Vanyel Ashkevron
The boy who would—and will—become the title character of the trilogy known as “The Last Herald-Mage” begins his story here as a somewhat sullen teenager who is dealing with issues related to his own sexual identity, a harsh father intent on beating him into masculinity, and dealing with all the mishegoss that comes with anyone trying to navigate their way through adolescence into adulthood. And all while dealing with the accumulated emotional heft of being heir to the grand estate Forst Reach and all which that eventual inheritance implies.
Lord Withen
The current holder of the deed and title to the estate is Vanyel’s father, Lord Withen. Withen is the typical sort of manly man who is ill-prepared for siring an offspring who grows up deserving the description of “sensitive.” We all know what “sensitive” is really code for among such men: fear that their loins have produced a sissy. And, as it turns out, Vanyel does turn out to be a homosexual.
Jervis
Because he is what he is, Lord Withen is not really prepared to take charge of doing all his own dirty work. And so he assigns the bulk of the burden of teaching Vanyel how to be a man to his Armsmaster, Jervis. Jervis, being the dutiful vassal of a Lord with the power to make his life miserable, thereupon sets to the task of bullying Vanyel with the intent of torturing the sensitivity out of him.
Tylendel
Tylendel is being guided under the mentorship of Withen’s sister and Vanyel’s aunt, Savil, to become a Herald-Mage. He also becomes proof that you just can’t simply hope to beat sensitivity out of someone as he becomes “lifebonded” with Vanyel. This is a psychic connection that heretofore has been thought to be if not exclusively then very close to exclusively the domain of opposite sex couples. Vanyel is on his way to breaking all the conventional rules and expectations associated with lifebonding, however, and Tylendel will turn out to be part of just one of those subversions.
