Tress of the Emerald Sea

Charlie is Tress’s romantic interest. Although he is the duke’s son, he does not want to be a hero or marry a princess. Charlie instead wishes for a simple life, telling his stories and being with Tress. When the duke tries to keep them apart and use Charlie for his own ends, Charlie reveals his bravery by putting off all potential princesses and, once cursed, choosing to remain as a rat to protect Tress and prevent her from trying to save him.

For most of the novel, the story seems to be mostly free of any involvement from Charlie, making him seem almost like the helpless princesses of older tales and Flipping the Gendered Script. By the end, though, Tress realizes that he has been with her all along, in the form of Huck the rat. He plays a much more prominent role than it seems, at times acting almost as an antagonist, thwarting Tress’s plans to save him so he can keep her safe.

Ann, Fort, Salay, and the Dougs (the crewmembers, named “Dougs” by Hoid) become Tress’s second family and her friends. They help Tress learn how to accept others’ support, and each of them teaches Tress about life on board a ship and the skills she will need for it. Tress sees in all of them an inner goodness and regret over what they believe is the accidental killing of all sailors on board the ship they attacked. Each of the crew members feels trapped and ashamed, something that Tress helps them alleviate by freeing them from Crow’s control.

The crew and Tress come together to as a family, and the crew’s desire to follow Tress completes Tress’s journey to becoming a leader. The crew’s own journey is from helplessness to asserting their own power. They grab onto the hope Tress provides and learn to stand up for themselves, helping Tress with her plans so that they may free themselves.

These three characters are all visitors to Tress’s land. Hoid, also called Wit or Cephandrius, is both the narrator and a crew member on the Crow’s Song. He is a character with great, although so far undefined, power, who travels between all the worlds of Sanderson’s Cosmere. As the narrator, Hoid is dramatic and playful; as the cabin boy in the story, he is presented as a “pathetic” character who struggles with being cursed, which affects his ability to communicate clearly.

Ulaam, called a vampire by the crew, is actually a Kandra—a creature from the world of Sanderson’s Mistborn series. Kandra are mistwraiths who have been given consciousness, creatures who can digest the bodies of humans and other creatures and imitate them. On the freeing of their world, Kandra began to experiment more with what their bodies could do, which is why Ulaam experiments with his body so often.

The Sorceress has the power of Lightweaving, which allows her to create false images with light. She is the ultimate antagonist of the novel, the one Tress must defeat, although she is only felt as a far-off threat for most of the novel. Her Lightweaving power indicates that she is from the world of the Stormlight Archive.

Each of these characters’ reasons for being in Tress’s world is never revealed, but none of them hide their identities as “aliens” to the world. They are the true power in that world, as evidenced by Hoid’s defeat of the Sorceress, once Tress breaks his curse.