Character Archive · Knight & Scholar
Jan
Scholar of the First Knights
- Role: knight, trainer, expedition companion, and scholar
- Specialty: ancient writing used by the first knights
- Temperament: warm, curious, self-deprecating, and persistent
- Family: husband of Frieda
A Knight Who Reads the Walls
Jan brings a different kind of strength to the mixed expedition through the altered Maze. While other knights focus on traps, combat, and finding the next route, Jan studies the ancient glyphs carved into the Corridor and records them in his notebook.
Recovering What the Sovereigns Forgot
His knowledge of the first knights’ writing becomes strategically essential. Jan translates a story about two princes, a princess, a shattered kingdom, and a younger sister—an account that preserves the lost origin of Palad, Nemes, Temperance, and the Knight Father after the Sovereigns themselves can no longer remember it clearly.
Scholar and Companion
Jan’s humor and intellectual enthusiasm make him an unusual presence among heavily armed knights. He can train Rich, fight when necessary, and still become completely absorbed by a wall of old symbols. The series treats that curiosity as a strength rather than a distraction.
Deep Canon · The Translation That Changes the War
Jan’s translated notebook becomes more important than he realizes. Frieda later tells Rich that there is no other translation like it. When Rich confronts Palad and Nemes with the forgotten beginning of their feud, Jan’s work gives the younger knight something neither ancient ruler still possesses: the story of why the family broke apart.
Michael D. Young 