Character guide

Solomon Kane

major

Also known as Kane, Monsieur Kane, Captain Kane, M'sieu Kane

Kane pursues the bandit Le Loup from the mountains of France to an African jungle, reading broken brush and trampled undergrowth like scripture. His faith in the justice of his vengeance never wavers, yet the drums and the wizard N'Longa force him to reckon with powers older and stranger than his own God. He is the story's engine: relentless, somber, and increasingly unsure whether the darkness he walks through is the enemy's or his own.

Kull

major

Also known as King Kull, Kull of Valusia, the Atlantean Kull

Kull sits the throne of Valusia in an hour of great weariness, courtiers and priests passing before him like shadows that leave no trace. When a cunning-eyed girl of the court whispers of Tuzun Thune, the ancient wizard of the House of a Thousand Mirrors, he slips out unannounced to trade a king's boredom for forbidden knowledge. His restlessness is the story's hinge: a man who conquered a kingdom and now suspects the world itself may be a mirror.

Bristol McGrath

supporting

Also known as McGrath

McGrath enters through a window with a curved Khyber blade and cuts down a guard before a shot can be fired, then finds his old rival Richard Ballville tortured and raving. Ballville's confession drags up Constance Brand, the woman both men loved and who vanished three years ago, and the news that she is alive and in danger. McGrath's cold competence and buried grief make him the story's forward motion: a man who came to settle a score and stays to save a life.

John Conrad

supporting

Also known as Conrad

Conrad narrates from the wreckage of a London morning, remembering how he fell into the orbit of Kathulos and the strange drug that binds him. He is the hunted turned witness, dependent on John Gordon's rescue and on Zuleika's devotion as the city burns behind them. His frailty and his craving make him the story's human cost: proof that the occult war has casualties who are not heroes.

John Gordon

supporting

Also known as Gordon

Gordon appears in the doorway disheveled, tattered, and bloody, and puts a bullet into Kathulos before the Master can finish his work. He then carries the narrator to safety, frees Zuleika, and returns to the burning city because London still needs him. His fine, haggard face and his willingness to act make him the story's counterweight to paralysis: where Conrad watches, Gordon moves.

Steve Clarney

supporting

Also known as Steve sahib, Clarney

Clarney remembers the day Lie-lip Canool came ashore without John Kulrek, and Moll Farrell's terrible smile as she told Canool there was blood on his hand. He and his friend Joe row out into the grey fog chasing the sound of a fleet of oars, and find themselves outside the bay beneath a great beaked prow. His plain, watchful voice grounds the tale's strangeness in the ordinary world of villagers, taverns, and cold sea air.

Kathulos

major

Also known as Kathulos of Egypt, Kathulos the sorcerer

Kathulos rules from a fog-shrouded house in Soho, holding followers like Zuleika in invisible shackles that persist even at a distance. His power is not brute force but absolute mental domination, and those who love his captives must break that hold by force or find a stronger will to counter it. He matters because every early move in the story—Gordon's disappearance, the raid on Soho 48—is a thread pulled taut by his unseen hand.

Brule

supporting

Also known as Brule the Spear-slayer

Brule fights beside Kull with short overhand blows and upward thrusts, parrying where the king slashes, and he alone has the nerve to shake Kull out of stunned disbelief when the real council room reveals a double on the throne. His grim humor and refusal to be awed by magic make him the anchor of sanity in a night of shape-shifting treachery. Without his steady hand and blunt counsel, Kull's kingdom would fall before the impostor ever drew breath.

Nakari

supporting

Also known as Queen Nakari

Nakari rules through a blend of political cunning and genuine supernatural authority, operating in a land where the dead walk and vampiric nations haunt the jungle. Her ambition puts her at odds with anyone who crosses her domain, and the magic she wields—or commands others to wield—carries a price measured in souls. She matters because the early arc of her story establishes the stakes: in this world, power is never merely political, and the queen who holds it is willing to pay in blood.

Cormac of Connacht

supporting

Also known as Cormac na Connacht

Cormac na Connacht, a prince of Erin, fights alongside Bran Mak Morn and the wizard Gonar against the coming Roman host, but his sharpest battle is inward: he suspects the stranger Kull is a hoax conjured by Gonar, yet the coldness down his spine says otherwise. His skepticism grounds the story's strangest moments, giving readers a rational eye through which to measure the impossible. As a warrior of the old heroic mold, he embodies the tension between ancient honor and the encroaching tide of empire.

Bran Mak Morn

supporting

Also known as Bran, Mak Morn

Bran Mak Morn rose from a Wolf clan chief's son to claim kingship over all Caledon, but his rule is loose and the tribes still nurse old feuds. He is a tall, iron-crowned man among short, ape-like warriors, a leader who knows his people are savages and loves them anyway. On the eve of the first pitched battle between Picts and Romans, he must hold together a kingdom that barely exists—and decide whether a dream-king from Atlantis is a gift from the gods or a wizard's trick.

John Kirowan

supporting

Also known as Kirowan

Kirowan sits with chin on his slim hands, white-faced and immobile, while a friend confesses that his wife has tried to kill him three times. Where others flinch or scoff, Kirowan listens with a stillness that makes the unreal feel almost bearable, and his even voice is the knife that releases the tension in the room. He matters because he is the reader's surrogate: the rational mind that insists on hearing the full story before deciding whether the supernatural is at work.

Saul Stark

supporting

Also known as Stark

Stark rules a swamp-edged world of cypress, poisonous vines, and murky water, where his craft leaves implements and grotesque wooden images behind. What makes him terrifying is his absence: he has gone, yet the hut is not empty, and the narrator's every instinct screams of a juju spirit waiting inside. That invisible sentry turns a search for a man into a confrontation with the supernatural itself, setting the story's dread in motion before Stark ever appears in the flesh.

Le Loup

minor

A werewolf-like creature terrorizing a French village.

N'Longa

supporting

N'Longa never walks onstage in this passage, yet his presence shapes every step Kane takes across the barren hills. The stave is a constant, troubling companion, proof of a bond between the English wanderer and a power his conscience distrusts. When Kane drops it to shoot a charging lion and rescue the girl Zunna, the moment quietly measures what he owes N'Longa against what his own code demands.

Evelyn Ash

minor

Also known as Ashley

A woman caught in a web of supernatural intrigue and danger.

Richard Brent

minor

Also known as Brent

A man involved in a mysterious and deadly game of revenge.

Ka-nu

minor

Also known as Ka

An ancient priest or ruler from a lost age of sorcery.

The Master

supporting

The Master works through proxies, gauntlets, and staged clues, leaving no real trace of his hand while others wear the guilt. The narrator, once his ally, moves through the night in a grotesque ape costume, testing a driver's dry shoes for betrayal and wondering whether Gordon will believe a dope-crazed stranger's word. The Master's genius for misdirection is the engine of the early arc, turning every ally into a possible instrument and every clue into a lie.

Ashurbanipal Yar Ali

minor

Also known as Yar Ali

A fierce Afghan warrior guarding an ancient treasure.

Naluna

minor

A woman from a lost race, possessing strange beauty and knowledge.

Wulfhere

minor

Also known as the frothing Wulfhere

A savage Viking warrior driven by bloodlust and fury.

Hassim

minor

Also known as the great negro Hassim, black Hassim

A powerful African warrior loyal to his queen and his gods.

John de Albor

minor

Also known as De Albor

A man of noble blood involved in occult conspiracies.

Yun Shatu

minor

Also known as the Chinaman

A mysterious Chinese man with knowledge of the supernatural.

Richard Ballville

minor

Also known as Ballville

A member of an aristocratic family with a dark secret.

Marylin Taferal

minor

Also known as little Marylin

A young girl caught in a web of supernatural danger.

Zunna

minor

A woman from a lost race, possessing exotic beauty and mystery.

Kran

minor

A primitive man from a lost world, struggling for survival.

De Montour

minor

Also known as Montour

A French nobleman with a dark secret, involved in occult affairs.

Zuleika

minor

Also known as little Zuleika

A mysterious woman with ties to ancient evil and seductive power.

Falred

minor

A narrator or focal character in a strange, dreamlike tale.

Braxton

minor

Also known as Tope Braxton

A sailor involved in a deadly encounter with a sea monster.

Amra

minor

A fierce warrior from a lost civilization, known for his strength.

Chesterton Kane

minor

Also known as Chesterton

A relative or associate of Solomon Kane, sharing his Puritan zeal.

Old Gonar

minor

Also known as Gonar

An ancient Pictish wise man who advises Bran Mak Morn.

James Gordon

minor

Also known as Jim Gordon

A man caught in a web of family secrets and supernatural horror.

Ellen Farel

minor

A woman whose fate is tied to a dark and ancient curse.

Old John Grimlan

minor

Also known as John Grimlan, Grimlan

A reclusive old man with a dark past and hidden knowledge.

Dom Vincente da Lusto

minor

Also known as Dom Vincente

A Portuguese nobleman involved in colonial adventures and dark magic.

Senecoza

minor

A mysterious figure from a lost civilization, wielding strange power.

Old Ezra

minor

Also known as Ezra, Old Ezra the miser

A miserly old man whose greed leads to a supernatural encounter.

Little A-æa

minor

Also known as A-æa

A strange child with otherworldly qualities and a mysterious origin.

Gulka

minor

A brutish creature or man from a lost world, driven by primal instincts.

Tope Sorley

minor

Also known as Tope

A sailor who meets a gruesome fate on the high seas.

John Kulrek

minor

Also known as Kulrek

A man involved in a deadly confrontation with supernatural forces.

Ga-nor

minor

A warrior from a lost race, fighting for survival in a savage land.

Joe Roelocke

minor

Also known as Joseph Roelocke

A man whose life is disrupted by a terrifying supernatural event.

Kirby Buckner

minor

Also known as Buckner

A tough character involved in a violent and mysterious incident.

Adam Grimm

minor

Also known as Grimm

A man with a dark name and a darker fate, tied to occult events.

The Stranger

minor

A mysterious figure who appears unexpectedly, bringing danger or doom.

Gola

minor

A native African involved in the dark rituals of the jungle.

Tommy Migosh

minor

Also known as Tommy

A comic or hapless character caught in strange circumstances.

Bertie Hey

minor

Also known as Bertie, El-Lil

A man whose identity is linked to an ancient and terrible god.

Yosef Vrolok

minor

Also known as Vrolok

A vampire-like creature preying on the living in Eastern Europe.

Faming

minor

A narrator or central figure in a strange, dreamlike narrative.

Moll Farrell

minor

Also known as old Moll

An old woman with knowledge of dark magic and curses.

Doctor Donnelly

minor

Also known as Donnelly

A doctor who encounters supernatural horrors in his practice.

Chesterton Gordon

minor

Also known as Chesterton

A man with a dual identity, involved in a family mystery.

Evelyn Gordon

minor

A woman whose name links her to a dark family legacy.

Gorat

minor

A brutish creature or man from a lost world, serving a darker power.

Yussef Ali

minor

Also known as brown devil Yussef Ali

A treacherous Arab involved in desert adventures and violence.

Jim Braxton

minor

Also known as Braxton

A sailor who meets a terrible end at sea.

Constance Brand

minor

Also known as Brandy

A woman whose fate is tied to a dark and ancient curse.

The Neandertaler

minor

A prehistoric creature or man encountered in a lost land.

Ridge Jackson

minor

Also known as Ridge

A man involved in a violent and mysterious confrontation.

Mundy Gordon

minor

Also known as Mundy

A man whose name links him to a dark family secret.

Yar Khan

minor

A fierce Afghan warrior guarding an ancient treasure.

Ka-nanu

minor

An ancient priest or ruler from a lost age of sorcery.

Canool

minor

Also known as Lie-lip Canool

A strange creature or man from a lost world, with a peculiar name.

Gideon

minor

A man with a biblical name, involved in occult events.

Professor Schuyler

minor

Also known as Ezra Schuyler

An Egyptologist who uncovers ancient horrors.

Gaston l'Armon

minor

Also known as Gaston the Butcher

A brutal French criminal with a taste for violence.

Luigi Verenza

minor

Also known as Luigi

An Italian involved in a deadly game of revenge.

The Wolf

minor

Also known as Wolf

A werewolf-like creature terrorizing a community.

Mr. Costigan

minor

Also known as Costigan

A man involved in a mysterious and dangerous affair.

Nureddin el Mekru

minor

Also known as Nureddin

An Arab sorcerer or leader with dark ambitions.

Sir Haldred Frenton

minor

Also known as Sir Haldred

An English knight or nobleman involved in supernatural events.

Tuzun Thune

minor

A mysterious sorcerer who shows Kull strange visions in mirrors.