# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Robert E. Howard.

- [Solomon Kane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/solomon_kane.md): 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 t
- [Kull](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/kull.md): 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 
- [Bristol McGrath](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/bristol_mcgrath.md): 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
- [John Conrad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/john_conrad.md): 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 Zul
- [John Gordon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/john_gordon.md): 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 cit
- [Steve Clarney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/steve_clarney.md): 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 soun
- [Kathulos](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/kathulos.md): 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 
- [Brule](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/brule.md): 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
- [Nakari](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/nakari.md): 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 h
- [Cormac of Connacht](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/cormac_of_connacht.md): 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 t
- [Bran Mak Morn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/bran_mak_morn.md): 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 
- [John Kirowan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/john_kirowan.md): 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 
- [Saul Stark](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/saul_stark.md): 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 no
- [Le Loup](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/le_loup.md): A werewolf-like creature terrorizing a French village.
- [N'Longa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/nlonga.md): 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 h
- [Evelyn Ash](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/evelyn_ash.md): A woman caught in a web of supernatural intrigue and danger.
- [Richard Brent](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/richard_brent.md): A man involved in a mysterious and deadly game of revenge.
- [Ka-nu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/ka_nu.md): An ancient priest or ruler from a lost age of sorcery.
- [The Master](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/the_master.md): 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 dri
- [Ashurbanipal Yar Ali](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/ashurbanipal_yar_ali.md): A fierce Afghan warrior guarding an ancient treasure.
- [Naluna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/naluna.md): A woman from a lost race, possessing strange beauty and knowledge.
- [Wulfhere](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/wulfhere.md): A savage Viking warrior driven by bloodlust and fury.
- [Hassim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/hassim.md): A powerful African warrior loyal to his queen and his gods.
- [John de Albor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/john_de_albor.md): A man of noble blood involved in occult conspiracies.
- [Yun Shatu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/yun_shatu.md): A mysterious Chinese man with knowledge of the supernatural.
- [Richard Ballville](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/richard_ballville.md): A member of an aristocratic family with a dark secret.
- [Marylin Taferal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/marylin_taferal.md): A young girl caught in a web of supernatural danger.
- [Zunna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/zunna.md): A woman from a lost race, possessing exotic beauty and mystery.
- [Kran](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters/kran.md): A primitive man from a lost world, struggling for survival.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_47_se/characters