Cao CaoMengde

The man who tamed the chaos of the late Han and laid the foundations of Wei.

Cao PiZihuan

Cao Cao’s heir, who accepted Emperor Xian’s abdication to become the first emperor of Wei.

Cao ZhiZijian

Cao Cao’s son and the finest poet of the Jian’an age.

Xiahou DunYuanrang

Cao Cao’s companion from the very first muster.

Xiahou YuanMiaocai

Wei’s western commander-in-chief, so famed for speed that men said he covered "five hundred li in three days, a thousand in six.

Cao RenZixiao

Cao Cao’s cousin and Wei’s greatest siege-defender.

Zhang LiaoWenyuan

From Lü Bu’s lieutenant to the first of Wei’s Five Elite Generals.

Xu HuangGongming

One of Wei’s Five Elite Generals, famed above all for iron discipline.

Zhang HeJunyi

A star of Yuan Shao’s army who came over to Cao Cao at Guandu — then fought for Wei for thirty more years among its Five Elite Generals.

Dian Wei

Cao Cao’s bodyguard captain, wielder of twin iron halberds.

Xu ChuZhongkang

Dian Wei’s successor as Cao Cao’s shield.

Xun YuWenruo

The "talent fit to aid kings" who served as the brain of Cao Cao’s camp.

Guo JiaFengxiao

The prodigy Cao Cao called "the man who will complete my great work.

Jia XuWenhe

The supreme survivor of the age — and its most unerring strategist.

Sima YiZhongda

The pillar of Wei — and the architect of the Sima ascendancy that ultimately swallowed it.

Yang XiuDezu

A scion of a great family with an uncanny knack for reading Cao Cao’s mind — most famously packing his bags the night the watchword "chicken ribs" was given.

Liu BeiXuande

From sandal-weaver of imperial descent to first emperor of Shu-Han.

Guan YuYunchang

Liu Bei’s right arm, and the incarnation of loyalty later worshipped as a god.

Zhang FeiYide

With Guan Yu, the other "match for ten thousand" — Liu Bei’s battering ram.

Zhao YunZilong

Famed for cradling Liu Bei’s infant son through the enemy at Changban, alone on horseback.

Ma ChaoMengqi

The "Splendid Ma Chao" of Xiliang.

Huang ZhongHansheng

The very archetype of the ageless veteran.

Zhuge LiangKongming

The chancellor of Shu-Han who drafted the three-way division of the realm from a thatched cottage — and became East Asia’s very byword for genius and devotion.

Pang TongShiyuan

The "Fledgling Phoenix" of the saying: win either him or the Sleeping Dragon and the realm is yours.

Fa ZhengXiaozhi

The chief architect of Liu Bei’s Yi Province and Hanzhong years.

Wei YanWenchang

Risen from household troops to Governor of Hanzhong — a appointment everyone expected to go to Zhang Fei, leaving the army stunned.

Jiang WeiBoyue

The Wei officer who crossed to Shu and inherited Zhuge Liang’s mission — the last pillar of the kingdom.

Ma SuYouchang

The brilliant theorist who could debate strategy till dawn — and the Ma Su of the famous tearful execution.

Ma LiangJichang

The hero of the idiom "white eyebrows" — finest of the five Ma brothers.

Liu ShanGongsi

The infant A-Dou carried from Changban in Zhao Yun’s arms — second and last emperor of Shu-Han.

Wang PingZijun

Barely able to read ten characters, yet he grasped the essence of war better than the theorists.

Xu ShuYuanzhi

A swordsman turned scholar — Liu Bei’s first real strategist in the Xinye days.

Sun JianWentai

The "Tiger of Jiangdong," founding father of Wu in all but name.

Sun CeBofu

The "Little Conqueror" who started with a thousand of his father’s veterans and took the entire Southland in a few years.

Sun QuanZhongmou

Heir to the Southland at nineteen, and first emperor of the longest-lived of the three kingdoms.

Zhou YuGongjin

The grand commander of Wu whose victory at Red Cliffs opened the age of three kingdoms.

Lu SuZijing

The strategist who designed — and then held together — the Sun–Liu alliance that defined the era.

Lü MengZiming

The hero of the "rub your eyes" idiom — the commander who remade himself through study.

Lu XunBoyan

The commander who broke Liu Bei at Yiling and Wei at Shiting — later chancellor of Wu, master of both pen and sword.

Gan NingXingba

The "Silk-Sail Pirate" who hung bells from his boats — then became one of Wu’s fiercest generals.

Taishi CiZiyi

Wu’s legendary archer, famed equally for keeping his word.

Huang GaiGongfu

Veteran of three generations of Sun lords — and the man who pulled the trigger at Red Cliffs.

Cheng PuDemou

First name on the roll of Wu’s generals — the "Elder Cheng" who served all three Sun lords from the very first muster.

Zhou TaiYouping

Sun Quan’s shield, whose loyalty was written in scars.

Zhang ZhaoZibu

The elder statesman to whom Sun Ce’s dying words entrusted "all matters within.

Zhuge JinZiyu

Zhuge Liang’s elder brother — and a pillar of the rival kingdom of Wu.

Dong ZhuoZhongying

The tyrant who marched his Xiliang legions into a power-vacuum Luoyang and swallowed the court whole.

Lü BuFengxian

The mightiest warrior of the age — "among men, Lü Bu; among horses, Red Hare.

Yuan ShaoBenchu

Head of the grandest house in the empire — "three Excellencies in four generations" — and once the man closest to the throne of all.

Yuan ShuGonglu

Yuan Shao’s cousin, who considered himself the true heir of the great Yuan house.

Liu BiaoJingsheng

The scholar-lord who rode into Jing Province alone, won over its clans, and kept it a haven from the wars for nearly twenty years.

Gongsun ZanBogui

The "White Horse General" whose cavalry terrorized the northern tribes.

Ma TengShoucheng

Descendant of the great Han general Ma Yuan, warlord of Xiliang, and father of Ma Chao.

Zhang Jiao

"The Azure Heaven is dead; the Yellow Heaven shall rise" — the prophet of the Yellow Turban Rebellion that opened the era.

Diao Chan

Counted among China’s Four Great Beauties — yet she never existed in the histories: she is the novel’s invention.

Emperor Xian

Liu Xie, last emperor of the Han.

He JinSuigao

The butcher’s son who became Grand General when his sister was made empress.

Wang YunZishi

The Han minister who brought Dong Zhuo down from within — outwardly compliant enough to win the tyrant’s trust, secretly recruiting Lü Bu until the blade fell in 192.

Hua TuoYuanhua

The legendary physician who became the very word for "miracle doctor.

Chen GongGongtai

Once on Cao Cao’s early staff, he turned coat and became Lü Bu’s brain — engineering the great revolt that handed Lü Bu his master’s home province.