Character guide

John Carter

major

Also known as Captain John Carter, Captain John Carter of Virginia, Carter, Captain Carter

Carter is the narrator and protagonist, an Earthman whose longing for Dejah Thoris pulls him back to Barsoom only to land him in an unfamiliar, hostile region. His defining tension is between the superhuman confidence that has always carried him through and the fear that his long absence has cost him everything he loves. His vow to reach, rescue, and revenge drives the expedition that shapes the book's central arc.

Dejah Thoris

major

Also known as the beautiful Dejah Thoris, the incomparable Dejah Thoris, Thoris

Dejah Thoris is the royal whose survival and whereabouts anchor the loyalties of Helium and the plans of every ally Carter can muster. Even in captivity she shows grace, weeping not for herself but for the cruel timing that tore her from Carter days before his return, and blessing Thuvia's honest love for him. Her peril gives the early and middle chapters their urgency and their emotional stakes.

Tars Tarkas

major

Tars Tarkas is Carter's oldest ally on Barsoom, a towering Thark whose loyalty was forged when Carter taught him what friendship means. His strange, mirthful laugh in the face of horror marks him as both alien and deeply human, and his devotion to the memory of the woman he loved drives his pilgrimage south. His steadiness and knowledge of Martian ways make him indispensable as the mystery of the false gods unfolds.

Xodar

major

Also known as Dator Xodar, the proud Xodar, the great Xodar, The degraded Dator, Liberty Xodar, Spying Xodar

Xodar begins as a devoted servant of the goddess Issus, certain of his own superiority, until Carter forces him to see that his deity is a mortal old woman who cannot save him. His fall from pride to doubt is the hinge of his transformation, and his intimate knowledge of Omean, Shador, and the First Born's navy becomes the key to Carter's escape plans. He matters because he proves that even the enemy's most arrogant sons can be won by truth and courage.

Issus

major

Also known as IX Issus

Issus rules the First Born as an unquestioned deity, her name invoked to justify terror, sacrifice, and the rigid caste that keeps the black Martians in awe. The horror of her true nature—a grotesque, mortal old woman—is the secret that shatters Xodar's faith and fuels Carter's defiance. She embodies the corrupt theocracy the heroes must expose, and her temple is the destination toward which the early and middle chapters relentlessly move.

Thuvia

supporting

Thuvia is a captive royal whose affection for Carter is pure and openly avowed, a devotion she admits even to Dejah Thoris herself. Her honesty and her peril deepen the emotional stakes of the rescue, and her companionship with Dejah Thoris in the hands of the First Born binds the two women's fates together. She matters as a measure of Carter's loyalty and as a reminder that the cost of the false gods falls on the innocent.

Carthoris

supporting

Also known as XVI Under Arrest As Carthoris

Carthoris belongs to two worlds at once: the royal court of Helium that mourns him and the death-haunted southern reaches he has somehow survived. When Hor Vastus recognizes him at the head of a returning fleet, the boy's homecoming instantly becomes a political event, since he brings not only himself but the resurrected John Carter. His loyalty to his father and his people drives the reunion that reopens the story's central question of who truly rules Barsoom.

Phaidor

supporting

Phaidor moves through the sacred precincts of the Therns as both devotee and captive of her father's cold authority. Her obsession with John Carter is not simple romance but a possessive fury that makes her an unpredictable force inside the enemy's own household. She matters because her divided loyalties and volcanic temper can either expose the Therns' secrets or destroy the very man she claims to love.

Zat Arras

supporting

Zat Arras holds real power in Helium and resents every honor showered on the Earthman who married its princess. His opposition is not mere jealousy but a calculated campaign to discredit Carter before the court and the fleet. He matters because he forces Carter to fight on two fronts at once: the alien horrors below and the jealous nobleman scheming at home.

Kantos Kan

supporting

Also known as Kantos Kan.

Kantos Kan is the kind of officer whose competence and calm make him invaluable in a crisis, whether aboard a warship or inside a dungeon. His bond with Carter is tested by the political storms around Helium, yet he never wavers in the quiet, practical ways that matter most. He anchors the story's human scale, reminding readers that Carter's grand adventures rest on friendships willing to risk everything.

Parthak

supporting

Parthak carries the heritage of Zodanga, the city that once warred against Helium and John Carter himself. Thrown together with his former enemy in confinement, he must weigh ancient grudges against the immediate demands of survival and honor. His presence sharpens the question at the heart of the book: whether old hatreds can be set aside when a common, far older evil threatens every red Martian alike.

Hor Vastus

supporting

Hor Vastus greets Carthoris with joy and then, recognizing John Carter, performs the rare and sacred rite of laying his blade at a Jeddak's feet. That gesture binds his body, life, and honor to Carter's cause without reservation. He matters because his unquestioning loyalty gives Carter a foothold in Helium at the very moment when political enemies and cosmic horrors alike are closing in.

Matai Shang

supporting

Also known as old Matai Shang

Matai Shang rules the Holy Therns as their living pontiff, a figure so exalted that his daughter Phaidor introduces herself by his titles before her own name. He embodies the thern creed of divine privilege — the belief that the lives of lesser Martians exist only to feed the sacred machinery of Issus. His cool certainty that enemies should simply be disposed of, and his willingness to let others do the killing, mark him as a man whose power rests on never having to dirty his own hands.

Thurid

supporting

Also known as the powerful Thurid

Thurid moves through the underworld of the First Born as a warrior of rank and reputation, one whose strength makes him a natural instrument of Issus's will. His pride is his defining trait — he is the kind of man whose humiliation at being overpowered by a stranger becomes a wound that festers into vendetta. When Carter binds him before the goddess's own people, the moment reshapes the politics of Omean, turning a loyal enforcer into something far more unpredictable.

Sola

supporting

Also known as Sola the green woman

Sola belongs to two worlds at once: born of the green Martian hordes, yet bound by love and duty to the red Martian princess she serves. When Dejah Thoris slipped from the palace at night to make the pilgrimage to the sacred river, Sola disobeyed her and followed, gathering guards and riding south through danger rather than let her mistress go alone. Her account of the capture — the slain guards, the black fleet, the bound princess — is the thread that ties John Carter's search to the larger tragedy unfolding on Barsoom.

Tardos Mors

supporting

Also known as the House of Tardos Mors

Tardos Mors sits at the head of Helium's royal house, a ruler whose authority is inseparable from his love for his granddaughter Dejah Thoris. When she vanished on the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor, he offered rewards so vast that even princes of royal blood joined the search for John Carter, the man he believed might bring her back. His palace is the fixed point from which the story's wanderings depart and to which every thread of loyalty and longing eventually bends.

Yersted

minor

Also known as Dator Yersted

A dator among the First Born black pirates.

Sator Throg

minor

Also known as the late Sator Throg

A Holy Thern priest, killed by John Carter.

Torith

minor

Also known as Dator Torith

A dator of the First Born, guard on the prison isle of Shador.

Tan Gama

minor

A Zodangan officer who arrests Carthoris.

Mors Kajak

minor

Son of Tardos Mors, father of Dejah Thoris.

Old Thabis

minor

An aged Holy Thern priest encountered in the Temple of Issus.