake Midius Maido. But not all is as it seems, so we will have to wait and see what happens in the next books.

Rival Rohavi is definitely the antagonist in this book, there is no argument there. Galen on the other hand is the protagonist for the obvious qualities mentioned by you. However, I believe that there can be more than 1 protagonist in a book, and as such, I put Rowan up there with Galen. I just love the guy.

The villain is hard to point out. Just when you think it's Meldorath, some key detail is thrown into the loop that makes it seem like it's not. It'd be easy to the Riva Rohavi the villain role, but for now, we don't know anything about them beyond the perspectives of their enemies.

I think Galen is definitely the protagonist. The Riva Rohavi are clearly the antagonist but in the case of Meldorath it's hard to decide because yes, what he did was wrong but he was never given a trial for his crimes. And his dislike for the king and his ways is justifiable because of this.