List of characters in Earthsea
This is a list of the names of characters in the stories about the fantasy world of Earthsea, created by Ursula K. Le Guin. Nomenclature. In Earthsea, one character often has several names. This is because in Earthsea, the true name of a person has power and a wizard can wield total power over someone whose name he knows. Consequently, a person will guard his/her true name closely and share it only with those whom he or she can trust completely. Through childhood up to puberty, children are known by a child-name; at  their rite of Passage, about the age of thirteen, children are given a true name in the Old Speech, usually by a wizard, that they will keep for the rest of their lives. In the Kargad lands this is not done and a name given to a child functions as that person's name for life: it may, or may not, be the person's true name. In dealings with most people, the Hardic peoples of Earthsea use a "use-name", usually a common word in the Hardic language (rendered into English) by which they are identified. Use-names are  often words referring to animals ("Dragonfly, Goha, Hare, Hawk, Hound, Lark, Murre, Otak, Otter, Sparrowhawk, Tern"), plants ("Alder, Apple, Aspen, Beech, Hemlock, Heather, Ivy, Lily, Littleash, Moss, Rose, Rowan, Vetch, Yarrow"), stones and other substances ("Diamond, Flint, Golden, Ivory, Jasper, Onyx"): but some are simply sequences of sound without obvious meaning. A person may keep one use-name all his or her life, or may change it at whim, or may be known to one group of people by one name and to others by another name. While each true name only refers to one person, use-names may be  shared by several people: there are, for instance, three different characters called "Rose". In the list below, true names are used where known, otherwise use-names and nicknames. A secondary list below gives the use-names and child-names of those whose true names are known. Names. True names are shown in bold type, use names in "italics". Child names, names of unknown status and nicknames are unmarked. Titles in brackets are the novels or stories in which the character appears. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T  U Y Erreth-Akbe. Introduced in "A Wizard of Earthsea", Erreth-Akbe is one of – and possibly the most important – characters in the historical back-story of the Earthsea novels. Erreth-Akbe lived many centuries before the primary events that take place in the Earthsea novels. Erreth-Akbe was a famous hero and a great sorcerer, as well as counselor and good friend to King Maharion. Erreth-Akbe was a ‘dragonlord’, i.e. esteemed well enough by some dragons that they were willing to speak with him. Erreth-Akbe gained undying fame when he fought and defeated the Firelord, a being  of immense power who sought to conquer the lands of the inner sea and stop the sun at midday so there would be light unending. In 440, he carried the Ring of Morred (known also as Elfarran's ring, later to be called the Ring of Erreth-Akbe) to King Thoreg of the Kargs, as a sign of peace between the Archipelago and the Kargad Lands. However, he found himself in the midst of a coup, organised by a Kargish High Priest, who broke the ring in half. Half of the ring was passed along the descendants of the Kargish  royalty and eventually lost generations later when the last descendants were exiled to a remote unnamed and uncharted isle, while the other half was kept in the Tombs of Atuan. In 448, Erreth-Akbe fought the ancient dragon Orm on Selidor, the remotest island in the West Reach. The battle resulted in the death of both Orm and Erreth-Akbe. Later, after Ged found half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, he met the dragon Orm Embar, descendant of Orm, on Selidor. Orm Embar told Ged the history of the ring half he carried. When Ged was an archmage, he  met the ghost of Erreth-Akbe summoned by Cob, in the place where the hero died. The dragons on Selidor and in the West Reach remember Erreth-Akbe and respect him. Ged later said of his meeting with Orm Embar: