Character Connections
A year or more ago I made a mindmap connecting different Craft Sequence characters together. It was as complicated as you might think if you know how twisty the series can get, but once the first draft was finished I realised that Tara Abernathy was connected to all but one major character, and every secondary character included in the list bar one. Thus, the mind map became entangled with my plans for a Tara Abernathy Deep Dive series. As we’re now in the run-up to the release of Wicked Problems, it also fits quite nicely into setting the scene for the new book.
I tried software, and couldn’t get it to look how I wanted. So I tried a big sheet of paper, and four drafts later I gave up because it just didn’t look right. Therefore, we have reached the stage of me turning over a wall in my living room to a delusional-looking-red-string-conspiracy-wall a la this gif:
Except apparently nowhere in my town sells red string, so we’re using (cheap) knitting yarn on The Conspiracy Wall instead. Which I am indeed calling that, despite no conspiracies being present.
Some disclaimers before we get started:
The Conspiracy Wall goes up to Dead Country and thus does not contain any Wicked Problems spoilers. In fact, all characters were chosen before I even read the book, so no expectation spoilers either. But there are spoilers for the other seven books, so proceed at your own risk.
Characters were chosen because of * vibes * rather than necessarily being the most significant in their individual book. They are all fairly consequential, but if I included every point of view character, for example, this would become even more insane than it already is and frankly I don’t know if I have the wall space. Explanations for inclusion or exclusion are in each section below.
Originally I had different colours for types of relationship, but I really couldn’t justify buying multiple colours of yarn so they’re all red now.
There were three relationships I forgot to include as I was going through, but all are added by the final photo and referenced in the relevant section.
On a similar note, this has been done entirely from memory so if anything is missing and not mentioned…mea culpa.
I do, however, have different colours for the types of power wielded by each character. Some characters could go in multiple categories, but this isn’t what we’re going for. This was for visual interest as much as anything, but if you want to know the breakdown here you go:
Now that’s all done, let’s get going.
Alt Coulumbites / Three Parts Dead
I’d say we’re starting at the beginning, but this is the Craft Sequence babe. Beginning depends on your point of view. So we’re starting with Tara Abernathy’s first book, as this is technically part of the Tara Deep Dive.
Characters from Three Parts Dead included on The Conspiracy Wall are: Tara Abernathy, Elayne Kevarian, Abelard, Cat Elle, Shale, Raz Pelham, and Alexander Denovo (boo).
Now, you will notice on the above that I forgot the very obvious connection between Denovo and Raz - Denovo hired Raz to attack the Iskari, thus killing Kos and setting off the entire plot of the book. I’ve corrected it in the final image at the end of the article.
Also, wow, aren’t the red lines so satisfying? I’m slightly obsessed.
Dresediel Lexians / Last First Snow / Two Serpents Rise
We’re going to jump across the continent to Dresediel Lex, first in Last First Snow and then Two Serpents Rise.
Characters on The Conspiracy Wall from Last First Snow are: Elayne Kevarian, Kopil, Temoc Almotil, Mina Almotil, and Caleb Altemoc.
Mina could arguably not be included as she doesn’t show up in any other books and connect to other characters, but I wanted her on there and this is my Conspiracy Wall so here we go. Caleb also plays a pretty small role here, but I needed to make a connection between him and Elayne and it wouldn’t make sense to do that later on.
I have not included Chel as much as I enjoy her, because, well, she died at the end of the book. Sorry love.
The line across Kopil is unintntional and doesn’t actually mean anything, let’s just go with it.
Not much else to say on this one, so let’s jump straight into Two Serpents Rise! The only new character here is Teo Batan. She does technically have an unnamed cameo in Last First Snow, but nothing else so only including her here. Much like Chel, I’m not including Mal despite her significance because she evaporated at the end. Bye Mal.
It’s a bit twisty-turny BUT Teo and Temoc are connected here, via a twist on the left of the photo. I was the only way to do it without going right through Kopil’s name, and I don’t think he would stand for that. In a later book Teo references knowing Mina, but we don’t see them together on-page so alas no connection can be made.
Now, it’s time for worlds to collide.
Four Roads Cross - AC meets DL
This was the first time I had to make Big Choices about characters to include. In fact, I have not included ANY new characters here, despite having a wealth of important and POV characters. I even made a name tag for the Rafferty sisters, but couldn’t justify including them but not Matt Adorne, Gabby Jones, Madeline Ramp, Daphne Mains, Aev etc. These characters have - so far - stayed contained to this book and don’t connect outside of it, so they did not ultimately make the cut for The Conspiracy Wall.
I came very close to including Hasim and Umar due to their appearance in Ruin of Angels but then I didn’t. I don’t really have a reason for it. If I do another version I might include them.
Instead of new characters on The Conspiracy Wall, we have Tara heading cross-continent to Dresediel Lex and meeting some of the DL gang.
Tara meets Teo, Caleb and Kopil, so gets a few more lines to her name. I made another error by not connecting Shale and Kopil - Shale memorably tries to kill the King in Red before Tara calls him off. This is corrected in the final image in the article.
I’ve also connected Kopil and Seril because he mostly killed her back in the God Wars. Raz also now has a line to Seril, who saved his life (unlife?) and took him under her protection.
Worlds and characters continue to intertwine in Full Fathom Five, so let’s head over to Kavekana.
Kavekana / Full Fathom Five
There are three new characters introduced in Full Fathom Five - Kai Pohala, Izza Jalai, and the Blue Lady - who have joined The Conspiracy Wall. Characters that didn’t quite make the cut: Kai’s colleagues and trash ex, Izza’s street gang, Mako, and Edmond Margot (the latter for the same reason as Mal and Chel. RIP Margot).
Kai and Izza do however meet a few familiar faces in Cat, Teo and Elayne - and sort of Seril?
Ignore the presence of Tara, Raz and Caleb. The Wall is too big, the characters too connected. Those three aren’t present in the text.
Elayne shows up to investigate Kai, Teo is undercover as a potential client-slash-pilgrim to Kavekana’ai, and Cat is on the run and crashes with Izza. Seril is not on the page per se, but is essentially the Blue Lady’s mother AND a shard of herself is in the Kavekana’ai caldera, so she gets a mention and a red string.
Before we move on to Ruin of Angels, let’s take a look at the full Conspiracy Wall so far:
It’s giving conspiracy. It’s giving modern art. It’s giving Hannah you have way too much time on your hands, chill out for five minutes please.
Ahem. Let’s go to Alikand.
The Delvers of Alikand / Ruin of Angels
Ruin of Angels opens with Kai arriving in a new city and meeting a gang of new characters, along with the reappearance of Tara Abernathy. Izza rocks up midway through to save the day. The Conspiracy Wall features those three, the Blue Lady and our gang of delvers, Zeddig Hala, Raymet Haaz, Gal, and Kai’s sister Ley Pohala. I decided against including Bescond, Izaak, Alethea Vane, and Eberhardt Jax as they didn’t seem quite central enough, but again, may include them in a future incarnation of The Conspiracy Wall.
(Once again, ignore unlisted characters - they’re not in Alikand, just on The Wall).
Now this is when I really wanted the different coloured string for different relationships. We have siblings, lovers, friends, frenemies, actual enemies… the list goes on.
The delvers are of course all interconnected, and Kai, Izza, and Tara meet all of them to some extent or other. I intended to connect Tara and the Blue Lady after they worked together in the revolution, but forgot to put a string up - this is corrected at the end of the article.
I don’t recall the delvers meeting / working with the Blue Lady, so no red string there.
Time for another check-in with the full Conspiracy Wall before we get to Dead Country:
Edgemonters / Dead Country
Dead Country is the shorter book and has the fewest connections between characters. We also don’t yet know which characters will reappear in the rest of the Craft Wars trilogy, so it was harder to decide who should be on The Conspiracy Wall. The only characters that made the cut are: Tara Abernathy, Valentine Ngoye Abernathy, Dawn, and Connor Cavanaugh. Oh, and Denovo. He’s still dead, but pretty essential the the plot.
Tara’s dad is sadly deceased so not present; other townspeople play fairly major roles but I’d be shocked if they appear later in the series, so I didn’t include, for example, Grafton Cavanaugh or Pastor Merrett.
I’ve also included the Craft-god in the ‘Dawn’ category here, given the merger at the end of the book.
Valentine is Tara’s mother, so an obvious connection there. Connor and Tara hook up (can it be called a relationship? I’m not sure) and Dawn is Tara’s mentee, spending time with both Connor and Valentine.
And of course Denovo is inextricably linked to the Craft-god, and thus Dawn. For more on that, check out ‘The Body, the Others, and what Denovo did in the desert.’
The Final Conspiracy Wall
So there we have it! All our character connections - thus far. Let’s look at the full wall, including the corrections referenced in previous sections.
The only characters NOT connected to Tara Abernathy are Temoc and Mina Almotil, neither of whom have actually shown up in the text since Tara was introduced. Will they cross paths in Wicked Problems? Only time will tell…
I hope you enjoyed this chaotic dive into the Craft Sequence, and into my brain. The last couple of articles have been quite revealing about my thought process, haven’t they?
Send help.
Or in lieu of help, let me know what you thought of The Conspiracy Wall - and whether I should do an update post-Wicked Problems. After all it’s now a semi-permanent feature on my living room wall… I might as well evolve it!
Can I pretend this is art and not a sign that I’m going slightly delulu?
What do you think? Let me know in the comments, on Twitter or whatever it’s called these days. And don’t forget you can subscribe to be the first to hear about new articles and fun projects in the pipeline.
