Ivy and her co-stars have much appeal. Ivy is attractively exotic, interesting to the usual fantasy reader, and yet she is quite human enough to make friends with the reader. Her familiarity makes her alien-ness digestible. The other people who populate this world have their own destinies as much as they provide a backdrop for Ivy’s, and each person will have his or her turn on the stage.

Ivy has her own section—being the protagonist has its benefits. After Ivy, there is a section of main characters. A main character is a person who is or was very important in Ivy’s life, normally in more than one book or carrying a heavy, priceless role in the story line. These characters are given a large spread and a color picture. [Note: I made the character drawings for this encyclopedia before I got more drawing practice doing Negative One, so sometimes they're disproportional and not so good.]

A character is termed a “secondary character” if he or she is rarely in the spotlight but is important in some way. The difference between secondary and main characters is that secondary characters help point spotlights rather than stand in them. These characters get a little less detailed profiles and black-and-white pictures.

Minor characters have their roles as well—perhaps they are important in the lives of other main characters, or maybe they have one or two chapters where they are very important before they move on. Minor characters are either around all the time in the background, rarely making a peep, or else they jump onto the page for a very short time before the action leaves them behind. Unless they are simply “background” characters, minor characters rarely surface again. They receive short blurbs and head sketches in pencil.

And finally, incidental characters. Some of these people don’t even have names. They’re classmates, service workers, people the main characters pass on the street or speak to in passing. Maybe they’re not even actually in the story; maybe they’re just mentioned because someone is talking about her boyfriend or a main character relates a story starring an offstage person. Depending on the person, an incidental character will usually have a one- or two-sentence blurb reminding the reader who they are and what they did to deserve a mention. Some incidental characters are not mentioned here at all, but if someone who had a walk-on role in the Ivyverse did not get a shout-out, it’s because he bagged her groceries and went on with his life. I’m sure he’s having a good time somewhere. We’ll get an extra to play him in the movie.