Character guide

John Carter

major

Also known as Captain Carter, Captain Jack Carter

Thrown onto Barsoom with no way home, Carter survives by strength and instinct, rising from captive to chieftain among the Tharks. His blunt Earth honesty collides with Martian custom at every turn — most painfully when he calls Dejah Thoris his princess without knowing he must first ask her hand. His refusal to accept 'too late' drives the middle of the book, as he gambles his life and an entire planet's future on love.

Dejah Thoris

major

Also known as Princess Dejah Thoris, the divine Dejah Thoris

Captured by Tharks and later pledged to a Zodangan prince to halt a war, Dejah Thoris moves through the story as both prize and political weapon. Proud, learned, and bound by Barsoomian honor, she cannot unsay a promise even when the man she loves returns alive to claim her. Her dilemma — duty to Helium against her own heart — gives the middle chapters their ache, and her fate becomes the hinge on which Carter's greatest gamble turns.

Tars Tarkas

major

Also known as Tars Tarkas the Thark, the Thark

Among the savage Tharks, Tars Tarkas stands apart — formal, courtly, and capable of loyalty no other green warrior shows. He shelters Carter, fights beside him, and quietly nurses a hatred for Tal Hajus that has smoldered since a woman was taken from him decades ago. His hidden tenderness and his patience for revenge make him the moral counterweight to Thark brutality, and his alliance with Carter reshapes the war for Helium.

Sola

supporting

Also known as XV Sola

Assigned to watch over Carter, Sola instead becomes his ally, feeding him, warning him, and revealing a compassion rare among the green Martians. She despises the barbarity around her, and her quiet kindness — toward Carter and toward the captive Dejah Thoris — gives him the foothold he needs to survive Thark society. Her hidden parentage ties her fate to Tars Tarkas and to the larger struggle for justice within the horde.

Kantos Kan

supporting

Also known as Kantos

Kantos Kan moves easily between courts and battle lines, equally at home greeting Helium's nobles and charging Zodangan entrenchments. His loyalty to Carter is immediate and unshowy, and he serves as the bridge between the Earthman's wild Thark allies and the disciplined forces of Helium. In the middle arc he helps orchestrate the joint assault that turns the tide, embodying the civilized honor Carter is fighting to preserve.

Tal Hajus

supporting

Also known as the mighty Tal Hajus

Tal Hajus embodies everything savage in green Martian rule: he threatens Dejah Thoris with torture and violation, and his cruelty has already destroyed the woman Tars Tarkas loved. His presence makes the Thark city a place of constant danger, and his obsession with the princess forces Carter into the rescue that nearly costs everything. He is the villain whose long-overdue reckoning gives the story one of its most satisfying turns.

Sarkoja

supporting

Sarkoja wields what power green Martian women possess through cruelty and intrigue, chaining the captive Dejah Thoris by the ankle and pocketing the key. Her loathing for John Carter curdles into conspiracy when she is seen whispering with Zad, a nameless warrior hungry for the kill that would earn him a second name. She embodies the cold ferocity of Thark society, and her scheming gives Carter's early captivity a personal, watchful menace.

Woola

supporting

Also known as Woola the hound, my blessed old Woola

Assigned by Tars Tarkas to guard the prisoner, Woola instead becomes John Carter's devoted slave the moment laughter and a rubbed head break through his training. His loyalty creates a quiet tension: he is bound by duty to a cruel master yet will follow Carter past the city's forbidden boundary, dead or alive. More than a pet, he is Carter's first proof that affection can survive on Barsoom, and his devotion repeatedly widens the captive's narrow world.

Tardos Mors

supporting

As Jeddak of Helium and grandfather to Dejah Thoris, Tardos Mors presides over the red Martians' proudest nation, pacing his throne room with a tense-drawn face when crisis strikes. When word comes that the atmosphere plant has failed and Barsoom has perhaps three days to live, he steadies his council not with denial but with quiet example, and his grief is personal as well as political. His dignity under doom gives the story's stakes a human face and anchors Dejah Thoris in a lineage worth saving.

Than Kosis

supporting

Also known as Kosis

Than Kosis rules Zodanga, the warlike red Martian power locked in rivalry with Helium, and his court is the political world into which Dejah Thoris's forced betrothal intrudes. His authority shapes the pressures bearing down on Sab Than and, through him, on the princess whose refusal sets the plot in motion. Though seen mostly through the consequences of his rule, he represents the dynastic ambition that turns personal longing into planetary conflict.

Lorquas Ptomel

minor

A Thark chieftain who initially holds John Carter captive.

Sab Than

supporting

Also known as Sab

Sab Than is heir to Zodanga's throne and the suitor whose claim on Dejah Thoris drives the marriage plot that shadows John Carter's arrival on Barsoom. His desire for the princess is bound up with his father's ambitions, making courtship indistinguishable from conquest. He gives the early story its clearest rival: a prince whose power is real, whose intentions are proprietary, and whose presence makes Carter's devotion to Dejah Thoris both urgent and dangerous.

Bar Comas

minor

A Thark warrior who participates in the arena battles.

Dak Kova

minor

Also known as old Dak Kova

A Warhoon chieftain who captures John Carter and Sola.

Mors Kajak

minor

Also known as Mors Kajak of Helium

Father of Dejah Thoris and a prince of Helium.

Zad

minor

A Thark warrior who challenges John Carter in combat.

Captain James K. Powell

minor

Also known as Powell

A deceased Earth explorer whose diary reveals Martian history.