Alchemised by SenLinYu follows Helena Marino, a healer piecing her memory back together, and Kaine Ferron, the man holding her captive two people whose history is tangled up with a war between the Order of the Eternal Flame and the necromantic regime known as the Undying. This guide covers the main cast and the most significant supporting characters: who they are, which faction they belong to, what they can do, how they’re connected, and what happens to them.
Character details below are drawn from the published novel and cross-checked against reputable book-summary and publishing sources. Where a detail couldn’t be confirmed with confidence, it’s been left out rather than guessed at.
Spoiler note: This guide covers character identities, roles, and relationships throughout the book. A separate section further down covers major character deaths and is clearly marked.
Alchemised Characters at a Glance
| Character | Role | Faction / Affiliation | Ability | Importance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helena Marino | Protagonist, healer | Formerly the Order of the Eternal Flame | Vivimancy; hidden animancy | Main character |
| Kaine Ferron | High Reeve, love interest | The Undying (secretly a double agent) / Ferron Guild | Animancy; iron alchemy | Main character |
| Morrough / Cetus | Leader of the Undying | The Undying | Necromancy | Main antagonist |
| Luc Holdfast | Principate of Paladia | Order of the Eternal Flame / Holdfast family | Combat alchemy | Main character |
| Lila Bayard | Paladin | Order of the Eternal Flame | Combat alchemy | Major supporting character |
| Soren Bayard | Paladin, Lila’s twin | Order of the Eternal Flame | Combat alchemy | Supporting character |
| Atreus Ferron | Kaine’s father, Iron Guildmaster | Ferron Guild / later the Undying | Iron alchemy | Supporting character |
| Aurelia Ferron | Kaine’s wife | Ferron Guild | Iron transmutation | Supporting character |
| Ilva Holdfast | Order Council member, Luc’s great-aunt | Order of the Eternal Flame | Non-alchemist | Supporting character |
| Shiseo | Alchemist, Helena’s research partner | Undying research division | Alchemical research (nullium) | Supporting character |
| Jan Crowther | Order Council spymaster | Order of the Eternal Flame | Non-alchemist | Supporting character |
| Dr. Stroud | Head of the Repopulation Program | The Undying | Vivimancy | Supporting character |
| Pol Holdfast | Luc and Lila’s son | Holdfast family | Unconfirmed | Minor / epilogue character |
| Enid Ferron | Helena and Kaine’s daughter | — | Unconfirmed | Minor / epilogue character |
Who Are the Main Characters in Alchemised?
Helena Marino
Helena is the protagonist. She wakes up in captivity with no memory of the past year of her life, believing she erased it herself to protect something important.
Before her memory loss, she trained as a healer at the Alchemy Institute and served the Resistance during the war. She’s a vivimancer a life-magic healer but also a hidden animancer, meaning she can work with minds and memory, an ability that’s persecuted on both sides of the conflict, which is why she keeps it secret.
Her relationship with Kaine Ferron starts as a Resistance assignment: she’s sent to win his trust and report back. It becomes real, and complicated, well before the story’s present-day captivity storyline picks up. Her relationship with the Order of the Eternal Flame is loyal but strained she’s repeatedly used by Order leadership and eventually pushed out after using necromancy to save Luc Holdfast’s life, a decision the Order treats as heresy.
Kaine Ferron
Kaine is the High Reeve of the Undying, Morrough’s most feared general, and heir to the Ferron family’s iron guild. As a teenager, he was forced by Morrough to kill Apollo Holdfast after Morrough tortured Kaine’s mother, Enid, to make him comply. That event defines the rest of his arc.
He spends the war as a Resistance double agent embedded inside Morrough’s regime. His abilities include animancy, which he uses (under orders) to search Helena’s suppressed memories, and the metal-based alchemy tied to his family’s guild. His marriage to Aurelia Ferron is a political arrangement rather than a real partnership.
Morrough / Cetus
Morrough is the High Necromancer and leader of the Undying, ruling post-war Paladia through reanimated armies and forced alchemist breeding programs. His true identity is a major plot reveal: he’s actually Cetus, an ancient alchemist and sibling of Orion Holdfast, the founder of Paladia. His war is ultimately a centuries-old grudge against his brother’s legacy rather than an ideological one.
He controls Kaine through the trauma he inflicted on Kaine’s mother, and he treats Helena as an asset first for the breeding program, later as a possible source of the memories he believes she’s hiding.
Luc Holdfast
Luc is the Principate of Paladia, leader of the Resistance’s Paladin forces, and Helena’s closest friend outside her relationship with Kaine. He’s the son of Apollo Holdfast, the man Kaine was forced to kill.
His relationship with Helena fractures after she uses necromancy to save his life; he and the Order both treat it as a violation, and it isolates her at a critical point in the story. His eventual partner is Lila Bayard, with whom he has a son, Pol.
Alchemised Supporting Characters
Bayard Family
Lila Bayard
Joined the Order of the Eternal Flame at fifteen and trained as a combat alchemist. She becomes Luc Holdfast’s partner and the mother of his son. In the endgame, she’s the one who tracks down and kills Morrough.
Beyond her relationship with Luc, Lila’s role sharpens considerably in the book’s final stretch, when her combat training and personal stake in the war put her in position to end Morrough’s rule herself.
Soren Bayard
Soren Bayard is Lila’s twin and a fellow paladin. He dies during a rescue mission; Helena reanimates him immediately afterward, at his own prior request, which puts her at odds with Order doctrine.
His death and reanimation work as one of the story’s clearest tests of Order doctrine against personal loyalty, forcing Helena to choose between institutional rules and a promise made to a friend.
Sebastian Bayard
Sebastian Bayard is Lila and Soren’s uncle and served as Paladin Primary to Apollo Holdfast before the war. He’s present for Soren’s death and doesn’t condemn Helena for reanimating him.
His role is largely supportive: as an experienced paladin from the previous generation, he provides continuity between the war’s earlier fighters and Lila and Soren’s generation.
Titus Bayard
Titus Bayard is Lila and Soren’s father, a former Resistance general from the previous generation of the war.
As a former general, Titus represents the Resistance’s older leadership, and his history helps frame how the conflict with the Undying escalated across more than one generation.
Ferron Family
Atreus Ferron
Atreus Ferron is Kaine’s father and the Iron Guildmaster of Paladia. He sides with Morrough during the war, is later executed by the Order for defying its authority, and returns afterward as a lich occupying the body of Jan Crowther a complication that directly affects Kaine.
His refusal to break with the Undying, even as his family suffers for it, makes him one of the story’s clearer examples of institutional loyalty overriding personal responsibility.
Aurelia Ferron
Aurelia Ferron is Kaine’s wife in an arranged marriage meant to secure a family alliance. She has iron-transmutation abilities of her own and is killed by Atreus during the collapse of the Ferron household.
Her presence at the Ferron estate adds tension to Helena and Kaine’s dynamic, since her resentment of Helena is tied directly to the arranged, loveless nature of her own marriage.
Holdfast Family
Apollo Holdfast
Apollo Holdfast was Luc’s father and Principate before the war. He’s killed by a young Kaine, who was forced into it under Morrough’s torture of Kaine’s mother.
Though he dies before the novel’s main events, Apollo’s murder is the inciting trauma behind Kaine’s entire arc, and it also shapes Luc’s motivations once he takes on the role of Principate.
Ilva Holdfast
Ilva Holdfast is Luc’s great-aunt and a senior Order Council member. She’s not an alchemist her authority comes from decades of institutional experience. She’s one of the two Council members who recruits Helena to spy on Kaine, and she dies from complications following a wartime injury.
As one of the Council members who sets Helena’s mission in motion, Ilva is partly responsible for the plot’s central storyline, even though she doesn’t survive to see how it plays out.
Pol Holdfast
Pol Holdfast is Luc and Lila’s son, appearing mainly in the epilogue as part of the next generation rebuilding Paladia.
His appearance signals the story’s closing theme of generational continuity, representing the next chapter of the Holdfast family after the war’s end.
Other Important Characters
Shiseo
Shiseo is an alchemist who works alongside Helena on nullium, a resonance-suppressing weapon used during the war. Their research partnership becomes a genuine friendship.
His research role gives Helena an ally largely outside the Order’s or the Undying’s direct control, making their partnership one of the more grounded relationships in a story otherwise defined by coercion and hidden agendas.
Jan Crowther
Jan Crowther is an Order Council spymaster, pragmatic and calculating, who briefs Helena on Kaine’s background before her mission begins. After the war, his body is taken over by the reanimated Atreus Ferron.
As the character who sets Helena’s mission in motion, Crowther’s early decisions ripple through the rest of the story, and his body’s later possession by Atreus ties the Order’s inner circle directly into the Ferron family’s unfinished business.
Dr. Stroud
Dr. Stroud oversees the Undying’s Repopulation Program and monitors Helena’s health as a valuable asset to Morrough’s regime. She’s a vivimancer working for the Undying.
Her clinical oversight of Helena represents the regime’s broader institutional control over captive alchemists, making her one of the story’s clearer symbols of how the Undying uses medicine and science as tools of control.
Falcon Matias
Falcon Matias is a spiritual counsellor on the Order’s Council and Helena’s direct superior within its hierarchy for much of the story.
As Helena’s superior, Matias represents the Order’s more procedural, rule-bound side, in some contrast to the more manipulative tactics used by figures like Crowther.
Alchemised Character Relationships
Helena and Kaine
Their relationship starts as a Resistance operation Helena is assigned to win Kaine’s trust and report on him. What was meant to be a controlled asset relationship becomes genuine on both sides, which complicates every decision either of them makes for the rest of the war and afterward. The captivity storyline that opens the book is really the two of them relearning honesty after years of secrecy and memory suppression got in the way.
Kaine and Morrough
This relationship runs on coercion, not loyalty. Morrough controls Kaine through the trauma inflicted on Kaine’s mother, and Kaine performs devotion to the Undying while secretly working against it as a Resistance spy. Nearly every interaction between them carries a second, hidden meaning.
Helena and the Order
Helena serves the Order of the Eternal Flame as a healer and later as a spy, but its leadership particularly Ilva Holdfast and Jan Crowther repeatedly uses her without full transparency. When she breaks Order doctrine to save Luc’s life, the institution turns on her rather than protecting her, undercutting the idea that the Order is a straightforwardly “good” side.
Bayard Family Relationships
Lila and Soren’s bond as twins is defined by protection rather than competition, with Soren consistently prioritizing Lila’s safety over his own recognition. That loyalty shapes his final decision to ask Helena to reanimate him if he dies in the field.
Ferron Family Relationships
Atreus’s relationship with Kaine is distant and often violent, and his refusal to reckon with what Morrough did to his son defines his failures as a father. Kaine’s marriage to Aurelia is similarly hollow an alliance rather than a partnership and it ends with her death at Atreus’s hands.
Alchemised Characters by Faction
| Faction | Characters | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Order of the Eternal Flame | Helena Marino, Luc Holdfast, Lila Bayard, Soren Bayard, Sebastian Bayard, Titus Bayard, Ilva Holdfast, Jan Crowther, Falcon Matias | Resistance leadership and its governing body |
| The Undying | Morrough / Cetus, Kaine Ferron (double agent), Dr. Stroud | Necromantic regime ruling post-war Paladia |
| Ferron Guild | Atreus Ferron, Kaine Ferron, Aurelia Ferron | Industrial house controlling Paladia’s iron production |
| Holdfast Family | Apollo Holdfast, Luc Holdfast, Ilva Holdfast, Pol Holdfast | Ruling family of Paladia |
| Bayard Family | Lila Bayard, Soren Bayard, Sebastian Bayard, Titus Bayard | Combat alchemists allied with the Order |
Alchemised Characters and Their Abilities
| Character | Ability | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Helena Marino | Vivimancy, hidden animancy | Vivimancy heals and manipulates life force; animancy affects minds and memory |
| Kaine Ferron | Animancy, iron alchemy | Reads and alters minds; also works with metal through the Ferron guild discipline |
| Morrough / Cetus | Necromancy | Reanimates the dead and draws power from souls bound to the Undying |
| Atreus Ferron | Iron alchemy | Metallurgy-based alchemy tied to the Iron Guild’s industrial power |
| Aurelia Ferron | Iron transmutation | Directly manipulates iron structures |
| Dr. Stroud | Vivimancy | Used clinically to monitor and control alchemists under the Undying |
| Lila Bayard | Combat alchemy | Battlefield-oriented alchemy used in direct combat |
| Soren Bayard | Combat alchemy | Weapon amplification and battlefield survivability |
For a full breakdown of how vivimancy, necromancy, and animancy work as a system, see our Alchemised magic system guide.
Alchemised Characters Who Die
Major spoilers below. This section names character deaths in detail.
| Character | Fate | Role in Story |
|---|---|---|
| Morrough / Cetus | Killed by Lila Bayard near the end of the book | Main antagonist, leader of the Undying |
| Soren Bayard | Dies during a rescue mission; reanimated on the spot by Helena | Paladin, Lila’s twin |
| Aurelia Ferron | Killed by Atreus Ferron during the collapse of the Ferron household | Kaine’s wife |
| Atreus Ferron | Executed by the Order; returns afterward as a lich possessing Jan Crowther’s body | Kaine’s father, Iron Guildmaster |
| Ilva Holdfast | Dies from complications following a wartime injury | Order Council member, Luc’s great-aunt |
| Shiseo | Dies later in the story | Alchemist, Helena’s research partner |
Helena, Kaine, Luc Holdfast, and Lila Bayard all survive to the end of the book.
Alchemised Character Timeline
| Character | Before the War | During the War | After the War |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helena Marino | Studies at the Alchemy Institute | Serves as a Resistance healer; recruited to spy on Kaine | Held captive with suppressed memories; eventually escapes with Kaine |
| Kaine Ferron | Forced to kill Apollo Holdfast as a teenager | Rises as High Reeve while secretly spying for the Resistance | Holds Helena captive at Spirefell; eventually flees with her |
| Morrough / Cetus | Ancient alchemist plotting against Orion Holdfast’s legacy | Leads the Undying’s war against the Order and Resistance | Rules post-war Paladia until Lila Bayard kills him |
| Luc Holdfast | Heir to the Holdfast Principate | Leads Paladin forces; relationship with Helena fractures over her use of necromancy | Continues as Principate; raises Pol with Lila |
| Lila Bayard | Joins the Order at fifteen | Fights as a paladin alongside Luc and her brother Soren | Partners with Luc, raises Pol, later kills Morrough |
Are Alchemised Characters Based on Harry Potter Characters?
Yes, with one important caveat: only part of this connection is officially confirmed.
Alchemised began as Manacled, a Harry Potter fanfiction by SenLinYu published on Archive of Our Own between 2018 and 2019, imagining a version of the wizarding world where Voldemort won the war. SenLinYu signed a book deal with Del Rey in 2024, and Alchemised with all references to J.K. Rowling’s characters and universe removed and the story rewritten into an original setting was published on September 23, 2025 (per coverage from TODAY.com and Business Insider).
The direct character mapping confirmed by SenLinYu is limited to three names: Hermione Granger became Helena Marino, Draco Malfoy became Kaine Ferron, and Harry Potter became Luc Holdfast. This mapping was confirmed by the author in interviews with Rolling Stone and TODAY.com around the book’s September 2025 release. Beyond those three names, readers familiar with Manacled have drawn their own comparisons between other characters in the two versions, but those parallels come from fan analysis, not from anything the author or publisher has confirmed.
Frequently Asked Questions About Alchemised Characters
Who are the main characters in Alchemised? Helena Marino, Kaine Ferron, Morrough (Cetus), and Luc Holdfast.
Who is Helena Marino? The protagonist a healer and hidden animancer who wakes up in captivity with no memory of the past year of her life.
Who is Kaine Ferron? The High Reeve of the Undying and Helena’s captor, secretly a Resistance double agent and the man she loved during the war.
Who is Morrough? The leader of the Undying and the book’s main antagonist, later revealed to be Cetus, an ancient alchemist with a generations-old grudge against the Holdfast family.
What are the names of the Alchemised characters? The core cast includes Helena Marino, Kaine Ferron, Morrough/Cetus, Luc Holdfast, Lila and Soren Bayard, Atreus and Aurelia Ferron, Ilva Holdfast, Shiseo, and Jan Crowther. This guide covers those and the other notable supporting characters in the sections above; it isn’t an exhaustive roster of every named character in the novel.
What abilities do the Alchemised characters have? Alchemists practice vivimancy (healing), necromancy (reanimating the dead), animancy (mind and memory work), or metal-based alchemy tied to specific guilds. See the ability table above for character-specific details.
Which Alchemised characters survive? Helena, Kaine, Luc Holdfast, and Lila Bayard all make it to the end of the book.
Sources & Fact-Checking
Written by: [Nancy Nisbah] – [site owner, book blogger, content writer “Book content editor covering fantasy and romantasy releases”] Reviewed by: [Nancy Nisbah], [Ravens Diary]
Character names, relationships, factions, and plot events in this guide are drawn from Alchemised by SenLinYu, cross-referenced against publisher and press coverage of the book’s Manacled-to-Alchemised adaptation. A small number of secondary details including a couple of minor characters’ full names could not be independently confirmed and have been left out or stated conservatively rather than guessed. If you spot an inaccuracy, let us know and we’ll correct it.
Final Thoughts
Alchemised has a large cast spread across a timeline that keeps folding back on itself, so knowing who belongs to which family and which side of the war makes the book significantly easier to follow. Once Helena, Kaine, Morrough, and Luc are sorted, the rest of the cast falls into place around them.
For more on the world of Alchemised, see our guides to the Alchemised magic system, Alchemised ending explained, and Alchemised summary.
Hi, I’m Nisbah – a blogger with over 2 years of experience creating content and a fantasy enthusiast who loves exploring magical worlds, fantasy books, captivating stories, and unforgettable characters. I share book recommendations, reviews, fantasy insights, and story discussions and creating guides to help readers discover their next great adventure.
