The Poppy War

Kitay is a key secondary character. He is scrawny, freckled, large-eared, wiry-haired, and has a photographic memory. He is a year younger than everyone else in his class but earned the highest mark in Sinegard on the Keju. Because his father is Empress Daji’s defense minister, Kitay has a clear understanding of politics. Kitay rarely engages in classism and colorism; he is Rin’s only friend at Sinegard, supporting her even as she is ostracized by her other classmates. The two form a lasting and close friendship. Kitay often publicly stands up for Rin, sometimes flaunting authority to do so.

Kitay is a foil to Rin. He demonstrates the heroic qualities that Rin lacks, like empathy and morality. Kitay’s pleas for mercy directly contrast the Phoenix’s—and Rin’s—calls for annihilation. He resists the dehumanization of the Mugenese, wondering what they look like and what drives them to fight. He acts as Rin’s moral compass throughout the trilogy; he is appalled by her destruction of Mugen, and he rejects her justifications, claiming that not even the Federation’s horrific war crimes could be equal to total genocide.

Kitay’s stance is especially powerful because he is a survivor of the Golyn Niis Massacre. He experiences the brutality of war as the Federation brutally assaults, tortures, and murders his people. Kitay survives by hiding under corpses, and he is hardened by his experience there. Though he dehumanizes the Federation soldiers after the massacre, he refuses to include all Mugenese in this perception the way Rin does. Though he cares about her, Kitay ultimately rejects Rin’s bloodlust; after Rin declares her intent to overthrow Daji, Kitay tells her, “I don’t know what happened to you in that temple, […] but you are not Fang Runin” (516). 

Nezha is immaculately beautiful like the rest of his family: He has porcelain-colored skin, almond-shaped eyes, and silky hair. His father is the Warlord of Dragon Province. He is antagonistic at the Academy, but after war breaks out, he allies with Rin and apologizes for his behavior at school.

Nezha is initially classist, racist, and colorist. He and Rin spend their first year getting into verbal and physical scuffles. He demonstrates The Influence of Stories on Social Structures; he stereotypes Rin and Tutor Feyrik, lower-class southerners, on their very first meeting. When discussing Altan’s quiet nature with his classmates, Nezha suggests Altan doesn’t know how to talk because Speerlies are simply “wild and bloodthirsty” (76). He spouts racist pseudoscience, claiming that the Speerly race are closely related to monkeys and have smaller brains than humans.

Nezha serves as Rin’s foil. His Sinegardian beauty and training contrast Rin’s rough manners and shaky combat abilities. During the attack on Sinegard, Rin and Nezha form a nearly perfect battle formation because of all the time they spent observing each other. There is a supernatural undertone to the forces that draw Rin and Nezha together, and Enki suggests that Nezha is a shaman, though Rin rejects this idea. Rin does not find out the extent of Nezha’s abilities until the second book in the trilogy; Nezha’s last appearance in The Poppy War occurs in Chapter 19, when he is abducted by Federation soldiers during the attack on Khurdalain.

Venka is a secondary character who attends Sinegard with Rin. She is Rin’s antithesis, the embodiment of Sinegardian beauty and privilege. She is childhood friends with Nezha and Kitay, and she dotes on Nezha and discriminates against Rin at the Academy.

Rin and Venka are separated during the attack on Sinegard. They meet again at Golyn Niis after the massacre. Venka experienced the brutality of war when was kept by the Federation in a “relaxation house,” where she was beaten and continuously sexually assaulted. Both of her arms are “broken at the wrist” as a result of her assault (423), and she is deeply traumatized by her experiences. She recounts the horrors she witnessed in detail, and she makes Rin promise to burn the Mugenese for her in retribution. Rin parts from Venka when she and Altan go to the Chuluu Korikh, but Venka becomes a close ally to Rin later in the trilogy.

At Sinegard Academy, Rin studies under several masters. Besides Jiang, Jun and Irjah influence her the most.

Jun Loran is Sinegard’s Combat teacher. He is foul-tempered, strict, and cruel. He espouses many of Nikan’s classist and racist views. He constantly disparages Rin, Altan, and the Cike. He tells Rin that he hates students like her: “peasants” who think they can hold their own among the noble classes. He expels Rin from his class, calling her “peasant trash” (84).

What Jiang is to Rin, Jun is to Nezha. He favors Nezha because, as Rin says, “[Nezha’s] father’s got half the faculty here by the balls” (86)—but also because he genuinely believes in the superiority of the upper classes. Rin suspects Jun of breaking Academy rules and privately training Nezha, just as Jiang trains her.

Jun is Jiang’s foil. Jun is a product and tool of the Empire who thinks “that things matter only if they are getting results immediately, results that can be duplicated and reused” (195). He is the opposite of Jiang, who favors slow, customized, holistic training. Jun is a static character; he dislikes and discriminates against Rin, questions Altan’s authority as Cike leader, and remains loyal to Daji and the Warlords.

Irjah is Sinegard’s Strategy teacher. While Jiang guides Rin to greater understanding of the universe, Irjah is a grounding force that provides stability and mentorship. He is no-nonsense and rarely gives praise, but he is democratic in his treatment of students. When Rin offers a particularly brutal strategy in class, he carefully explains to her that strategy fails if it embitters the populace. He raised Altan after Altan was rescued from Shiro’s laboratory, but he also enabled Altan’s weaponization. At Golyn Niis, Irjah is the sole voice of reason before he is brutally flayed by the Mugenese and displayed above the city walls. His death breaks the Militia’s resolve.

Jiang is Sinegard Academy’s Lore teacher and Rin’s mentor. He is white-haired but smooth-faced and appears ageless. He infamously never attends Lore class but is often seen making mischief, especially if it annoys Jun. He takes an interest in Rin when he catches her practicing advanced martial arts in his garden, and he trains her in unconventional techniques that not only allow her to win the Tournament, but also unlock her innate connection to the Phoenix. After Rin connects with the Phoenix for the first time, Jiang, worried about her reckless ambition, trains her to carefully reach the Pantheon of the gods. He often warns Rin to be cautious; he comments that Rin and Altan are dangerously similar, and he reveals that he failed to save Altan from being used by the military. He does not believe shamanistic power should be weaponized, but instead learned slowly and used to contemplate the interconnectedness of the universe. He tells Rin that the price of calling the gods for war is too high, but Rin rejects his warnings and follows Altan instead.

When Rin pesters Jiang about his role in the Second Poppy War, he grows uncomfortable and changes the subject, saying he doesn’t remember. In fact, Jiang is the Trifecta’s long-lost Gatekeeper. Jiang’s memory is compromised, and his Gatekeeper powers are controlled by a “Seal” that begins to break when the Mugenese attack Sinegard. Fearful of his own power, he seals himself away in Chuluu Korikh. When Rin and Altan come to free him, they ask him to join the war; he refuses, claiming that Altan can no longer be saved and warning Rin that her current “path leads only to darkness” (457).

Su Daji is the Nikara Empress and the Trifecta’s Vipress. The Trifecta subjugated Nikan’s Twelve Warlords into fretful compliance during the Second Poppy War. Daji’s rule over the Warlords is shaky and there are many dissidents. Nezha’s father, the Dragon Warlord, spurns Daji by failing to attend Sinegard’s Summer Parade. When Rin sees Daji, it is obvious that she is exercising a supernatural power that compels devotion. She is the product of The Influence of Stories on Social Structures; much of her hold on the throne stems from legends of the Trifecta’s supernatural abilities.

Daji incites the Third Poppy War on two occasions: by murdering Tyr and by telling the Federation that Altan and Rin are at Chuluu Korikh, leading to their capture and Altan’s self-immolation. At the end of the book, Rin vows to punish her for betraying Nikan. The Dragon Republic, the sequel to The Poppy War, follows Rin as she aids the Dragon Warlord’s coup.

Altan is a major side character who is five years Rin’s senior. He has dark skin and scarlet eyes. He experiences The Brutality of War and the Dehumanization of the Enemy from a young age; he bears surgical scars from the Federation’s human experiments. As a result, Altan is obsessed with revenge, and his driving motivation is anger.

Rin and the rest of the first-years at Sinegard Academy idolize Altan, whose fighting prowess is made more compelling by the fact that he is supposedly the last of the Speerlies—an island race of warriors wiped out by the Federation of Mugen at the end of the Second Poppy War. Altan is subject to The Influence of Stories on Social Structures; wild rumors about him and the Speerlies spread throughout the Academy after Rin’s class sees him fight.

When Rin is assigned to the Cike, she learns that Altan is her commander: He was drafted into the Cike after he graduated. At first, he proves a creative and adept commander, but he grows increasingly erratic. After the Golyn Niis Massacre, Rin discovers that Altan has become addicted to opium to drown out the Phoenix’s voice. Addiction is used against him as a tool of control; Shiro reveals that Altan was purposely fed drugs to ensure his loyalty to the army.

Altan self-immolates to save Rin after they are captured by Federation scientist Shiro, blowing up the lab in which he was experimented on during his childhood. Rin believes that Altan “had been tired of living” and won one last time in seeing through his martyrdom (501).