Crown of Midnight

Chaol is the handsome, bronze-eyed Captain of the Guard to the King of Adarlan and a secondary protagonist in the novel. He is so handsome that “more and more ladies [find] excuses to be walking through the gardens just after dawn” just to see him (26). Chaol is humble, unaware of his own appeal.

Chaol, like Celaena, struggles with an internal conflict throughout the book. Celaena’s struggles revolve around freedom, but Chaol’s conflict stems from loyalty. He gave up his inheritance and his family to become Captain of the Guard, and he is honor-bound to the king and to Adarlan. His family has shunned him for refusing to become a lord in Anielle; Lord Anielle explicitly tells him, “You disgraced your family when you gave up your title. You disgraced me” (274). When Celaena creates a beautiful birthday dinner for him, Chaol is stunned and touched, admitting that no one has done anything like it for him in a long time.

As his feelings for Celaena grow stronger, he finds his loyalties divided. Further, he begins to realize that the “king kept things from him; there were so many secrets, and perhaps he was little more than a puppet, part of the illusion that he was starting to see through” (187). Still, Chaol defines himself by his loyalty to the king, and he cannot be so easily swayed. He repeatedly chooses duty over love, which eventually leads to the destruction of his relationship with Celaena. Only after losing her trust does Chaol truly realize he’s devoted himself to an evil king.

Despite his feelings for Celaena and his disillusionment with the king, Chaol never stops prioritizing Adarlan. When he realizes Celaena is the Lost Queen, he falls to his knees at the thought of him sending Celaena “into the arms of her strongest potential allies: to the homeland of her mother, the kingdom of her cousin, and the domain of her aunt, Queen Maeve of the Fae” (418). He knows that Celaena, no longer within reach, has the potential to become one of the kingdom’s greatest threats. One day, he will likely have to choose for good: loyalty to his kingdom, or loyalty to Celaena. 

Dorian Havilliard, another secondary protagonist, is the crowned Prince of Adarlan. He has blue eyes and a boyish grin, and he is a friend to Chaol, Celaena, and Nehemia. Dorian is the one who chooses Celaena as the king’s contender in Throne of Glass. In Crown of Midnight, he initially has feelings for her, but he sees her growing connection with Chaol and eventually gains the maturity to respect their relationship and give up on Celaena. Like Celaena and Chaol, Dorian faces internal conflict when he discovers he has magic, something that puts him at huge risk because of his father’s laws. He also finds himself caught in an external conflict with the king as he begins to realize how evil his father truly is.

Dorian wants to do good, and over time, he begins to see the danger of blindly following another—even his own father. Dorian learns to boldly oppose the wrongdoings of his father and the court. When Mullison suggests they add more prisons to Calaculla, Dorian asks how they will house them and suggests they let some go. This enrages the king, but Dorian stands his ground, votes against the proposal, and storms out of the council room. Dorian also defies his father when he writes to Princess Nehemia’s family after her murder.

While Dorian fights to be a good man under an evil king, he also struggles to control his magic, which would get Dorian executed if used at the wrong time or place. Dorian knows his father would not show him mercy, and he tries to hide his power as he searches for further information. He researches on his own, but eventually he shares the truth of his magic with others. Nehemia senses his power and tells him she’ll be there when he needs help, though she dies before she can fulfill this promise. When Celaena discovers his magic, she offers Mort as a means of help. The novel ends before Dorian can learn anything more about his magic, but readers can assume that this conflict will continue in the next book.

Nehemia is the crowned Princess of Eyllwe, a kingdom in the far southeast corner of Erilea. Eyllwe has taken the brunt of the King of Adarlan’s cruelty, and any suspected rebels are sent to the Calaculla labor camp, where the overseers work them to death. Though Nehemia longs to return to her country and her people, she remains in the glass castle’s court to spy on the king, working secretly with rebels to try and save her people. As an idealist, she acts as a foil to Celaena, who wants no part in the rebellions and views them as hopeless.

Despite their differences, Nehemia is an excellent friend to Celaena. In fact, “Celaena had adored Nehemia from the moment she’d laid eyes on her, like they were twin souls who had at last found each other. A soul-friend” (247). Nehemia is also Celaena’s confidant and tutor. The princess tries to help Celaena overcome her fear of leadership and guides her towards her destiny: freeing the oppressed citizens of Erilea. She is kindhearted and good, but she doesn’t allow Celaena to run from her responsibility. When Celaena refuses to join Nehemia’s cause and help free her people, Nehemia calls her a coward; this follows Celaena until she can see its truth and finally accept her role.

In Throne of Glass, Nehemia struggles with the responsibility of saving her people from the King of Adarlan. In Crown of Midnight, however, Nehemia embraces her power and position, devoting herself to saving her people in Eyllwe and everyone across the world. She willingly dies for their sake; she is so devoted to her people that she’s called the Light of Eyllwe. Her death is the catalyst for Celaena’s acceptance of her true self, and Nehemia continues to support her dear friend as a spirit guide.

Archer Finn, the story’s primary antagonist, is a very handsome and charismatic courtesan. Archer is broad-shouldered, muscular, and beautiful, with golden hair and green eyes. He lived on the streets as an orphan until he was 12, when Madame Clarisse took him in and trained him as a courtesan, eventually selling his virginity when he turned 17.

Archer is a foil to Celaena. They both long to escape their unpleasant contracts, and they both wish to live freely, according to their own wills and desires. But unlike Celaena, Archer is paranoid and ruthless. He lies, manipulates, and kills for his own agenda. When Celaena tells him the king sent her to kill him because he’s a suspected rebel, Archer replies that he wishes he were strong enough to be a traitor. He contracts Grave under the guise of Minister Mullison to kill Nehemia, eliminating a perceived threat to his goals while keeping his own hands clean. He kidnaps Chaol to isolate Celaena, then shatters their relationship by forcing Chaol to admit he knew Nehemia was in danger. Even when Celaena learns the truth of Nehemia’s murder and confronts him, Archer begs for his life and justifies his betrayal, trying to manipulate Celaena until the very end.

The King of Adarlan plays the secondary antagonist, and while readers constantly feel his presence, he usually isn’t crucial to the central conflict and action of the story. He is never given a name; Maas only refers to him as “the King of Adarlan” or “the king.” He has a formidable presence, as Chaol observes during a hunting party: “[a]top his horse, the king looked every inch the conqueror he was. There was something in his eyes that sent a chill down Chaol’s spine—and made him realize why so many foreign rulers had offered him their crowns instead of facing him in battle” (209).

The king acts as a controlling shadow cast over the protagonists. As King’s Champion, Celaena is bound to him for four years, and he gives her missions and tasks that largely involve assassinating suspected rebels. Chaol is his Captain of the Guard—everywhere Chaol goes and everything he does is by the king’s command. Though Dorian is his son, the king does not act fatherly towards him; he simply rules over Dorian like any other member of his court. The king is driven by his need for power and control, and any threats to either must be eliminated. He borders on paranoia when he discusses possible rebellions in Rifthold and throughout the continent of Erilea. Considering his takeover of Eyllwe, the reader knows that the king would not hesitate to terrorize the population with impunity should he see fit to do so.

The king appears to hate magic and anything to do with it, exemplified when he kills Rena for singing about magic in open defiance to his laws. He tells Rena that magic is sacrilegious, and the magical characters in the book—namely Celaena and Dorian—know that he will execute them mercilessly should he learn of their abilities.

In a dramatic twist, Celaena learns that the king himself possesses magic and uses it to maintain his power. He suppresses the magic of others, creates creatures, and holds at least two Wyrdkeys, powerful artifacts that grant him immense control. The king has had this power—and the craving for more—from a young age. As Mort describes, “He was barely twenty when he found [the Wyrdkey]. […] Strange, bellicose youth! Always poking about in forgotten places where he wasn’t wanted, reading books no one his age—or any age—should read!” (355). Thus far, the king has shown no redeeming or sympathetic qualities, and while the story seems to be building to a confrontation between Celaena (as Queen Aelin) and the King of Adarlan, his role in the upcoming novels is still unknown by the end of Crown of Midnight.