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Character guide · first on-page appearance: Iron Gold
Who is Diomedes au Raa?
Diomedes au Raa is the Rim’s Storm Knight and a son of Romulus and Dido. His duty to his family, his command and the laws of hospitality can pull him in different directions when outsiders arrive in the Dominion.
Current status
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Alive
Alive
Alive
Appearance and personality
Diomedes has a pale, beardless face and shoulder-length white-gold hair streaked with black. He is formal and disciplined, even when someone insults him. He loves Seraphina but will not always indulge her, and he takes the protection of guests seriously.[1]
Attributes and abilities
He is an exceptional razor fighter whose ability becomes unmistakable when violence breaks out around his family. He also serves as a commander and representative of the Rim. He can distinguish a personal insult from a duty that requires action, refusing to let every provocation dictate his choices.
Diomedes knows when to restrain himself. He cannot overrule Pandora aboard her fleet, and he will not let an insult draw him into a duel that would undermine his diplomatic mission. He still uses frightening punishments against people under his authority.[1]
Diomedes spots something wrong with the apparent Helios’s movements and exposes the impersonation. He discovers it too late to prevent the ambush.
Diomedes wins House Kalibar’s help, arranges an approach to Fá through Cyaxares and leads the allied attack. He also tries to bring Darrow and Lysander together. His family name does not let him dictate terms to the Moon Lords: they must elect him Hegemon, and he needs their support for reform.[2]
History
Book 4
Iron Gold
Diomedes meets Seraphina and the captives brought back with her. He restrains Pandora’s treatment of them, but punishes Lysander’s manipulation by suspending him outside a flying ship.
Diomedes fights when Dido moves against Romulus, then stops at his father’s command. Later, he refuses to violate the protection owed to Cassius as a guest. After the truth about Ganymede emerges, he gives guarded support to the coming war. Lysander is subsequently told Cassius has died, but never sees his body.[1]
Book 5
Dark Age
As an envoy of the Moon Council, Diomedes represents a more limited mandate than Seraphina’s eagerness for battle. He endures Ajax’s attempt to humiliate him rather than start a duel outside that mission. Negotiations bring the Rim into cooperation with the Core, while the campaign costs Seraphina her life. Cassius’s return alive also exposes the earlier death report as false.[3]
Book 6
Light Bringer
Diomedes admits that he concealed Cassius’s survival because he considered him an honorable opponent. He initially places considerable trust in Lysander as a possible Core partner, fights beside him at Phobos and then turns home when the Rim comes under attack.
A flaw in an apparent Helios’s movements lets Diomedes expose an impostor, but too late to stop the fleet ambush. Dido is killed and he is captured. Lysander sends him away in an escape pod; Darrow’s group recovers him. Sevro violates Darrow’s prohibition on torture before Aurae intervenes.
Diomedes helps rescue civilians and works with Darrow and the Daughters against Fá. At Athena’s court, he acknowledges that Golds have failed to provide the security they use to justify ruling others.
After the victory, Diomedes tries to arrange an alliance with Darrow and Lysander. Gaia wants him to hide Atlas’s crimes to preserve Gold rule. He refuses, risking his life to challenge her, and eventually wins her support.
The Moon Lords elect Diomedes Hegemon. He expects Lysander to join the alliance, but instead sees Cassius’s body displayed and Demeter’s Garter attacked. He helps Darrow hold an escape route through the collapsing council building, then joins the relief effort.
Diomedes joins the Covenant with Darrow and the Daughters. It provides protections for lowColors and a military alliance, though it leaves reforms unfinished. He commits the Shadow Armada to the war, while Aurae stays in the Rim as his emissary.[4]
Relationships
Romulus and Dido
Diomedes fights against Dido’s coup until Romulus orders him to stop. He obeys his father even as their family splits over whether to go to war.[5]
Aurae
Lysander notices Diomedes watching Aurae sing. He suspects an attachment but does not know what has passed between them.[6]
Aurae loves Diomedes but refuses to accept a relationship in which he remains her master. He begins rejecting the hierarchy that has kept them apart. She later stays in the Rim as his emissary to the Daughters.[7]
Cassius au Bellona
Diomedes hides Cassius’s survival because he respects him. Cassius later helps recover Diomedes from the escape pod, and they become allies.[8]
Darrow
Darrow challenges Diomedes’s belief that treating slaves well can justify owning them. They work together to rescue civilians and defeat Fá. Darrow still has to admit his responsibility for Ganymede and answer to the people he harmed.[9]
Lysander au Lune
Diomedes works with Lysander to negotiate cooperation between the Rim and Core. He approaches the mission more cautiously than Seraphina, who wants to fight.[10]
Lysander saves Diomedes during the ambush. Diomedes trusts him and hopes to include him in a peace agreement with Darrow. Lysander betrays that trust, rejects the alliance and turns on the Rim.[11]
References
- Iron Gold, chapters 20, 22, 26, 36–41, 47–48. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3
- Light Bringer, chapters 45, 62, 65, 71, 74, 81–86. ↩
- Dark Age, chapters 2, 4, 6, 14, 87. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 2, 7, 20, 28, 33, 36, 43–46, 48, 52–53, 56, 60–62, 71, 74, 76, 81–82, 85–89. ↩
- Iron Gold, chapters 25–26, 47–48. ↩
- Iron Gold, chapters 36. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 48, 52, 60–62, 89. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 2, 48, 52, 61. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 53, 56, 60–62, 76, 82, 85–89. ↩
- Dark Age, chapters 4, 6. ↩
- Light Bringer, chapters 45, 61, 81–89. ↩