Deadhouse Gates

How it opens

In Seven Cities the Year of Dryjhna is coming, prophesied as the year of rebellion, and the walls of every city are covered in symbols. The historian Duiker is in Hissar when Coltaine of the Crow Clan, a Wickan warleader who once rose against the Empire, arrives to take command of the Seventh Army. Two outlawed Bridgeburners, Kalam and Fiddler, land on the Ehrlitan coast with Crokus and Apsalar, and Kalam tells the others he means to kill the Empress. Out in the Pan'potsun Odhan, the Trell Mappo and his friend Icarium walk into a gathering of shapeshifters drawn toward a gate.

Who you meet early

• FiddlerFiddler is a Bridgeburner sapper, outlawed with the rest of his regiment, who has left his squad behind on Genabackis. He is traveling with Kalam, Crokus and Apsalar, and he hates Seven Cities.
• Kalam MekharKalam Mekhar, a Bridgeburner corporal and master assassin, is back in Seven Cities, the land of his birth, as an outlaw. He means to kill Empress Laseen, and he carries the Holy Book of Dryjhna south as the price of safe passage.
• Crokus YounghandCrokus, a young Daru thief, has made the long journey from Genabackis with Kalam and Fiddler, believing they came to take Apsalar home to her father. On the boat to the Ehrlitan coast he learns that Kalam means to kill the Empress.
• Mappo RuntMappo Runt, a Trell, is crossing the Pan'potsun Odhan with his old friend Icarium. He is uneasy about the convergence of shapeshifters they are walking into.
• IcariumIcarium, a half-blood Jaghut, travels the Odhan with Mappo Trell. He has lived for centuries without memory of his own past, and he hopes the gate will give him answers.
• DuikerDuiker, the Imperial Historian, is in Hissar, where he goes among the natives in disguise and reads the signs of the coming rebellion. His warnings to the High Command go unheeded.
• ColtaineColtaine of the Crow Clan once united the Wickan clans in an uprising against the Empire. He has come to Hissar as the new Fist of the Seventh Army, and many of its officers first faced him as an enemy.
• Iskaral PustIskaral Pust calls himself the High Priest of the Tesem Temple of Shadow, a cliffside tower once held by a monastery of the Queen of Dreams. He greets Mappo and Icarium as guests he has been expecting.