H M Sealey
Kingdom Rising
The
Series
The Characters
Time to introduce you to the good guys, the bad guys, and those somewhere in-between.
(Need I say -spoiler alert)
Misha Heath (Ish)
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Appearing as a major protagonist in all but one of the series, Ish begins her journey as a fifteen-year-old girl sent by her worried parents to live with her Great-Uncle Elijah after apparently having a psychotic episode where she attempted to kill the little sister of her childhood rival, Isabel Wilde.
However, Ish is not psychotic, she is Bachir, and soon learns the truth about the world and her place in it.
Ish meets Rick Heath in the first book, and marries at around twenty-two. Although, by Eternity Rising she is Thirty-five, there are occasional flashbacks to her earlier life.
At around sixteen, Ish began to create an imaginary world. A little later she realised it wasn't imaginary at all and she learned too late that she has terrifying creative abilities, abilities that allowed her to become a telepath simply because she wished it.
The confusion of these months causes Ish's parents, backed up by Rick and Elijah Gwilym, to section Ish in a mental institution rather than accept that Ish might truly have created a whole universe.
It was Darian Epton who realised that Ish had abilities above and beyond an ordinary Bachir, and he was not pleased when Ish chose to write novels about this imarginary world rather than try to dismantle it.
Ish's other universe is a large part of her journey and her character. Her terror at being able to do such things causes her to be cautious in all she says and does, and her unwanted telepathy means that she is deeply sensitive to the pain of others.
Ish's abilities extend to reminding people of past physical pain in order to incapacitate them, although she does this infrequently, fearful of crossing the line and controlling them. She appears not to be ageing due to Darian Epton's curse.
Ish and Rick have four children, Joan, Sandy, Lori and Arthur.
Richard Heath (Rick)
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Rick appears as a main character in all but three of the series.
He was raised in a religious cult and so values freedom of both speech and thought above all things.
Rick loves Ish deeply, but has always battled with jealousy, both towards her other universe in which he does not belong, and towards Darian Epton's obvious attraction to her and the history Darian has with her family.
Rick's love for his family is indisputable, and his love for Ish matures from jealous love into the sort that is willing to give her up to Darian's care when he realises that he is ageing and Ish is not.
To the King, Rick is "Lionheart," he is bold, brave, steadfast and emotionally stable, charged with rebuilding the King's temple, a place where Heaven and Earth can meet.
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Professor Darian Epton
(Daryavesh, Darius)
Inspired by the legend of The Wandering Jew, Daryavesh Ben Yehudah is the youngest son of Yehudah the shoemaker and was born in Jerusalem, around AD 16. He is one of four brothers, all of whom live on through the centuries thanks to a curse from the lips of Blodeuwedd, a Druidess from Britannia who journeyed to Israel after seeing a vision of the King.
Darian bought Blodeuwedd's youngest daughter, took her back to Britannia and began to breed the Gwilym family line, becoming rich in the process.
Blodeuwedd's curse forces Darian to withhold love, as any woman he cares for becomes cursed as he is, to wander forever without rest. Ish is the first Gwilym woman he has ever truly loved since Blodeuwedd.
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Jeremma Aldrnary-Redman. (Jemma)
Also known as the "Fire Bringer." Jemma features in nine of the thirteen books.
Jemma is Darian's niece, daughter to his brother, Ahasuerus and is highly intelligent but awkward.
As Jemma grew up, Darian did everything he could to keep her hidden from the eyes of the Sitra Achra and her father. However, he did this, not to keep Jemma safe, but so that she would be unarmed should she turn out to be as evil as her father. At eight, Jemma's mother was badly injured and her step-father left her in Darian's care.
Jemma has the ability to command fire and a hot temper, but she loves her husband, Nathan and her children dearly, and is determined to follow the King and not to follow her father into the Sitra Achra.
Ahasuerus (Reuben Prince/Joseph Vorst/Iyov)
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Ahasuerus is Darian's elder brother and appears as an antagonist in eight of the thirteen books. He is also a Cambion, the son of HaSatan, although this is not revealed until the last book.
Ahasuerus' original name was Yirmeyahu, but his father declared he was unfit to bear the name of a prophet when he poisoned the Roman Senator who was forcing his mother to be his mistress. Terrified of the repecussions, he allowed his mother to be executed for the senator's death, and afterwards his father beat him and he never recovered.
For a while he was simply the "half-wit" until a Mazik Lord, Benadon, in the body of Caiaphas the High Priest, adopted him as a servant, later restoring his sanity in a bloody ritual that involved drinking the blood gathered from the foot of the cross when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. Realising he had drunk God's blood, Ahasuerus believed he was beyond redemption and spent two thousand years serving Benadon, and taking the blood of the Gwilym family line every twenty-five years.
During those two thousand years, Ahasuerus maintained a civil relationship with his brothers, although Darian did not suffer him on Blodeuwedd's mountain.
Ahasuerus has taken on many names over his life, but for fifty years of the twentieth century, he genuinely attempted to turn to the King and become Bachir. However, other Bachirim, once learning of his past, did not believe the King's forgiveness could extend to someone who had done so much evil.
Ahasuerus returned to the Sitra Achra. He was unaware that his former lover, Miriam Aldernary, had conceived a child until Jemma thwarted his attempt to restore the old Roman Empire to the city of Chester.
He died in Jemma's fire, was judged and went to Hell, but he was returned to the earth through Ish's foolish mercy when a wound through time was torn in England, and many mazikim returned from Hell.
In an attempt to stop his evil, Ish imprisoned Ahasuerus within the Layolam, but he escaped and later raped Ish, resulting in the birth of Arthur Heath.
Finally, Ahasuerus was killed by a creature from the Layolam, but Mavet returned him to earth in a body similar to those the Malachim wear. Ahasuerus murdered Bronwen Price and kidnapped Arthur Heath, causing chaos until the King trapped him in an old memory forever.
However, a part of Ahasuerus survived, plaguing first Darian, and later Ish. This memory of Ahasuerus eventually made something of an alliance with Ish, even helping her when she was trapped in La Maison Tranquille. At last, Ahasuerus chose to leave Ish, pleading with the King to give Ish peace in his first and only prayer.
Nathaniel Redman (Kwemto)
Although he only appears in nine of the thirteen books, Nathan has one of the most interesting histories of all.
Born in Nigeria in the early part of the eighteenth century, Kwemto was sold to slavers by his own uncle and brought back to America in one of Darian Epton's ships.
Whilst on board, Kwemto encountered Darian and Darian was impressed with Kwemto's character and decided to buy him himself.
Later, Darian brought him to England where he was placed with Sir Rupert Wilde as an amusement for his wife. Kwemto was renamed Nathaniel and was later forced to sell himself to the Sitra Achra and was given an extended existence.
Accused of raping Lady Wilde, Nathan was imprisoned until Darian aquired his freedom and took him into his household. For several years Nathan became a faithful servant to the man he saw as his saviour. Nathan recieved an education and came to be Darian's most trustworthy manservant.
However, Darian later returned to America and there sold Nathan, breaking the trust that Nathan had for his master. Purchased by Ahasuerus, Nathan transferred his allegiance to Darian's brother, an alliance that was to last until the 21st century when he met Jemma and began to take his calling as Bachir seriously.
Of all the characters in the series, he is one of the strongest and most principled. Having seen man's inhumanity to man, and even learned the art of torture himself, Nathan is a man who cares more for the world and the people in it than he pretends. Now married to Jemma with three children, he accepted Zoe, Jemma's daughter by another man, unconditionally, even when Jemma couldn't. He is a voice of reason.
Alecsander Heath (Sandy)
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Sandy is Ish and Rick's son, and matures from a ten-year-old boy in Eternity Rising, to being a young man in his early thirties
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The young Sandy was a deep thinker with a thirst for adventure. As he grows, Sandy develops a ruthless streak that rivals Darian Epton's.
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Like Darian, Sandy is a historian, having inherited Ish's ability to see and hear memories of the past.
Joan Rosen (nee Heath)
Ish and Rick's eldest daughter who first appears as a twelve-year-old in eternity rising.
Initially disinterested and even frightened of becoming Bachir, Joan embraces it when she realises how much people will need her.
In order to survive when Ish's creations invade the world, Ish gives Joan the ability to cross into the Layolam, as well as mild telepathy. This telepathy eventually makes Joan uncomfortable and she runs to Bolivia at eighteen and spends the next six years working in poverty-stricken places.
Here she meets Lloyd Rosen with whom she helps create New Camelot, back in England, a refuge, homeless hostel, foodbank and emergency medical centre to offer help to the hopeless.
She and Lloyd have a daughter, Bronwen, named after her grandmother.
As she matures and realises how much evil there is in the world, Joan becomes less reluctant about using her abilities, later fearing that she has crossed a line between what is, and isn't acceptable.
Mavet HaMalach
Mavet HaMalach translates as The Angel of Death and he is neither fully Malach, nor fully human.
Mavet thinks himself to be the King's servant, even though he plotted to keep the King Himself in his realm after the Crucifixion. He did not expect the King to plunder his prisons and set so many free.
Mavet was given the power of death to bring a merciful end to the suffering induced by the Sitra Achra, but time away from the King corrupted Mavet and now he rules his own kingdom of the dead. He likes to think of himself as a man, even taking a lover, although he is a deeply manipulative and abusive creature.
Yochannan Prasch (Ben-Yehudah)
The eldest son of Yehudah the shoemaker. As a young man he dreamed of being a hero and was determined to see justice done and the Romans driven out of Judea.
After he was cursed through Darian, Yochannan realised he would never die a hero's death and this knowledge caused him to fall into a terrible depression. Darian, blaming himself or Yochannan's misery, sought out the Magi, a society of magicians, to take away Yochannan's memory every few years.
Once free of his memory, Yochannan became a doctor, a soldier, a priest, a teacher and more recently, a police officer - anything that could help others. He served as one of Arthur's knights and fought in the crusades, his desire to defend and protect the innocent undamaged by the Magi's enchantments.
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However, as the years passed, the Magi began to do more harm to his mind, until Ish set him free, integrating two thousand years of memories and making him whole again.
Lloyd Rosen
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Lloyd Rosen is married to Joan Heath, and the father of Bronwen. When he is first introduced he is an abrasive character with strong revolutionary sympathies with a fascination with King Arthur. He runs a squat which later becomes New Camelot.
Called by the King to be the second Arthur and bring justice to the world, Lloyd finds it difficult to accept this anointing, largely because of his political beliefs, but also because he assumes nobody would accept a "black Arthur."
Lloyd mellows over the course of the books, becoming a strong voice of reason with enormous courage and a buring desire to serve the King.
Arthur Heath
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Arthur is Ish's son with Ahasuerus, and as such, is half-cambion. He is concieved when Ish is held prisoner and raped by Ahasuerus, although she did not tell Rick until Arthur was seven years old.
Arthur appeared to have inherited Ish's telepathy, as well as her ability to shift worlds. His abilities are stronger than Ish's and he also has the power to call her wherever she is and bring her to his side without her consent. Painfully aware of his strange powers, Arthur is a quiet, sombre young man who seems old before his time.
Simon Magus
The Samaritan magican who attempted to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit is an important character in the series.
Simon is called to lose his reputation and become nothing, chosing the serve the King on earth for two thousand years, forgotten, unknown and unseen. In this time he falls in love with Blodeuwedd, the celtic slave with whom Darian believes he is in love. Simon is the father of her last child, the child that Darian buys and returns to Wales and thus Ish's own great-great grandmother a hundred times removed
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Gloria Heath (Lori)
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Lori Heath regularly attempted to pretend that the world of the Mazikim and Malachim did not exist. However, after casting a Mazik out of one of her university friends and then being accused of being "intolerant of other religions," she moved in with Darian. Having met Simon Magus, she learned things about Darian that frightened her, but in the end, sacrificed herself to the Beast in order to save his life.
Yakov Kohlenberger (Ben-Yehudah)
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Like Yochannan, Yakov liked to play the hero, but unlike Yochannan who genuinely attempted to do good, Yakov lived two thousand years selfishly, jumping from woman to woman.
Darian forgave him these indiscretions, but did not trust him and did not trust his son, Tegid, who became Jemma's best friend.
Yakov, who felt great guilt over the accidental death of Tegid's mother and over the many mistakes of his life, was possessed by Hasar, the Mazik Lord, took Jemma's memories away and tortured Ish into submission.
However, Ish, with Yakov's help, bound Hasar in Yakov's skull and left him there. Darian was forced to shoot his brother in the head to prevent Ish murdering him. A sad end to two thousand years of life.