(b.353) The son of King Muchbled of the Blooddrinkers and his much younger wife Tatinj. He was born in Bodwin's Howe in 353, on the same day that an earthquake hit the area and opened up the ruins of the Bodwin's Howe Undercastle. He currently lives in the Howe, as a ward of Sir Mordoc Torsilley. He is a foster brother to Benn, a boy of the village, who was born a few days after him.

King of Karakiraz. A man of shadowy origins, Yum Kax is generally thought to have been born circa 315 AC, of mixed Ghorgandi-Gel stock, somewhere on the western borderlands of Karakiraz. As a young man he entered mercenary service under the Great Noyan Kazajian. He served the noyan faithfully and well during the period of the Shield Crusade of 337 and the conquest of Karakiraz in 339-341, rising through the ranks and achieving a status very high for one of non-pure Gel blood. When Kazajian and his heir died in 346, Yum Kax entered the service of the noyan of Karakiraz (one of the splinters of the Great Gel Empire). Influential with the army, Yum Kax was the leader of the plot which overthrew the noyan in 349, following the defeat of the noyan by the Valliorans under King William and Prince Erling of Montour. Yum Kax set himself up as King of Karakiraz, declaring himself the rightful heir of the pre-conquest kings and marrying a kinswoman of the last Ghorgandi monarch (who was herself the widow of the deposed noyan).

Yum Kax maintains control of the kingdom through the loyalty of his mercenary army. By 352 he has already put down several revolts, one attempted putsch led by a Montese-sheltered claimant to the throne, and two known assassination attempts.