Lord Wetterlant – a handsome magnate of the Open Council with something missing around his eyes.

Lord Heugen – a pedantic magnate of the Open Council.

Lord Barezin – a buffoonish magnate of the Open Council.

Lady Isold dan Kaspa – an insipid young heiress, engaged to be married to Lord Isher.

Lord Isher – a smooth and successful magnate of the Open Council.

Colonel Forest – a hard-working officer with common origins and impressive scars, commanded the Crown Prince’s Division for Orso.

Lord Marshal Rucksted – senior soldier with a penchant for beards and tall tales, married to Tilde dan Rucksted.

Lord Marshal Brint – senior soldier and one-armed old friend of Orso’s father.

High Consul Matstringer – overwrought supervisor of the Union’s foreign policy.

High Justice Bruckel – woodpecker-like chief law lord of the Union.

Lord Chancellor Gorodets – long-suffering holder of the Union’s purse-strings.

Lord Chamberlain Hoff – self-important chief courtier, son of the previous Lord Hoff.

Superior Pike – Arch Lector Glokta’s right-hand man, with a hideously burned visage.

Arch Lector Sand dan Glokta – “Old Sticks,” the most feared man in the Union, Head of the Closed Council and His Majesty’s Inquisition.

Bremer dan Gorst – a squeaky-voiced master swordsman who was First Guard to King Jezal, and now to King Orso.

Yolk – Corporal Tunny’s idiot sidekick.

Tunny – once Corporal Tunny, pimp and carousing partner to Orso while he was still crown prince.

Hildi – the king’s valet and errand-girl, previously a brothel laundress.

Her August Majesty Queen Terez – Queen Dowager and mother of the King of the Union.

His August Majesty King Orso the First – unwilling High King of the Union, a notorious wastrel while crown prince.

The banks have fallen, the sun of The Union has been torn down, and in the darkness behind the scenes, the threads of the Weaver’s ruthless plan are slowly being drawn together. while Black Calder gathers his forces and plots his vengeance. And in the bloody North, Rikke and her fragile Protectorate are running out of allies. Orso will find that when the world is turned upside down, no one is lower than a monarch.

With nothing left to lose, Citizen Brock is determined to become a new hero for the new age, while Citizeness Savine must turn her talents from profit to survival before she can claw her way to redemption. Now that belief will be tested in the crucible of revolution: the Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power, the smoke of riots has replaced the smog of industry, and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds. Some say that to change the world you must first burn it down.

Wisdom of the crowds joe abercrombie