Sword and sorcery has a complicated history with female characters. For decades, women in the genre were sidelined—arm candy, damsels, or plot devices whose purpose began and ended with how they reflected the men around them. The genre has come a long way since then, but there's still work to do.
I try to do better. The women in my stories carry every bit of the gravitas that the male characters do. In many ways, they're more important to the story than their male counterparts. They have their own agendas, their own skills, their own flaws. They aren't defined by their relationships to the men in their lives.
Elizabeth West is a master thief—widely considered the best in Alchester. She grew up in the Shambles with an absent father and a mother lost to addiction, clawed her way up through petty thieving rings, and built an unmatched reputation as someone who delivers on impossible jobs. Infiltration, disguise, combat—Liz brings all of it. She's one of the characters highest on my list for expanded stories because there's so much more to tell.
Serena Walkerton started as a supporting character. Her mother's plan was for Serena to marry well and elevate the family's social standing. Serena had other ideas. She pursued sorcery against her mother's wishes, apprenticing under not one but two masters. Her raw power rivals that of any master sorcerer, but controlling it has been the struggle of her life—she's lost control twice, and people paid the price. By the final book in The Alchemancer series, Serena has never felt more in command of her magic and her destiny. She went from a planned minor role to one of the most important characters in the entire series.
Captain Madilyn Oakthorn leads the Mavens, a mercenary company she built from the ground up. Raised by dwarves after being found as an infant outside their gates, Madilyn trained at the forge and in combat before striking out on her own. Her nickname—Mad Madilyn—wasn't earned from a victory. It came from a catastrophic failure during the Siege of Kulane that cost her best people their lives. That failure reshaped everything about how she leads. Now, every operation gets rigorous planning, and every recruit gets tested not just for fighting skill but for independent thinking.
Elara Millwright walked away from a comfortable life as a grain merchant's daughter in Millbrook to join the King's Patrollers. That alone sets her apart—most patrollers come from backgrounds with far fewer options. But Elara didn't join for lack of alternatives. She joined because she understood that comfortable lives are only possible when someone else is willing to stand watch. She trained for years, proved herself in the field as a skilled mediator and tracker, and then volunteered for one of the loneliest duties in the Simmaron: wardkeeper. Her job is to maintain the ancient druid barriers that contain the Well of Darkness—an evil so old and so potent that it can't be destroyed, only contained. She does this largely alone, in a small cabin at the edge of the world, checking the wards three times a day and studying ward-craft texts by candlelight. In The Midwinter Ward, those wards start failing on the longest night of the year, and Elara has to make choices that defy everything she's been taught—including trusting a wounded goblin shaman and the ghost of a patroller dead for centuries. She doesn't have sorcery or a mercenary company at her back. What she has is discipline, magical sensitivity, a sword, and the stubbornness to keep going when the smart play is to run.
Kayra Weslin is a Knight-Esquire of the Order, born into the noble House of Weslin in Kallendor. Her family tried to mold her into a proper lord's daughter—social engagements, formal dresses, a carefully planned marriage. Kayra wanted sword practice and horses. She carries what her father called an anger she was born with—not rage for its own sake, but an intensity that burns when she feels constrained or when the people she's sworn to protect are threatened. Her weapons master saw it as a source of great strength. Her liege lord, Sir Devon, worried it would destroy her. They were both right. In The Hall of the Wood, Kayra answers a Call of Heroes and travels deep into the corrupted Simmaron Woods, where she faces threats that strip away every advantage she's ever trained with—no fellow knights, no support structure, just her sword and the Three Merits she's sworn to uphold: Courage, Truth, Honor. When fear threatens to overwhelm her, she doesn't pretend it isn't there. She buries it under that anger and fights anyway. She's fiercely loyal to Holly, her herald and closest friend, and when Holly is taken, Kayra doesn't hesitate. She doesn't strategize. She runs into the dark after her.
Mathilda defies easy classification. She's not a witch, not a sorceress—in her own words, "something else." Erratic, unpredictable, fiercely loyal. She makes deals with death priests one day and protects the city the next. Her motives remain entirely her own, and she answers to no one. She has a daughter she'll do anything to protect and a familiar—a fat, obnoxious crow named You—who delights in causing trouble.
Uhl is a world with political intrigue, criminal enterprises, aristocratic power struggles, and magical threats. There's no shortage of room for complex women to operate in that space—and no excuse for not putting them there.
Who are some of your favorite female characters in fantasy? I'd love to hear about them.
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