Character Profiles

Maraka “Mari” Rojko

Mari in Circle: The Spinner's Journey
Aliases: Dreamer, Wolf Queen
Race: Human (Wolf Sanguine)
Birthday: 13 September
Fatestone: Jade Crescent Moon
Books: Mari is one of the protagonists in The Spinner’s Journey, The Love of the Necromancer, and The Lonely Wanderer, although she is referenced in Within Golden Walls as well as briefly in each of the Guard and Haven cycles.
Personality: A natural leader, Mari is confident, assertive, clever, and occasionally too stubborn for her own good. Although she tends to be predominantly self-reliant, over the years she’s learned how to ask for help…but only when absolutely necessary.
Earth Hobbies: Mari sings backup and plays bass guitar in an indie-punk band called The Hunted, along with her friends Gren and Jimmy.
Special Talents: Once in Aorea Mari learns how to shapeshift into a wolf, which is her totem. In her role as Dreamer she also receives messages from the divine in the form of dreams and visions that help her and her friends on their journey to the Spinner’s Sanctuary as well as in subsequent adventures.
Background: Mari was born to a tribe of travelers in rural Slovakia. She moved to Saffron County, Virginia with her father Ilya when she was seven years old. While in Saffron County, she befriended her neighbors Gren and Hal. The three children bonded over a love of running around the woods and, eventually, running in general. However, Mari’s adventures truly began the summer before what was supposed to be her junior year of high school. After cross country practice her entire world changed with the arrival of a new neighbor, Laria, whose presence awakens all the dreams of Mari’s ancestors and starts the four friends on their magical journey. 

Laria Sumner

Laria in Circle: The Spinner's Journey
Aliases: Summoner, The Fifth, Lady Spinner
Race: Human (Nietheran Sanguine) 
Birthday: 03 April 
Fatestone: Blue Chalcedony Teardrop 
Books: Laria features as a protagonist in The Spinner’s Journey and Within Golden Walls, although she is referenced in the rest of the Circle cycle as well. 
Personality: Initially quiet and shy when first meeting people, Laria grows into her own and becomes more confident as the stories progress. She is creative, calm, and a good mediator. 
Earth Hobbies: Laria dances (mostly ballet, although she dabbles in tap and jazz), writes poetry, and draws and sketches. She never developed much love for painting or for playing the piano, although she excels at both. Laria also makes jewelry, which is the only hobby she maintains on Aorea once she becomes the Fifth Spinner. 
Special Talents: Laria possesses the most rare totem of all: Nietheran; thus, once subject to Ruv’s guidance on Aorea, Laria learns how to shapeshift into a unicorn. She also possesses the power to interpret the weaving on the Loom within the Spinner’s Sanctuary. 
Background: Laria grew up just outside of Boone, North Carolina, where she was homeschooled by her father David, who is something of a free spirit. Her parents divorced when she was 10 and her father quickly remarried. Laria and her brother Timothy remained living with their father and stepmother in NC, where Laria continued to pursue her dancing, poetry, and art, until one summer her family decided to move to Saffron County, VA. They chose to settle in the house directly across the street from the Rojko residence, thus beginning the spiral of events leading Mari to recall her destiny and set the Destined Four on their correct path. 

Gren Vandern

Gren in Circle: The Spinner's Journey
Aliases: Wanderer, Tiger King 
Race: Human (Tiger Sanguine) 
Birthday: 20 December 
Fatestone: Sapphire Star 
Books: Gren is one of the protagonists in The Spinner’s Journey, The Love of the Necromancer, and The Lonely Wanderer, although he is referenced in Within Golden Walls as well as briefly in each of the Guard and Haven cycles. 
Personality: Sensitive, intelligent, and deeply creative, Gren’s many talents serve him well throughout his life. However, he prefers to keep that side of himself under lock and key, and instead often plays the clown. 
Earth Hobbies: Gren runs cross country with both Mari and Hal. He also plays Frisbee in the spring and Soccer in the winter. Gren’s primary extracurricular activity, however, entails being the lead singer and guitarist of the indie-punk band The Hunted, along with friends Mari and Jimmy. 
Special Talents: As the Wanderer, Gren was born with subconscious knowledge of the songs that unlock the traveling circles between the worlds as well as within Aorea. Once in Aorea, he learns how to shapeshift into a Bengal Tiger, which is his totem. 
Background: Gren grew up in Saffron County, VA with his parents and his best friend Hal. His father Brad works with the local government and helped Ilya and Mari Rojko settle into the neighborhood. Gren quickly became friends with Mari, and in fact is the one responsible for naming her “Mari” instead of Maraka. Originally reluctant to believe in any sort of magical destiny, Gren quickly adapts and becomes integral to all of the ensuing adventures. 

Howard “Hal” Smith 

Hal in Circle: The Spinner's Journey
Aliases: Guardian
Race: Sierren 
Birthday: Unknown; celebrates his adoption instead on 07 July 
Fatestone: Jet Sword
Books: Hal features as a protagonist in The Spinner’s Journey and Within Golden Walls although he is also a supporting character in the rest of the Circle cycle.
Personality: Hal is quiet and reserved by nature, but he is also fiercely loyal to his friends and family and very protective of them. He is also quite intelligent and prides himself on his logic. 
Earth Hobbies: Hal runs cross country with Mari and Gren, but he is naturally adept at all sports.
Special Talents: As a Sierren Hal cannot shapeshift into a totem animal because he does not possess the necessary blood (shapeshifting is a uniquely human ability). However, his Sierren blood does imbue him with superb athleticism, health and a long lifespan.
Background: Hal’s human parents found him on their doorstep when he was just an infant, without so much as a note, merely a plain blue blanket. Unbeknownst to all (including Hal himself) he was a Sierren changeling, an ancient race of native Aoreans and the parent species of humanity. Hal falls instantly in love with Laria when he meets her, a product of the Sierren tendency to mate for life. 

Ruv 

Race: Human (Wolf Sanguine)
Age: Although his exact age is unknown due to the circumstances of his youth, Ruv estimates that he is roughly 21 when he first meets Mari, Gren, Laria, and Hal.
Books: Ruv is a supporting character in The Spinner’s Journey, but he comes to feature as a protagonist in The Love of the Necromancer and The Lonely Wanderer.
Personality: Assertive, clever, and a natural leader, Ruv can turn any situation to his advantage and he is not above playing the trickster now and then. Underneath his playful bad-boy exterior, however, this Alpha has a heart of gold.
Special Talents: Ruv possesses the ability to shapeshift into a Wolf, which is his totem. He discovered his abilities quite by accident when still a child on Earth. He is also able to sense when another human has enough of any one totem within them in order to complete a shift.
Background: Ruv woke up one day in the middle of the forests of the Carpathian Mountains with no memory of who he was or how he got there. He was perhaps ten years old, although his amnesia prior to that point in his life leaves his exact age impossible to determine. He wandered about the woods for a few days until he came across some hunters from a nearby group of travelers, who subsequently took him in and raised him as one of their own. Several years later in a scuffle with some of the other boys, Ruv sprouted a tail, earning himself the name of “Ruv,” which means “Wolf.” After that he would sneak off to the woods to practice the transformations until he could complete the shift with ease. Eventually Ruv left the tribe and set off wandering Europe, seeking out and recruiting other shapeshifters, or Sanguines, into his pack. On one of his adventures Ruv and his pack stumbled through a mushroom circle and into Aorea, where their adventures took on a whole new level.

Brae

Race: Leshii (Dryad)
Age: As time travels differently between the worlds, Brae’s exact age is difficult to pin down—the last time she traveled to Earth was during the peak of the Roman Empire—but she has been alive for somewhere between four and five hundred Aorean years.
Books: Brae is a supporting character in The Spinner’s Journey and The Lonely Wanderer, but she features as a protagonist in The Love of the Necromancer.
Personality: Spunky, assertive, independent, and prone to wanderlust, Brae is the mobile spirit of a birch tree and acts accordingly. She wanders as far and as often from her roots as possible, often getting in to trouble with the other Leshii, who prefer to wander closer to the home grove in southern Nomansland. However, Brae—when she’s not causing trouble among her Leshii relatives—is generally friendly, if somewhat conceited.
Background: Brae first enters the story as a rescued sacrifice when the Destined Four cut her down from the Prison Tree, where she was tied up to serve as a dragon’s lunch. In return Brae agrees to help them on their journey. Brae comes to play a larger role in the second novel of the Circle cycle as she joins the group sent to Dahrigek.

Micaleth

Race: Nietheran (unicorn)
Age: Somewhere around 600 Aorean years. He doesn’t really keep track.
Books: Micaleth features in a supporting role in The Spinner’s Journey, but he becomes a protagonist in later books, including The Love of the Necromancer and Within Golden Walls.
Personality: Micaleth is not your stereotypical unicorn. He may appear to be docile and serious upon first meeting him, but before long he’ll unleash his ironic sense of humor and it all goes downhill from there. Sense of reverence for the magical? Sure, he has one...somewhere...
Origin: Micaleth is one of the Niethera who reside not in Faerie with the vast majority of their kind, but rather in the Spinner’s Sanctuary, helping to protect the Spinner and the very magic that both connects and separates the three worlds.


Coming soon: Morgana, Morgaine, Lucius, Lucille, Sallia, and Tahlen!