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Cast of Characters
Season 1

CHOSEN

EANNA
Anu, the Eanna: The last of her house, Anu is a little over 1200 human years. Her features were once common to the Eanna, with waist-length black hair, amethyst eyes, and bronze skin. Since her miraculous escape from the fire that destroyed her family, Anu has suffered through episodes that put strain on her immortal body. She has been promised to Malku, the future sarrum, since her youth. Forced to train for a position she never wanted, Anu hasn’t given up seeking the truth behind what happened to her family.

Emim: Deceased ruler of the Eanna and Anu’s grandfather. Rumored to be the last watcher. His death has been difficult for Anu to bear.

EEMURANNA
Etlu: Once the leader of the sarrum’s legions, Etlu has made empires rise and fall. The exact year of his birth is unknown. He is extremely tall, built by centuries of honed muscle instinct. Where he goes, war inevitably follows. No wonder he sought absolution saving and protecting Anu. Over the centuries, their relationship has evolved into something he both fears and needs. Etlu’s power stems from his ability to manipulate chosen and cursed minds, if they aren’t aware of his gift. Only Eanna knows his secret. He carries a slightly curved black sword etched in runes, rumored to have been bathed in the blood of a 10,000 cursed.

Belum: Older in appearance, Belum has served as Etlu’s second in command since the fall of the Roman Empire. He is married to Nina, the much younger daughter of Lady Tiamatu. Belum is cousins with Etlu’s mother. Part of his gift includes influencing his people’s emotions. Contrarily, he allows his young bride free reign to cause mayhem. To quote Belum, it keeps him young.

Malku: kin to Etlu; the future sarrum and son of High Lord Ninazu. He is known for his ruthlessness and cruelty, a cause for fear among both chosen and cursed. Upon Eanna’s birthday, Malku comes to claim his bride at last.

GISNU

Nina: The daughter and heir to Lady Tiamatu’s seat of power, Nina considers herself Eanna’s best friend. She is young, a mere 600 years old, she willingly married the older Belum, because of the sex of course. Nina wants to lead their house into a new era, where they blend with humans. She’s not highly ambitious or ruthless like her mother. Nina only wants a good life. While she’s very loyal to Eanna and Etlu, she often spies on Eanna for Etlu.

Lady Tiamatu– Born five hundred years before Vikings came into power in Norway, she has been ruler of House Gisnu for the past millennia. One of the few pureblooded Gisnu left, Tiamatu is highly ambitious, despite the dissolution of her house.

CURSED

SHADE
Charon: She has forgotten her exact age but remembers the rise of the first Roman Caesar. Though she is small, with short silver hair and trusting crystal-blue eyes, she is far from innocent. Charon has been an assassin for her father as long as she can remember. For the past few centuries, she’s considered herself a free agent, moving beneath her family’s radar. She’s developed quite a reputation as a death dealer among the cursed, to the point children are threatened by a visit from the Charon, should they misbehave.

Gabriel: The “golden prince” of the cursed is somewhere around 1200 years old, and looks more like a chosen, with golden hair and eyes that glow in his passion. However, he is the son of Elder Lord Rama and little brother of Charon. Currently, he is the leader of the underground resistance, waging a secret war against the chosen. He seeks to remove the chosen from power and make Isabol his queen, uniting their peoples again.

Elder Lord Rama: Born in Egypt during the early Ptolemaic Era BCE., Rama has long fought to destroy and undermine the chosen houses. His abuse of power has corrupted him physically, though this hasn’t lessened the respect of the shades, who call him king.

SEEKER

BITTERHELM CLAN
Wilhelm: At a little over 500 years, Wilhelm has seen the end of the Red War and countless atrocities committed by chosen and cursed alike. After his parents’ deaths, he sought refuge with his clan in the Canadian wilderness. But his little sister Isabol drags him into the war he abandoned years ago. Like many in his clan, he is marked by curling auburn hair, and sun-kissed freckled skin. His chest is tattooed in Nordic runes with the first Nephthys prophecy. He is the leader of the Bitterhelm Clan, though defers to his grandmother, the current Nephthys. Wil has always seen the world for what it could be. As Isabol would put it, he is a believer.

Isabol Nephthys: At a young age, she chose to become her elder brother’s first sword, forming a bond that made her feel older than her 200 years. What’s worse is she was marked as the next Nephthys, thanks to her blood-red eyes. Though she’s small, Isabol is extremely fast for her kind and admittedly trigger happy. She fell in with the shades and Gabriel after her mate Jakob died. She has wandered ever since, but Wilhelm’s supposed death changes her. She decides to find him, alive or dead, and bring him home where they belong.

ICEVEINS CLAN
Volney: The eldest seeker in the Iceveins clan, Volney lost an eye during the last war. He fought at Wilhelm’s side in the last New World skirmish two hundred years ago. It doesn’t take much to convince him to join the Bitterhelm siblings. He is one of the few who knows what Isabol’s legacy as a Nephthys truly is. He killed the redum tracking Wil, but not before learning “an angel” picked the cursed up and flew away.

Devona: Corwin’s mate; she was eager to join her family in seeking the prophecy and hopefully finding a cure for the sickness plaguing their kind.

Corwin: Like Wilhelm, Corwin was a true believer, and convinced his father and mate to join the Bitterhelm siblings in their quest. He dies when he trips over a mine sensor, before Isabol can stop him. His death breaks what remains of their makeshift pack.

A Game of Houses
The Last Seven

KURGAL – House of the Mountain
Led by NINURTA – Lord Who Completes the Foundation The Kurgal live deep in the Himalayas. Here they are still revered by neighboring humans who make effort to protect them. The chosen keep the outside world from coming in. Etlu brought Eanna here a century after fleeing the Carpathian Mountains. It was a place familiar to them both with its impossible peaks but far more dangerous and foreign. Ninurta taught Eanna how to inflict pain and then heal it, he taught her self-control for her rage. Etlu meanwhile learned all he could of the cursed movements in the countryside. He built allies and led their armies for a time to prevent the giant beasts from destroying human villages. He began to realize that his house did not have far-reaching enough abilities of control and began to grow discontent even more with the sarrum.
 
SHIIMTI – House Where the Wind of Life is Breathed in
Led by NINLIL – Lady of Airspace The Shiimti, live deep in the jungles of India. There they still live, where they began a lost civilization man has yet to unravel. Their palace holds many of India’s treasures and clues that might possibly be directed back toward the chosen. Here Etlu and Eanna come to visit after they leave the Kurgal, to find a far larger house. Yet even more secretive. The only reason they are allowed inside is that both are considered pure blooded, but Ninlil sees secrets in Eanna’s heart. She is the first to have any inkling of just who Eanna is. 
Among the Shiimti, women rule over the men, and there are three layers to every member. The first, is the outer persona they show strangers, welcoming but aloof and cool. The second, to those in the inner circle, the secrets deemed worthy to share. The third is kept guarded above all else, the soul. Shiimti is the only house that believes they all lay claim to their own souls. Because they face the present darkness every day in their jungles.

EBABBAR – House of the Rising Sun
Led by NINGISHZIDDA – Lord of the Artifact of Life It lies hidden in a small oasis within Iran where Sumer, the society the watchers created, began. It is an underground city mostly, beginning from the base of a lost Ziggurat. The underground world is a paradise and a world of beauty. It is here that the Ebabbar keep most of the old relics and scrolls. It is the best defended and considered a haven by others of their society.

EKUR – House Which is Like a Mountain
Led by NINHURSAG – Lady of the Mountainhead The Ekur are the most numerous of the houses. They are also the proudest, for most lesser come from this house, and serve the “pure-blooded” chosen. To the Ekur, to serve is the greatest honor. Most of the soldiers and weaponsmiths also come from this house. Ninhursag, their Lady, is a proud warrior herself, and of extremely high stature, eight feet in height. Their base of operation is in Siberia and extends far into the north in lands that man deemed inhabitable.

EMEURANNA – House of ANU’s Hero
Led by The Sarrum – High Lord of the Annunaki The Emeuranna are led by the sarrum himself, and his people. This is the only surviving chosen castle in the Carpathian Mountains, sheltered far from the outside world. The old ways are kept mostly intact here, as is custom for the High Lord’s seat. Here the Council of Seven makes overall decisions for the rest of the chosen. They now have the best defense against the cursed.

ERESH – The Scented House
Led by NINIGIKU- Lord Bright Eyed One of the last New World houses left in power, hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest, and source of the legends of El Dorado. The richest of all the houses by far. They have not intermarried with the humans hardly at all, there is no need. Unique to all other houses save the rumored lost eighth house, their memories are shared collectively if they desire, their movements always calculated. Any time they intermarry with other houses it is a very chess-like move, to bring back strength to their kind. While staying among them, Eanna learns she is closely related to them.

GISNU – House Causing Light
Led by TIAMATU – Lady of the Abyss The Gisnu were the first of the thirteen houses to journey across the lands to the ever growing and developing New World. They were also the first beings to settle there, after the Native Americans. Once based in the Northlands among the Vikings, the Gisnu set up their home in the north of what is now Canada. It is here that they have remained, and for a thousand years protected the forests, and peoples around them as best they could. They are more advanced than any of the other houses, keeping themselves updated with the latest technology.

Author Jennifer Silverwood

About the Author
Jennifer Silverwood was raised deep in the heart of Texas and has been spinning yarns a mile high since childhood. In her spare time, she reads and writes and tries to sustain her wanderlust, whether it’s the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, the highlands of Ecuador, or a road trip to the next town. Always on the lookout for her next adventure, in print or reality, she dreams of one day proving to the masses that everything really is better in Texas. She is the author of three series–Heaven’s Edge, Wylder Tales and the Borderlands Saga–and the stand-alone titles Stay and She Walks in Moonlight. She plans to release her first serialized Urban Fantasy, Angel Blue in August 2018.

Where to find Jennifer Silverwood
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