NOTE: Contains unmarked spoilers.
Name: Lunden/Lundren (Lun) Frieso
Hometown: Reguli
Connections: Colleague and eventual friend to Placida Venthi; eventually dating Ivo Pieroni; mentee to Clemente Sanriani; son of Cana and Caion Frieso; older brother to Tufara and Daran Frieso
Occupation: Swordmaster at the Shrine of the Divine Balance in Rolasari
Trivia: The entire plot point of his name spelling is a retcon. I made up the name when he was a side character to a side character, and years later realized it would make more sense as “Lundren” (after Lundra, a god in this setting). Rather than retcon it outright, I decided to work it into the story.
Name: Placida Venthi
Hometown: Costa
Connections: Colleague and eventual friend to Lundren Frieso; eventual friend to Tufara Frieso; daughter of Carina and Endana Venthi; mentee to Sibling Gavine Barletta
Occupation: Priest of the Divine Balance at the shrine in Rolasari
Trivia: “Placida” means “calm” or “peaceful” (irony, folks), and her false name in the newspaper article, Jahaira, means “dignified” when derived from Swahili. (Most Furoni names are derived from Swahili, except for Rone, whose name I made up before I decided to standardize the character names.)
Name: Clemente (Clem) Sanriani
Hometown: Murio
Connections: Mentor to Lundren; friend to most of the town; long-term platonic partner to Speaker Terenzio
Occupation: Retired swordmaster for the Shrine of the Divine Balance in Rolasari
Trivia: Pruning off tomato suckers is optional (and Lun shouldn’t have felt so guilty about it), but you do, in fact, have to ferment tomato seeds before saving them. I have not done it, because I don’t have room for growing from seed (grow lights, etc.), but I get to break out this useless knowledge in fiction.
Name: Sibling-Healer Gavine (Gav) Barletta
Hometown: A farm outside Rolasari
Connections: Mentor to Placida; spouse to Arabella; parent to Val and Giordy
Occupation: Healer-priest at the Church of Tufar in Rolasari
Trivia: “Placida should have a mentor too” turned into one of my favorite supporting characters. This giant dork, y’all. This giant book-reading, theory-dumping, wife-“guy”, awesome-parent dork.
Name: Saveria (last name is never mentioned)
Hometown: Rolasari
Connections: Eventual friend to Placida
Occupation: Goat farmer
Trivia: Her name was inspired by what is (as far as I can tell without going down an Ancestry.com rabbit hole) the town where my Italian ancestors came from, called Santa Severina. Which is in Calabria rather than Tuscany. Still, it’s my little homage.
Name: Ivo Pieroni (sometimes called Yve by his family/friends)
Hometown: Rolasari
Connections: Eventually dating Lundren Frieso; knows pretty much everyone in town
Occupation: Owner/operator of a general store
Trivia: In his first appearance in the painting chapter, I did not intend for him to become a major supporting character, but Conservation of Side Characters kicked in and I decided why not make that nice guy the love interest after all. Several rewrites later…
Name: Tufara (Fara) Frieso / Adelina della Sopra
Hometown: Reguli
Connections: Younger sister of Lundren Frieso; middle child of Cana and Caion Frieso; eventual friend to Placida Venthi
Occupation: Author
Trivia: The second character in this universe named after the god Tufar, after Father Tufari, the Lundran priest / therapist in Healers 2 and 3. Neither of them are followers of Tufar, although he is the god of literature…
Name: Cana (mother) and Caion (father) Frieso
Hometown: Reguli
Connections: Parents to Lundren, Tufara, and Daran Frieso
Occupation: Royal guards
Trivia: I have not officially decided on a reason why a not-very-religious family named all their kids after gods. Religiously derived names are normal in their area, but beyond that, it hasn’t been established.
Name: Endana (Maee Endana) and Carina (Mama Carina) Venthi
Hometown: Carina is originally from Costa; Endana immigrated there from Furon
Connections: Parents of Placida Venthi
Occupation: Not specifically cited, but implied to be shop clerks
Trivia: More lore than trivia, but “Maee” is just “mom” in Alhara, the language of the Furon Islands. Endana’s name is the biggest name joke to myself, since the site where I found it said it means “unconditional love.” Oof.
Name: Daran Frieso
Hometown: Reguli
Connections: Youngest child of Caion and Cana Frieso; younger brother to Lundren and Tufara
Occupation: Trainee in the Royal Guard
Name: Val (Valentino) and Giordy (Giordano) Barletta
Hometown: Rolasari
Connections: Sons of Sibling-Healer Gavine Barletta and Sister Arabella Barletta
Occupation: Children (they’re 10 and 6 respectively)
Trivia: A line in an early outline to the effect of “Lun has some neighborhood kids help with the garden” turned into Lun’s little fan club. I am not sure I’m any good at writing child characters, but I liked these two.
Names: Rone Sidduji, Joshi Arenacin, Maisha el-Makia
Hometown: Murio, Murio, and the Furon Islands respectively
Connections: Placida’s friend group at the Academy; Rone was also a peer mentor to Agna, one of the narrators of the Healers series, and defeated Lundren to win their senior year swordfighting tournament.
Occupation: Swordmaster (and currently, laborer) in Kavera; priest in Achusa; and healer in the Islands
Trivia: With Placida, these four have existed in the background of the Healers series as “the Quartet” since its early drafts. At one point, my intention was to write about each of them and where they went after graduation, but Agna’s story took hold of my brain instead.
Name: Emiliane (Emile) Merende
Hometown: Unknown, probably Rolasari
Connections: Unknown
Occupation: Apothecary
Trivia: One of those characters who started out as a one-scene wonder (“Lun needs to refill his meds, realizes he can ask for things he needs”) and made a good candidate to loop back in later. It’s a small town.
Name: Sister Arabella Barletta
Hometown: A farm outside Rolasari
Connections: Spouse to Gavine; parent to Val and Giordy
Occupation: Priest at the Church of Tufar in Rolasari
Name: Speaker Terenzio (last name not mentioned) (also called Trenzi by Clem)
Deceased, 2 years before the story begins
Hometown: Murio
Connections: Long-term platonic partner to Clem Sanriani
Occupation: Priest at the Divine Balance shrine in Rolasari
Trivia: Much like Placida learns about Terenzio in bits and pieces, I just kept adding little traits onto Terenzio as they came up in the story. The dogs, the day care, the relationship with Clem. I want there to be more, and maybe someday I’ll write an extra story about Terenzio and Clem’s early days at the shrine.
People Around Rolasari
- Cal Golini, mail carrier
- Ms. Enrizzi, Clem’s neighbor
- Vasco Pieroni, Ivo’s father (and his late wife Palladia, Ivo’s mother)
- The house painter (not named in the main story)
- Mrs. Niradelli, a local known for her anise cookies
- Fabiana, a member of the book club known for her ham and cheese pastries
- Mirella, herbalist and knitter in the book club
- Flavia and Leo, a mom and child who stop into Ivo’s store
- Mrs. Corallo, a local woman whose funeral service Placida leads
- Paolo, an apprentice healer at the Tufarian church
- Marzio, a wine seller
- Sister Leonora, a priest at the Tufarian church
- Healer Mareta, a healer at the Divine Balance church many years ago
- Diletta, a carpenter
- Enzo, a member of Placida’s philosophy discussion group
- Fiorenzo, a member of Placida’s therapy group
- Gloria, a fan of Adelina della Sopra
- Brigida Suzare, a new healer at the Divine Balance church
People from Elsewhere
- Tarman Casto, a reporter for the Hillsider, a newspaper in Reguli
- Rem, a cook in the Academy cafeteria
- Corrado Giriani, a swordmaster student in Lundren and Placida’s year
- Bettina Falli, a swordmaster student in Lundren and Placida’s year
- Allegra, a dyer in Stogaro, Ivo’s sister / Aris’s wife / Gisella and Rocco’s mother
- Aris, Allegra’s husband / Ivo’s brother-in-law / Gisella and Rocco’s father
- Gisella and Rocco, Allegra and Aris’s children / Ivo’s niece and nephew
- Protector Camelia, a priest in the Church of Darano in Stogaro