The Heroes

Raphael James Lancaster (“Rafe”). Born 1870. Now First Heir of Minor House Stravaigor, he was a pilot in Her Majesty’s Aero Corps. His eyesight damaged when he was shot down in the autumn of 1899 while fighting in the Boer War, he takes up a new career as owner of a coffeehouse—now called Lancaster’s Luck—located near the Britannic Imperium Museum in London. Elevated to First Heir on the death of his half-brother, John, in Abydos in January 1901.

Edward Fairfax Winter (“Ned”). Born 1869. First Heir of Convocation House Gallowglass. Ned is an Aegyptologist. Widowed when his wife Laeticia was killed in an autocar accident in 1898, he is the father of two sons, Harry (b. 1893) and Jack (b.1898), and a stillborn daughter, Elizabeth (1895).

House Gallowglass

Henry Winter. The Gallowglass. Princeps of Convocation House Gallowglass, the most powerful House in the Imperium. Holding the Treasury, House Gallowglass is responsible for the Imperium’s finances. Ned’s father.

Theodoric (Theo) Winter. The Gallowglass’s second son. Born 1876.

Master Harry Winter. Ned’s eldest son. Aged nine.

Sam Hawkins. Ned’s chief guard since Ned was Harry’s age. Dangerous. Dedicated. Single-minded in Ned’s defence.

George Todd. A senior House Gallowglass guard.

Banger Bill. A senior House Gallowglass guard.

 

 House Stravaigor

James Lancaster. The Stravaigor. Princeps of Minor House Stravaigor, the House of traders and entrepreneurs, allied to the Cartomancer.

Eleanor Lancaster. James’s younger daughter, born 1880.

Hugh Peters. Rafe’s former batman in the Aero Corps, now his loyal manservant.

Albert Tatlock. The Stravaigor’s chief guard (and assassin)

 

Ned’s team of archaeologists excavating Hermopolis, Aegypt, over the 1902-1903 digging season

Raoul Archambault. French. Philologist and a foremost authority on hieroglyphics. Expedition artist. Also, cousin and lover to Madame Stravaigor, James Lancaster’s estranged French wife.

Willem Baumann. German. Anthropologist and archaeologist.

Tom Causton. American. Archaeologist. Specialist in historical architecture.

  

Other players in Aegypt and Abyssinia, 1902-03 digging season

El Khawaga Pasha. Head of the Khedive of Aegypt’s security service.

Friedrich Lansbach. German. Anthropologist and archaeologist.

Günter Reitz German archaeologist from Donnauschingen in Württemberg. Known to the British Imperium as an informant and agent.

Leopold Von Saxe-Eichshofen-Altenfeld. German archaeologist and agent for the Kaiser and the Stadtschloss. The illegitimate son of Duchess Victoria Leopoldine of Saxe-Eichshofen-Altenfeld, fathered by her footman.