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Tuesday, October 27

Fitchner Character Guide

Finish Red Rising and choose it above to read this guide. Later-book sections remain hidden until you select those books.

Fitchner pixel art

Character guide · first on-page appearance: Red Rising

Who is Fitchner?

Fitchner is House Mars’s Proctor at the Institute. He oversees its candidates and gives them advice with plenty of mockery. Scarred and untidy, he looks nothing like the polished Gold authority Darrow expects.

He knows how the competition really works and warns Darrow about dangers the official rules leave out. Darrow only gradually learns why Fitchner sometimes helps him and sometimes refuses.

Current status

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Appearance and personality

Fitchner chews gum, uses slang and wears a wolf badge. Students underestimate him because of his appearance, but he is a capable fighter with equipment they cannot match, including hidden pulseArmor.

Fitchner warns Darrow, brings medicine and returns his possessions. He also sends candidates into the Passage and lets the Institute’s violence continue. Darrow eventually discovers that Sevro is his son, which helps explain why he is unwilling to confront the other Proctors openly.[1]

Attributes and abilities

Fitchner knows the Institute is shaped by patronage and secret deals. Some merits are hidden, the Proctors know who killed Julian, and Nero has arranged protection for the Jackal. He tries to make Darrow understand what he is up against.

Fitchner can offer supplies and warnings, but he will not support an attack on the Proctors that could put Sevro in danger. Darrow takes his equipment by force and goes ahead without his permission.[2]

Fitchner wins the position of Rage Knight by defeating Proctor Jupiter in the trials. Serving Octavia gives him access to her court and command of Praetorians while he secretly leads the Sons of Ares. To keep that cover, he has to help enforce the regime he wants to destroy.[3]

Quicksilver explains how the Sons survive through hidden cells, money, intelligence and bases such as Tinos. Fitchner leads the rebellion, but depends on many people to keep it running.[4]

History

Book 1

Red Rising

Fitchner selects Darrow with House Mars’s tenth pick and administers the Passage. He then gives the survivors their conquest task while refusing to solve their immediate problems. When Titus’s abuses destabilize the House, Fitchner leaves responsibility with the students rather than ending the violence himself.

As Darrow rises, Fitchner reveals the difference between public rules and private arrangements. The Proctors know Julian’s killer, and Nero’s son is meant to win. He brings medicine during Darrow’s recovery and later urges him to accept a good apprenticeship rather than challenge the arranged outcome.

Darrow identifies Sevro as Fitchner’s son and understands why the Proctor will not risk open revolt. Fitchner is unable to stop Darrow’s attack on Olympus. He later reveals Mustang’s identity, forcing Darrow to decide how to judge the trust he has placed in her.[5]

Book 2

Golden Son

Fitchner returns as Octavia’s Rage Knight. He warns Darrow about Aja and stops an Oracle from poisoning the Sovereign. Darrow has little reason to suspect the official protecting Octavia is also leading the rebellion against her.

When Darrow’s attempt to reach Octavia fails, Fitchner is ordered to prove his loyalty by killing him. Instead he reveals himself as Ares and carries Darrow out. He later explains the origin of the rebellion: after an engine disaster on Triton, he met and married the Red woman Bryn. A Carver enabled them to have Sevro across the imposed biological divide. The Board killed Bryn when the alteration was discovered.

Fitchner believes the Society’s entire system is responsible for Bryn’s death. He builds the Sons to bring that system down. At the Triumph, Darrow receives an ivory box containing Fitchner’s severed head. He learns his protector is dead without yet knowing how he was killed.[6]

Book 3

Morning Star

After Fitchner’s death, Sevro struggles to inherit Ares without reducing the cause to revenge. Quicksilver explains their earlier partnership: he initially wanted an assassin for commercial rivals, but became Fitchner’s partner and the Sons’ financier.

Adrius keeps parts of Fitchner’s body as trophies and uses them to torment his enemies. Sevro later chooses to forgive Cassius publicly, invoking what his father wanted the rebellion to achieve.[7]

Book 6

Light Bringer

Sevro later receives a recording made after Bryn’s death. He learns that The Path to the Vale was hers and that it connects him to Athena’s network. The Daughters of Ares reveal how far his father’s preparations reached beyond the Core.

Fitchner’s original helmet is recovered after Cassius dies. Sevro puts it in Cassius’s coffin, honoring the man he once hated for helping kill his father.[8]

Relationships

Sevro

Fitchner wants to help Darrow, but will not risk Sevro’s life to confront the other Proctors. Once Darrow learns they are father and son, he understands the caution that has frustrated him.[9]

Fitchner tells Sevro about Bryn shortly before he dies. Sevro learns that his mother was a Red and that her murder led his father to create the Sons.[10]

Bryn

Fitchner and Bryn need a Carver’s help to have a child across the Society’s engineered Color divisions. When the Board discovers the alteration, it kills Bryn. Fitchner turns against the system that made their family illegal.[11]

Darrow

Fitchner tries to teach Darrow how the Institute actually works. Darrow keeps refusing to accept its limits, especially when Fitchner urges him to settle for a good apprenticeship.[12]

When Fitchner reveals that he is Ares, Darrow discovers that his difficult Proctor has been directing the mission all along. Fitchner rescues him and speaks openly about the rebellion, though he still worries about Darrow trusting Mustang with his identity.[13]

Quicksilver

Quicksilver finances the Sons and provides resources they need to operate in secret. He and Fitchner begin with different aims, but become partners in trying to overthrow the Society.[4]

References

  1. Red Rising, chapters 17–21, 29, 34, 39. ↩
  2. Red Rising, chapters 25, 29, 34, 39. ↩
  3. Golden Son, chapters 13–17, 32, 42, 46. ↩
  4. Morning Star, chapters 21. ↩1 ↩2
  5. Red Rising, chapters 17–21, 25, 29, 34, 39, 43. ↩
  6. Golden Son, chapters 13–17, 32, 42–46, 51. ↩
  7. Morning Star, chapters 9, 21, 54, 59. ↩
  8. Light Bringer, chapters 11, 59–62, 83, 89. ↩
  9. Red Rising, chapters 39. ↩
  10. Golden Son, chapters 46, 51. ↩
  11. Golden Son, chapters 46. ↩
  12. Red Rising, chapters 17, 29, 34, 39. ↩
  13. Golden Son, chapters 42, 46. ↩