# The Gods of Mars — Character guide

> Key figures in The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

- [John Carter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/john_carter.md): 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 th
- [Dejah Thoris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/dejah_thoris.md): 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 t
- [Tars Tarkas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/tars_tarkas.md): 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
- [Xodar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/xodar.md): 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 o
- [Issus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/issus.md): 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
- [Thuvia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/thuvia.md): 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 companionsh
- [Carthoris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/carthoris.md): 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'
- [Phaidor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/phaidor.md): 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 unpredicta
- [Zat Arras](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/zat_arras.md): 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 f
- [Kantos Kan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/kantos_kan.md): 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 neve
- [Parthak](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/parthak.md): 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
- [Hor Vastus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/hor_vastus.md): 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 res
- [Matai Shang](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/matai_shang.md): 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 
- [Thurid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/thurid.md): 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 
- [Sola](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/sola.md): 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 sa
- [Tardos Mors](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/tardos_mors.md): 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 
- [Yersted](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_gods_of_mars_se/characters/yersted.md): A dator among the First Born black pirates.

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