The library is attached to an institution called the Floutenack School. This small college is patronized mostly by a relatively cosmopolitan branch of House Esclage that believes in sending their heirs to Triskellion to learn of the world and politics. In earlier days, these houses were often involved in either shipping along the SW coast of Calabria or moving slaves down the Via Salutis, before the Bisclavret absorbed the house and took over most of these activities for themselves. Since then very few Esclage actually own ships or move slaves, but the tradition continues for the few families that can afford it.

The school has always been small, as previously, when Esclage families had more money, they would first attempt to send their children to Dunwasser if possible, and the Floutenack School was considered a backup option. Today none of the Esclage can afford Dunwasser (the sole exception being the Baron Epicium), and few enough have the funds or desire to send their children on that Floutnack School now has only about one third of the student population as porcupines. Most of the students are, in fact, of the middle-classes of Triskellion.

The library at the school is not impressive, particularly, but it is somewhat voluminous, with porcupines in administrative positions all over the continent sending in copies of their work constantly. As such, the majority of the works in the library are simply records. The librarians long ago stopped trying to keep it in any semblance of real order, and piles of papers are stacked up everywhere collecting dust, which the DuVarges dutifully remove at regular intervals. They also move things at the request of the librarians, not themselves being able to read, save one.

It was into the small servants quarters room at the school, just off of the library, that Frenold and Gosselle DuVarge brought forth their several children, including Quentin. There are a considerable number of DuVarges, and would have been more in Quentin's family had not his mother died in childbirth long ago. He still considers the library home, and when he's short on money often ends up sleeping in a quiet corner of the stacks (no longer officially a servant of the school).

The school is also important as the place at which Quentin met his most important friend, a porcupine named Gernith of Thanon, when this noble scion was attending college in Triskellion.

Frenold has become rather lazy in his old age, leaving most of the actual cleaning and ordering of the library to his children who have not moved out. More than a decade after Gosselle died, Frenold remarried. Quentin tries to admire his father for having things pretty well worked out for himself, but deep down feels that he could have done more.

Gosselle DuVarge believed in raising a big family, as that's a tradition in hers. She was a somewhat caring mother, but often just too busy with life to attend to her brood closely. She died in childbirth at the age of 30 when Quentin and his brother were born.

Frenold's second wife, Melindia is a frivolous woman who does not work, instead living off the tiny wage that Frenold makes (and consuming all of it in the process). She is fun to be around and generally lighthearted, other than when confronted with her clear fear of ever having to actually work. Frenold dotes on her, not wanting her to work.

Turelis was 5 years old when Quentin and his brother were born, and her mother died in giving birth to them. Her young mind could not separate the two events, and she has since had an irrational hatred of her brothers. Quentin has tried to reconcile with her on several occasions, but she holds on to her hate and refuses to budge. This darkness in Turelis has made her a loner, and she's never been courted by anyone. She has resigned herself to being a bitter old spinster that makes a living sewing lace.

Wenna married Victorion Mazonis at the tender age of 17, and moved out of the house. She and Quentin are not close, but they do see each other on occasion.

Not as pretty as her older sister Wenna, and having even less prospects after her father paid the entire family fortune on Wenna's wedding, Alvan has had few suitors, none of them very serious. She is a romantic, however, being the only member of the family that has learned to read, and spends hours with her head in stories about dashing knights and fair damsels, expecting that one day her prince charming will arrive to sweep her off her feet.

Alvan lives at the library, does most of the work in keeping the place dust-free, and helps the librarians with organizing. Quentin likes Alvan, envying her for being able to read. He very much regrets his own illiteracy, and comes at times to his sister for help in reading things. For her part she enjoys being privy to some of his intrigues.

Alven is often at loggerheads with Melindia, having insisted for years that her step-mother should help out to earn her living.

Quentin's identical twin brother, Brondy is nothing like his brother in terms of personality. Never having left home, Brondy helps along with Alva, in maintaining the library. He largely keeps to himself, and seems to have little ambition other than inheriting his father's station. Quentin feels a certain special closeness from being a twin, but being so different sort of worries Quentin at times.

Daughter of Frenold and Melindia, Luli theoretically is engaged as a custodian of the library, but takes after her mother a bit, and does very little of the work. She has a desire to move out, however, and is looking for ways to make that happen. Quentin feels somewhat protective of his little half-sister, and though they're not particularly close, he tries to watch out for her.

Daughter of Melindia and an itinerant sailor of no repute, Shara has not lived with her mother since she married Frenold when Shara was 8. She was boarded at a dockside tavern, working for the family who owned the place and who had no children of their own. She married a traveling merchant named Sarvek Treziu when she was 21, but he failed to return from a trip a couple of years afterwards, with no notice of where he'd gone.

Quentin was unaware of Shara's existence until she came to him a 5 years ago asking for money from her “brother,” having lost all her savings to her missing husband. Quentin discovered that she'd turned to being a working girl to make ends meet, but wasn't doing well even in that business. Having made some contacts among the nobility, Quentin got her some meetings with men with more money, and this is how he got into this business as a way of advancing his own interests.

Frenold's father Grevain “retired” from working at the library decades ago when his first grandchild was born. He lives in a small shack that's been threatening to fall over for a long time now, located against a wall of the school on an untraveled alleyway. The kids take turns visiting him and bringing him food from the kitchen. Most of them enjoy hearing his stories of the olden days, when the school was full of noble porcupines.

Owner of a small shop that sells antiquities in new town.

Rennie is Frenold's sister, who comes often to see her nieces and nephews. She's very much a pinch-on-the-cheek type of aunt, and always smells funny.

Quentin has several other aunts and uncles, mostly on his mother's side. Those on his mother's side haven't spoken to the family to speak of since Gosselle died, and not at all since Frenold remarried. On occasions when one of them runs across Frenold or his kids, they simply turn away pretending like they don't exist.

Frenold's brother Morturo moved to Ardent when he was young, and he almost never visits, instead preferring to send rare correspondence.

Gernith is the son of a baronet with estates near Thanon, and his father sent him to the Floutenack School when he was 18. He took a liking to the wily weasel boy Quentin who he met in the library 16 years ago. Since that time their relationship has developed, until about 8 years ago Gernith revealed to Quentin that he was secretly a privateer, with his own ship. He has since engaged Quentin as his eyes and ears in Triskellion, angling to bring the Esclage back to some relative importance (or at least prevent them from having their nobility stripped as some have suggested).

Beyond this working relationship, they are pretty good friends as well, almost like brothers.

Folver is a Bisclavret wolf of an ancient line that still hangs on to some Phelan ways. He is Gernith's sponsor as a privateer. Quentin has only met Folver on a couple of occasions. He's a devious sort, dedicated to advancing the Bisclavret agenda.

Quentin grew up with an armadillo named Kron whose family are also servants at the school, Kron working in the kitchen. They would commiserate the bad treatment they got from the students; and about how they would someday get out of the school and strike out on fortunes of their own.

At one point Kron hatched a harebrained scheme to steal money from the school coffers so they would have enough to get a start out in the world. The plan was full of holes, however, and Quentin proceeded to point them out and say he would not participate. When Kron, angry, said he was going through with the plan on his own, Quentin told the dean that Kron was planing something, and they caught him before he could even find the coffer.

Despite this resulting in a far lighter sentence of banishment from the school than he would have gotten if he'd been caught with the money, Kron has never seen Quentin's act as anything other than a betrayal. Now he's involved with the thieves guild, and harasses Quentin every chance he gets. This infuriates Quentin as the least Kron could do is let it go.

Torrince and Quentin met not long ago, Torrince, a monkey, working as a runner for Prusifal (below). Quentin soon convinced Torrince that he was too talented to work for a boss like Prusifal that abused him, and now he has a job at a tavern. But most of his income comes from the schemes that he and Quentin come up with together. They have a great time hanging out and coming up with new way to fleece rich folks of their undeserved wealth.

Torrince has recently discovered he has a knack for magic, and has been considering whether or not he's too old to apprentice as a wizard or somesuch.

When Quentin was 17 he started seeing a Jackal girl named Vella. Believing the stereotype that eventually Vella would betray Quentin, and given their different species, he took the relationship very casually. When Quentin started to be interested in another weasel girl, Vella revealed that she actually had very strong feelings for Quentin. Quentin, still quite inexperienced at this sort of thing recoiled very Vella, leaving her on the spot.

She's never forgiven him for his treatment of her. This would not be such an issue, except that Vella works for a brewhall, and is constantly running into Quentin when making beer deliveries. Whereupon she tends to make remarks about her former “friend” Quentin who girls should stay away from, as he's incapable of ever loving them.

Carnin is a Lynx whose family migrated to Triskellion last year to start a business in dying cloth, using a recipe for a deep shade of blue known only in the north. This would have been an excellent business plan, given their skill, and the demand for their product, only they've had difficulty with gaining a supply of some of the materials they need, and have little product to sell. Quentin met Carnin on a day she made a delivery to Oakoten's beer garden with blue checked tablecloths for the indoor area. They're in the flirty stage of things, and Carnin makes excuses to drop by the beer garden so they can chat. Recently, however, she's seemed very stressed out about the issues with the family business.

Madame Neurovia, an aging bat, runs The Bright Flower, a brothel not far from the docks. Quentin and Neurovia have an understanding that she and her girls keep all of the profits, with Quentin only interested in information in return for setting her employees up with work. She's a little leery of potential blow-back from Quentin using any information gleaned, but Quentin has assured her that he'll try to keep anything revealed from coming back to haunt them. So far, so good.

The proprietor of the other major brothel in Triskellion, this would-be lord's establishment is called High House. It tends to cater to a higher-class clientele than The Bright Flower does. Unlike Neurovia, however, Prusifal sees Quentin as an interloper and an annoyance, and has told Quentin to keep his distance. This hasn't stopped Quentin from contacting some of Prusifal's employees, they just have to keep the arrangements secret.