Credits: TheEnd

Micaiah

Micaiah used to live as a fortune teller travelling throughout Daein, while having the capital, Nevassa, as her base. Although she looks like a girl of 15-16 years old, she won’t disclose her true age.

Until the end of the Mad King’s War, three years ago, she generally disliked garnering public notice and didn’t really talk to anyone but her little brother, Sothe. After the war, while staying in Nevassa in order to reunite with Sothe, who had gone astray during the war, she got along with others for the first time. While coming into contact with people, their vitality and their kindness towards their fellow countrymen touched her heart deeply.

Micaiah has so far displayed the powers of reading minds, healing wounds by transferring them into her own body, and sensing nearby danger. However, she starts thinking that she might not be able to save others by using those powers.

Sothe

Micaiah’s younger brother, albeit unrelated by blood. Many mistake him for her elder brother judging by their appearance – however, by talking with Micaiah, it becomes clear that she’s the older one.

He was born in the back alleys of Daein’s capital, Nevassa, and picked up by Micaiah, living with her as family since his childhood. He steals for a living. Having fought in the Crimean Army under General Ike, his fighting spirit and prowess with a knife are at a level of excellence unexpected for a thief.

Yune (bird)

A small bird with orange feathers. It showed up in front of Micaiah after the war, and has not left her alone since then. As the word “Yune” suddenly popped up in Micaiah’s head the first time Yune landed on her finger, the bird has been thus called ever since.

Nolan

Nolan was a successful merchant since a young age, but lost his fortune and status when betrayed by his associates. After that, losing his faith in mankind and without any hope, he started living as a tramp in the back alleys.

At first, he thought the Mad King’s War was none of his business. However, when he discovers that large amounts of his fellow countrymen’s blood were being spilled due to the violence of Begnion’s occcupation army, who had entered the country as if it were their own, Nolan regains his willpower through his desire of saving them.

Leonardo

Son of a local noble, Leonardo lost his father and older brother in the Mad King’s War, and became an orphan as his mother soon followed them.

After Daein’s defeat in the war, the military school where Leonardo studied falls into the Occupational Army’s hands. While everyone is being sent to the prison camps, he flees alongside a few colleagues. However, those colleagues are captured, one after another, and Leonardo ends up being the last remaining one. When he loses his way and is cornered by the Occupation Army, he’s stopped by a youth of his age, who saves him. That was his first encounter with Edward, who would later become his best friend.

Edward

Edward was born and raised in the back alleys of Daein. Never having seen the faces of his parents, he lived on bravely, never losing his cheerfulness and hope even though he was at the very bottom. During Daein’s war with Crimea, there was a rumor that skilled individuals were being recruited as soldiers independently of their status. Based on that, Edward, thinking that he could perhaps leave that lifestyle behind, started training in order to become skilled with a sword. However, Daein soon lost the war, and that dream was crushed.

Eventually, the occupation army started the crackdown on the back alleys, but Edward’s characteristic quick wit and nimbleness allowed him to skillfully run from place to place and keep on living. At the time, he saves Leonardo by chance. In exchange for teaching the clueless Leonardo how to live in the underworld and ways of avoiding his pursuers, Edward is taught the basics of fighting, and the two quickly become friends.

The Dawn Brigade

The hatred towards the Occupation Army dispatched by the Begnion Empire increased day after day and, eventually, Micaiah announces that she wants to save the people of Daein. Sothe then questions Micaiah, who had always feared and disliked being concerned with other people, why she came to her decision. However, seeing it as a good tendency, he follows her designs and begins working in order to hinder the occupation soldiers’ activities.

Edward and Leonardo, while avoiding their pursuers, arrive together in Nevassa and take refuge in the back alleys for a few days. However danger draws closer and closer to them. There, suddenly, they’re saved from their predicament by Nolan!

Once Nolan gets to know that Edward and Leonardo had no other friends, he invites the duo to join him in his efforts to hinder the Occupation Army’s operations. Feeling the implicit consideration that he couldn’t leave the two of them to their own luck, they glady start operating together with him. On the other hand, as Micaiah and Sothe notice that there are other people doing the same thing as they are, they try getting in touch with them.

While Nolan and the others were being pursued, Sothe invites and guides them to one of his own hideouts. At that time, they soon loosen up as Micaiah heals Leonardo, who had been wounded in battle. Knowing that they all wanted to save many Daeins, even if alone, they join efforts.

As they start wondering that it’d be better to have a name when they started acting, Micaiah suggested “dawn” as if she had a sudden inspiration. As daybreak’s light was just reaching the alley they were in, everyone agreed with the idea. They also unanimously decided that Nolan, the oldest among them, would be their leader for the time being. Thereafter begins the resistance movement known as the “Dawn Brigade”.