Chess Quest · Character Guide
Chess Quest Characters
Explore the heroes, rivals, family members, mentors, and opposing players whose choices reshape the board across the Chess Quest series.
Spoiler Guide
Each profile opens with the safest useful introduction available for that character. Later revelations appear under clearly marked Deep Canon headings, especially for characters whose loyalties, identities, family ties, or roles on the board change as the series develops.
Core Players
- Rich Witz — the reluctant Paladin learning what heroism actually costs
- Nadia Petrenko — rival, challenger, and increasingly vital ally
- Angela Alfredson — Rich’s loyal, grounded friend
- Aaron — guide, mentor, relative, and unpredictable companion
- Mallory — charismatic rival whose role on the board grows darker
- The Nemesis — Rich’s paired opponent in the ancient Paladin–Nemesis conflict
Family & Mortal Life
- Phillip Witz — Rich’s missing father and a Paladin with his own Nemesis
- Laura Tinney — Rich’s resourceful aunt and source of stability
- Helena Witz — Rich’s mother, carrying grief and family secrets
- Minerva Witz — guardian of the Witz family’s past
- Joe Stockton — a schoolyard threat from Rich’s ordinary world
Knights, Sovereigns & Ancient Rivals
- Jezreel — Phillip’s fire-wielding Nemesis and Mallory’s aunt
- Palad — ancient Sovereign of the Paladin line
- Nemes — ancient Sovereign of the Nemesis line
- The Gray Knight — master of the altered Maze and agent of a third power
- St. George — legendary dragon-slaying Paladin
- Count Percy von Drake — St. George’s black-armored Nemesis and former friend
- Bruno — dark knight whose limits and loyalties do not always match Jezreel’s
Ancient Guides, Scholars & the Third Branch
- Arlenen — dream-guide whose deepest identity reaches back to the family’s beginning
- Temperance — Sovereign of the Knights Temper and guardian of the starstone
- Jan — scholar whose translations recover the first knights’ lost history
- Frieda — Jan’s wife, Paladin, and powerful white queen
- Miles — St. George’s loyal medieval squire