FitzChivalry Farseer, commonly known as Fitz, is the illegitimate son of a woman of the Mountain Kingdom and Prince Chivalry Farseer of the Six Duchies. Raised at Buckkeep Castle from the age of six, Fitz becomes a central figure in the events that shape the Realm of the Elderlings. Though born a royal bastard and shunned in his youth, he is drawn deeply into the politics and power struggles of the Farseer line, often risking his life to protect and serve his family.
From a young age, Fitz is secretly trained as an assassin by his mentor, Chade Fallstar, and for much of his life serves the Farseer throne with unwavering loyalty, often at great personal cost. He is also close to Lady Patience, his father’s widow, who becomes an unconventional maternal figure and a source of emotional support throughout his life.
FitzChivalry possesses two of the three known magics of the Six Duchies. One is the Skill, the hereditary magic of the Farseer line, which can be used for a variety of purposes including telepathic communication, healing, and subtle manipulation of others’ emotions and decisions. He also wields the Wit, a taboo magic that allows communication with animals and the forming of deep, lifelong bonds. His Wit-bond with the wolf Nighteyes is one of the most profound and defining relationships of his life.
Farseer Trilogy[]
Main page: Farseer Trilogy
Assassin's Apprentice[]
At the age of six, Fitz is dropped off at the Six Duchies fort of Moonseye by his maternal grandfather, despite his mother's pleas. His grandfather reveals him as King-in-Waiting Chivalry's illegitimate son, and explains how Chivalry has ignored their family the entire time, and no man would look at Fitz's mother. Jason, a soldier, takes him to see Prince Verity, and then to Burrich, Buckkeep’s Stablemaster and Chivalry’s man. Not willing to let Fitz sleep in the soldier's quarters, he has Fitz sleep in Vixen's stable. Fitz is groomed, fed, and exercised as one of Burrich's beasts. Fitz forms a Wit-bond with Nosy, one of Vixen's pups.
The discovery of Fitz’s existence leads Chivalry to abdicate the throne and move to Withywoods with his wife, Lady Patience. Fitz is never officially acknowledged by his father, but is brought to Buckkeep Castle on the orders of King Shrewd. On his first day there, Burrich has Cob take Fitz and Nosy to get food, telling them to stay outside the kitchens. However, a man approaches Fitz and won't leave him alone, causing Fitz to accidently repel him using the Wit for the first time.
Burrich has Fitz sleep in his quarters above the stables. Fitz spends most of his time in Buckkeep Town, where he meets a group of beggar children, including Dirk, Kerry, and Molly Nosebleed, who call him Newboy. He is enamored by Nosebleed, and accidently repels at her father when he comes to abuse her. The summer passes peacefully, until Burrich catches Fitz and Nosy stealing sausages from a smokehouse with the children. Burrich catches them and takes them back to his quarters, where he talks about how he is disgusted by how royal blood is spending time with beggars. He also suspects that Fitz and Nosy have a Wit-bond, and confirms it using a dog-whip. He tells Fitz that the Wit is evil, and says he will separate Fitz and Nosy. They try to escape Burrich, and Fitz uses the Wit to repel Burrich. The first time, he is successful, but the second time he is resisted, and Burrich takes Nosy away from Fitz. Their bond breaks, which devastates Fitz and causes him to believe Nosy was killed. This causes Fitz to feel utterly isolated. He feels that Burrich could dispose of Fitz as easily as he had disposed Nosy, though he still relies on Burrich's stability.
Burrich raises Fitz as a stable hand, closely supervising him to ensure no Wit-bond is formed. Fitz is envied by Cob, treated badly by Queen Desire and Regal, and treated well by Verity. The men-at-arms tolerate him. Fitz feels completely alone.
Eventually, Fitz comes under King Shrewd's scrutiny, who disapproves of a royal bastard being raised as no more than a stable boy. Fitz is brought into the castle proper and begins lessons in reading, writing, and swordplay, as befits his status. He is given Sooty, a mare raised by Cob. He also begins lessons with the reclusive Chade Fallstar as an apprentice assassin. These lessons further instill loyalty to King Shrewd.
One of his missions entailed going to Rippon. On the way, he tends to Lady Thyme, an ostensibly unpleasant and smelly old lady. There, he saves Lady Grace's dog from a lodged bone in his throat, and convinces her to use her jewels to bolster Rippon's defenses. That night, Chade reveals himself as Lady Thyme and takes Fitz to go to Forge, learning of an attack and subsequent ransom. This is the first time Fitz encounters Forged ones.
As a Farseer, Fitz possesses a natural talent for the Skill. He is accepted into the group of students that Skillmaster Galen gathers to train a new coterie. Galen has a particular hatred for Fitz and, unbeknownst to Fitz, damages his Skill abilities. Galen commands him to die and makes him think he is a worthless failure that never had any skill talent. Galen leaves after beating him physically, and Fitz would have obeyed the Skill-command to die by throwing himself off the tower if not for Smithy, his dog and second Wit-partner.
While he eventually returns to the lessons after recovering physically, Fitz is still fogged by what Galen did to him, thinking he has no talent. In addition, the experience left him with habitually strong defensive walls that he has a hard time lowering for fear someone will ravage his mind the way Galen did. For these reasons, his Skill is erratic and inconsistent. He doesn't progress much after that and eventually fails the final test for the coterie, though it is unlikely that Galen even tried to teach him properly. Smithy is killed by Cob during the final test in an attempt to kill Burrich.
During this time he begins the relationships that will determine much of his life. He becomes one of the few in the castle who speak regularly with The Fool. He also starts a turbulent relationship with Molly Chandler and even befriends his father's widow, Lady Patience. He also develops a strong relationship with King-in-Waiting Verity and an antagonistic relationship with Prince Regal.
His most significant mission as a royal assassin takes him to The Mountain Kingdom where he is nearly killed and then befriended by Kettricken, Verity's intended. He discovers that Prince Regal is attempting to marry the unsuspecting princess instead, and commands Fitz to poison her elder brother Rurisk so as to have her inherit the throne. Ultimately defeating Regal's attempt with subterfuge, FitzChivalry is left weak and poisoned for some months in The Mountain Kingdom before returning to Buckkeep. Also while in The Mountain Kingdom, he finds a now much older Nosy, who is bonded to Rurisk, but gives his live to save Fitz after Regal tries to drown him.
Royal Assassin[]
Fitz recovers from being poisoned, but is left with recurring seizures. He intends to stay away from Buckkeep and the Farseers, but has a dream of Siltbay being attacked with Molly there and returns.
While walking through the Buckkeep Town market, Fitz encounters a starved and abused wolf cub in a cage. Enraged, he buys the cub, named Nighteyes, and frees him, giving him shelter and teaching him how to hunt. Though initially reluctant to form a Wit-bond, Fitz eventually gives in, and the two become deeply bonded.
During this time, The Red-Ship Wars begin in earnest. Building warships from Mountain Kingdom lumber, Verity decides he needs access to the ships without leaving his position. He attaches his mind to Fitz's with the Skill, riding with him at all times, and has Fitz taught more martial prowess, particularly with an axe. He also has Fitz become an oarsmen on one of the four warships, the Rurisk, named after Kettricken’s late brother. However, Fitz is so focused and his emotions run so high during battles that he involuntarily forces Verity out, as well as losing his own memories of the fighting. He is involved in an early success at Antler Island where they kill numerous raiders and capture Red Ships. Fitz earns such a reputation for his fighting at the island that a song is written in his honor.
When Verity leaves on his quest seeking the aid of the Elderlings, Fitz attempts to continue his relationship with Molly. Unfortunately, it greatly suffers from both Shrewd's ill-health and their disagreement on his interest in marrying Molly when Shrewd would see him married to the daughter of one of his dukes, Lady Celerity.
As Regal continues to exert his power over Buckkeep, claiming that King-in-Waiting Verity died on his quest, the Coastal Dukes consider rebelling, and want to stand behind Fitz as their leader, the heir they support over Regal.
Fitz eventually decides that he must aid Shrewd, Kettricken and the Fool to escape Buckkeep. But before the attempt, King Shrewd is killed by members of Galen's Coterie on the orders of Prince Regal. However, the treachery goes even deeper, and because Fitz was with Shrewd while he died, they pinned it on him, the Witted Bastard that killed the king. Deciding he must avenge his King, Fitz kills Regal's assassins publicly, which also leads to his incarceration. There, Fitz is tortured and starved by Regal's soldiers. A man named Bolt beats him with his fists and breaks his nose, while Will attempts to use the Skill to access his mind and prove that he is Witted. Once, Burrich visits Fitz while pretending to be drunk, spitting a pellet of poison on the ground for Fitz to use on himself. Before that, Fitz attempts to assassinate Regal with a hidden poison in his sleeve, but fails due to Will's Skill, who ends up taking the attack and loses an eye for it. Eventually, with a broken body and wearied mind, Fitz allows himself to die, and his consciousness leaves his body to join Nighteyes. His attack on Will is seen as proof of his Witted nature, and, along with other evidence, is used to justify his death. His tortured body is buried by Patience, then recovered by Burrich. After some time living in Nighteyes, Fitz rejoins his body at Burrich's demand.
Assassin's Quest[]
Afterwards Burrich takes Fitz to a secluded cabin so that he might recover from his "death" in Regal's dungeon. Fitz recovers slowly over the next few months both in body and mind before finally deciding that he no longer has any responsibility to the Farseer name and sets out to kill Regal. He leaves the cabin after killing a Forged thief, unaware that the thief wore a shirt with his silver pin. When the body is later discovered, it is believed by Burrich that he died, while Molly, of course, thought he had died in Regal's dungeon months earlier.
After failing to kill Regal at his new home in Tilth, Verity uses the Skill to command him to come to him on his quest to find the Elderlings. After a lengthy journey to the Mountain Kingdom he sets out with Kettricken, Kettle, Nighteyes, Starling Birdsong and The Fool.
Eventually rejoining King Verity, they visit what is later known as Kelsingra and then aid him in retrieving the Stone Dragons. During this time, Verity uses the Skill to borrow Fitz's body as his own is all but ruined by his efforts to create a dragon. He uses the skill to manipulate Kettricken's mind and gives her an heir before entering himself entirely into Verity-as-Dragon. Fitz ends this period of his life by killing the last of The False Coterie and using The Skill to command Regal's unwavering loyalty to Kettricken and her heir. He then sets out on a journey with Nighteyes and surrenders his old name, believing FitzChivalry Farseer is better off dead.
Tawny Man Trilogy[]
Main page: Tawny Man Trilogy
Fitz spends fifteen years living in an isolated cabin near Forge with Nighteyes, raising a foster son Hap and receiving the occasional visit from Starling. He is surprised by a visit from Chade, who has come out of hiding and asks Fitz to return to Buckkeep to tutor Prince Dutiful and Nettle in the Skill. As Fitz fears to return to his painful past life, he refuses the offer. Shortly after Chade's visit, the Fool returns to Fitz, prompting him to leave his seclusion to aid in recovering the missing Dutiful. Fitz returns to Buckkeep under the name Tom Badgerlock, a serving man for the Fool's persona Lord Golden. They confront the recent violence surrounding Witted ones and rescue Dutiful from the clutches of his false Wit-bond partner.
Fitz is deeply offended when he learns of Amber, the Fool's female persona in Bingtown, and feels that the secrecy of this aspect of the Fool's nature constitutes a betrayal on the Fool's part. Fitz and the Fool quarrel over others' perception of their relationship.
Fitz grows to realize that transferring so many of his negative memories to Girl-on-a-Dragon had stunted his emotional growth for the past two decades. In accepting his memories back, he resolves not to hide from life anymore, but return to himself and strive for a happy life on his own terms. He returns to Molly and eventually wins her love again. The two marry and settle at Withywoods.
Fool's Assassin[]
Fitz enjoys a quiet life at Withywoods as Holder Tom Badgerlock with his wife Molly, free from the machinations of court life. However, one night during Winderfest a group of strangers enters and blood is shed. The "wolf" inside is once again awakened, but they are unable to determine what really has happened. Life returns to normal, and the incident is mostly forgotten.
A few years later, Fitz is disturbed when the aging Molly claims to be pregnant and continues to do so for well over two years. To Fitz's shock, Molly then gives birth to a tiny, pale child, whom they name Bee. Fitz adores Bee, despite her strangeness, and desires to protect her from being used as a Farseer pawn like himself or Nettle.
After Bee is stolen from Withywoods by Servants from Clerres, the Island of Whites, Fitz returns to Buckkeep for a time to discover what he can about the kidnapping and rebuild his age-depleted fighting skills. Although Vindeliar successfully "fogged" those people that witnessed the travel of the company, Fitz is able to gather reports from the Wit-partners of Old Blood, and learns that the kidnappers entered a skill-pillar that transferred them to the Elderling marketplace, but a coterie dispatched to follow the kidnappers reports that there is no sign that the kidnappers ever exited the skill-pillar.
With the apparent loss of the party and Bee, Fitz descends into despair and changes his plan from one of rescue to one of vengeance. With the heartbroken support of Dutiful, Kettricken, Nettle and others, Fitz and the Fool (along with Lant, Per and Spark) embark on a journey to Clerres with the stated goal of slaying the Servants. Along their journey, Fitz unexpected learns that Bee still lives (because the kidnap party had become trapped in the skill-pillar for weeks), and Fitz's mission returns to one of rescue.
The rescue plan falls apart because of Bee's independent actions, and the rescue party is split up and chased through the fire-damaged palace. During the chase, Fitz is struck by a dart carrying the "Traitor's Death": a mixture of parasites that slowly but inevitably and painfully kill an infected person. Reunited with Bee and Prilkop, the party becomes trapped in a desperate search for the secret tunnel beneath the causeway used in the Fool's earlier escape from Clerres. Most of the party is able to escape through the small hole they open into the tunnel, but Fitz (as the last person leaving) becomes trapped by falling debris as the tunnel fills with seawater from the rising tide. He uses the very last of his skill strength to heal the Fool, charges the Fool with caring for Bee, and resigns himself to this final death, snapping the thin thread of skill bonding him to both the Fool and Bee. With this thread gone, the rescue party is unwillingly convinced that Fitz has perished and sadly return to Buckkeep.
Fitz is actually trapped just above the high-water line and survives the high tide. His knapsack, containing the Elderling firebrick and the last vial of Silver, falls into the water just out of his reach. The brick brings the seawater to a boil and causes the vial of Silver to explode, splashing Fitz's face and arm with raw Skill. He is able to heal his body, displace the rubble and escape through the tunnel just in time to watch Vivacia sail away with his friends and daughter.
He works his way back to the memory stone quarry near the stone garden. Nighteyes convinces him that he is dying from "the worms", which reproduce and grow faster than his body can skill-heal itself. Slowly starving from the continuous skill-healing while declining from the parasites, Fitz and Nighteyes' spirit have time enough for one final task: Carving a stone wolf and pouring their memories into it just as Verity did long before with his stone dragon.
After a time, Bee and a procession from Buckkeep including Kettricken and the Fool appear and help him survive long enough to complete the carving. At the very end, Bee is able convince the Fool that his memories would also be required. Fitz, Beloved and the spirit of Nighteyes all merge into the stone to become the Wolf of the West, which comes alive and runs off into the woods to hunt.
Relationships[]
Burrich[]
As a boy, Fitz resents Burrich's gruff personality and military stiffness, feelings that multiply when Burrich forbids Fitz from using his Wit. When Fitz disobeys, Burrich removes his first Wit-bond partner, the puppy Nosy. As Fitz believes Burrich has Nosy killed, this deeply damages their relationship. Despite his childhood frustrations, Fitz considers Burrich a surrogate father and is grateful for his teaching and protection.
Molly[]
Molly is Fitz's first love, and he is deeply hurt when their relationship ends. The pain of Molly's coupling with Burrich is such that Fitz attempts to erase it from his life rather than be tormented by it. When Fitz regains his memories from Girl-on-a-Dragon, he is compelled to seek out Molly again. He eventually wins her affection and they live for several years in the happy, calm, adult life that Fitz had always envisioned. Molly's progressing age weighs on him as he remains unnaturally youthful through her middle years, and when she dies, Fitz is far more distraught than during their adolescent breakup. Fitz often sees reminders of Molly within his daughter Bee's appearance.
The Fool[]
The Fool is Fitz's closest friend. Though the Fool has admitted to romantic feelings for Fitz, Fitz insists that he feels only platonic love for the Fool. Despite this, Fitz frequently describes their bond as transcending friendship or even sex.
Nighteyes[]
Nighteyes was Fitz's bond partner and long-time friend. He was a wolf that Fitz saved from a wild animal trader in Buckkeep town. Nighteyes at first was wary of Fitz, bordering on hatred, believing that Fitz would treat him the same way that the trader had. Fitz kept him in an old shack outside of Buckkeep castle, on the grounds, and would visit him nearly every night. They quickly formed a bond, and Nighteyes grew, learning first to eat the mice in the shack and then hunting for himself by night. Fitz and him began to hunt together, and formed a deep bond. Nighteyes claimed him as his bond partner, and thus they began their lives toghether.
Nighteyes was always Fitz's source of advice and comfort. He remineded Fitz to stay in the now, to let go of worries, and together they hunted and lived. When Fitz had to serve the crown, Nighteyes was never far behind. Eventually, Nighteyes and Fitz resided with an Old Blood family to learn some of the tradiitonal ways of their bond, and they learned to limit their sharing of one another's mind and thoughts. For a while, Nighteyes sought the comfort of his own kind.
Nighteyes took Fitz into his own body when Fitz perished in the dungeons at the hands of Regal, and he reluctantly gave him up at Burrich's command. Together they lived in a small shack outside of Forge while Fitz relearned how to be a human again.
Nighteyes eventually perished of both his wounds and old age, and remained with Fitz forever in spirit, as only one with the wit can do.
Verity[]
Verity is Fitz's favorite uncle, and he serves him loyally when he becomes king, going so far as to follow him to the mountain kingdom to find the Elderlings, to carve his stone dragon, and to save the six duchies from the red ship war. Verity serves as a mentor to Fitz throughout the Farseer books. Verity was a kind but reserved man.
Chade[]
Chade initially was Fitz's teacher. Fitz, being a bastard, was a liability to the crown, so King Shrewd took Fitz in and had him trained as an assassin. Fitz carried out tasks for the crown as a young boy and a young teenager, but he eventually decided he no longer wanted to be an assassin and to deal the King's justice. Fitz and Chade have had numerous rifts over the years, but as they have grown they have forged a deeper bond. Chade is always in the thick of conspiracy and intrigue, and he brings Fitz back into it as he sees fit. They disagree on a great many of things, but they regard each other both as father and son, and the oldest of friends.
Kettricken[]
Kettricken regards Fitz as one of her best and oldest friends, and he served her as an advisor when he was a teenager/young adult and she was new to the courts of Buckkeep, newly married to Verity. Fitz helps her establish herself, learn the way around court intrigue, and saves her life when she must flee Buckkeep following Shrewd's death. Kettricken is a practical woman, and she had a friendship with Nighteyes, to a depth that Fitz would not realize until after his wolf's death. Kettricken bears a child by Verity, using Fitz's body, meaning that her son is the product of Fitz's loins. Although never explicitly told by Verity or Fitz, Kettricken eventually realizes that Fitz's body is Dutiful's actual father, and quietly admits her knowledge to Fitz many years later. After Fitz merges into the stone wolf, Kettricken willingly accepts the role of acting as a parent to Bee.
Gallery[]
