Thomas Jason Ward

Tom is an apprentice to John Gregory, the County Spook. The Spook has had 29 apprentices before Tom, although he is the best so far. He is the seventh son of a seventh son, but it is revealed in the sixth book of the series that his mother is actually the original Lamia witch, also known as Zenobia. Early in the series he seems a fearful, the hunted, but after the sixth book he is the hunter, a real spook's apprentice.

As a seventh son of a seventh son, Tom has many gifts, including being able to see and hear ghosts and masking his "scent" from the long-sniffing of witches. Tom has also inherited gifts from his mother, such as being able to slow down and stop time and smell the presence of death. In moonlight, his shadow is abnormally long, which the Ordeen (one of the old gods) described as a signal of what he will become. His mother taught him Greek, and he is learning Latin and Old Tongue from Mr. Gregory. He is the youngest in the family and also relates with Jack Ward.

Tom has accomplished many things despite his lack of experience, such as binding a full-grown ripper boggart after only six months with the spook.

He has a friendship, strongly disapproved of by his master, with Alice, a young girl who will grow into a witch, though it is uncertain whether she will become malevolent or benign. Tom continues his friendship with Alice, despite the warnings given by the Spook. He also seems to develop some feelings for her, although it is possible that he is fretting over her because she is the closest thing he ever had to a friend. In the fifth book, she kisses him for the first time, before supposedly running to Pendle. In the eighth book, he admits to loving Alice when the Fiend takes her away to the dark.

Not much is told about his appearance, although The Spook's Battle (Attack of the Fiend) reveals that he has green eyes and is left-handed, which is common among this generation of Spooks (Bill Arkwright, The Spook and Tom are all left-handed).

Tom is the hero of the Wardstone Chronicles (along with John Gregory), as he defeats most of the series' major antagonists.

In the Spook's sequel series, Tom has replaced Gregory as the new spook in Chipenden. Later, he takes a young girl named Jenny as an apprentice; she is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. At first, Tom does not believe her, but it is later proven to be true. There has never been a female spook.

John Gregory (The Spook)

John Gregory is one of the most prolific Spooks and has a mysterious history that is discovered as the series progresses. He originally trained to be a priest, but after falling out with his brother, he became a Spook. He has medium-length grey hair that tufts at the back along with sharp, yellow teeth and a grey goatee, giving him a wolf-like appearance. Like Tom, he also has green eyes and is left-handed.

Gregory is a strict mentor, always to the point and hard to please. However, he praises Tom at some moments, albeit gruffly and reluctantly, showing that he has a soft side. He claims this lack of praise is at least in effort towards doing his best to avoid Tom becoming big-headed and making mistakes.

He has had relationships with Meg Skelton (a lamia witch) and Emily Burns, and is suspected to have had more. He met Emily Burns, his brother's former lover, first. However, she became tired of him and moved on, although they remained friends.

When he had just become a Spook, Gregory met Meg. He had been going off to take care of a monster, and she was captive in the tower, bound with a silver chain. She kissed him passionately after he took off the silver chain that bound her, but he discovered that she was a Lamia witch after noticing the line of yellow and green scales along her spine. When he tried to put her into a pit, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He sends Meg and her sister back to their home in Greece at the end of the third book, (The Spook's Secret).

He has a brother named Andrew, a skilled locksmith. He has made keys that can open almost any door for both the Spook and Tom, which have often come in use, such as when they were battling the creature known as the Bane in the Priestown catacombs. He is introduced in the second book.

Gregory has one other significant brother, who is a priest. He is first introduced in Horshaw after Tom has just begun his apprenticeship. Gregory and his brother do not speak because Emily Burns was once the priest's lover. However, the Spook did decide to pay his last respects and attend his brother's funeral, killed by a ripper (a powerful boggart). In "The Spook's Tale" John's brother Paul is introduced. Not much is known about him, apart from the fact that he shared a nightmare with John in his childhood.

During the fifth installment, he sends his apprentice to train with Bill Arkwright, his previous apprentice, to receive further training against the everlasting battle against the dark. Later, he has to help Tom rescue Arkwright from several Water Witches. At the end of the book, he sends Alice away because, among other things, she used a mirror to communicate with other witches, including the witch assassin Grimalkin, who saves Tom's life in the fifth book.

In the tenth book, John retires and allows Tom to become the new spook of Chipenden, even though Tom has not yet finished his training.

John uses Greek symbols to mark the places of witches, boggarts, and the unquiet dead. β (beta) is used for boggarts; a line through the beta shows that the boggart is bound. (gamma) is used to mark a ghost or ghast. Roman numerals I-X mark how strong the boggart or unquiet dead is (I is the strongest and X is the weakest); in the case of the unquiet dead, however, it shows how strong it is or if it is classified as a ghost or ghast. A ghost is a coherent spirit, left on earth for a purpose; a ghast is a fragment of a person that has gone to the afterlife, and they fade over time.

Death

In the final book, the Spook's Revenge, John Gregory dies in the Battle of the Wardstone; it is not told who killed him, but it is presumed to be a witch on the opposing dark side. In his last moments before his death he stood back to back with Grimalkin and helped to kill the witches, and allowed the Fiend to be destroyed. Afterwards, he is buried by Tom Ward, along with the Starblade, as Tom says that he will never disturb his dead master, and therefore will never use the Starblade again. After his death, Tom becomes the Chipenden Spook and acquires all his belongings.

Alice Deane

Alice is an orphan with parents from different clans, or so it was thought, until eventually it comes out she is the daughter of the Fiend and Bony Lizzie. She was raised by Bony Lizzie and was the great-granddaughter of Mother Malkin. She first tricks Tom into freeing Mother Malkin but later helps him defeat her and her vengeful relatives.

Later in the series she sticks to Tom and the Spook, assisting them countless times with her magic when their principles would inhibit them. She cares a great deal about Tom, though not so much about the Spook, and considers their inhibitions with feelings varying from amusement to exasperation.

Originally from Pendle, Alice is supposedly the daughter of a Malkin mother and a Dean Father.

In the first part of the Wardstone Chronicles, Alice Deane seems to be a confused young girl seemingly under the wrong influence. However, as the series goes on, she starts to see from good and bad, and starts to help Tom in many ways. She is shown to be irritable, throwing a fit when Tom suggested that she cooks. (Although Tom later pointed out that she is good at it.) She also seems somewhat reluctant to help out Mr. Gregory when he's in a tight spot, pointing out that he probably wouldn't do the same for her, but ends up being convinced by Tom to do so anyway. She dislikes the fact that Mr. Gregory does not trust her, and is known for throwing fits when she is left out of something important. However, Tom's mother was often worried about how Alice would turn out, as she seems to be on the fine line between good and evil. Even though she helped destroy Mother Malkin and the Bane, it was (mostly) her fault that they had to be stopped in the first place, albeit unknowingly. Bony Lizzie had made her convince Tom to give Mother Malkin blood cakes, and she had made a sacrifice to the Bane out of hatred and spite toward the Quisitor. Although she knew the consequences, she had freed the Bane to help Tom, Mr. Gregory, and herself.

Alice seems to have a gift with botany, putting leaves on Tom's hand to treat his burn. Gregory, despite his intense distrust for Alice, appreciates her work as a scribe. Tom has stated that she has nice handwriting.

During the series, Alice is said to be pretty with big, hazel eyes and long, black hair; however, her hair turned white in the eighth book when she was traumatized after spending time in the Fiends domain.

She seems to have feelings for Tom as she jokes about using, during a moment of solitude during the day of his birthday, glamor and fascination on him, two witch powers to seduce and control. Another reason for believing that Alice has feelings for Tom may come from the fifth book, where she is tormented by the idea that she will be separated from him and finally kisses him on the lips for a while. Yet another hint is when she is trying to convince Tom to use the blood jar, stating that if he did they could never separate and she was not opposed to the idea, saying she would actually rather like it. Finally, in the Spook's Blood, Tom must sacrifice the one he loves... this turns out to be Alice.

At the end of the fifth book, Alice contacts Grimalkin (a savage witch assassin) to help Tom defeat the Fiend's daughter, Morwena, which later results in her being banished from Chipenden. She revealed to Tom that she was going to become a witch once back in Pendle Hill, claiming that's where she belonged.

In the sixth book, Alice uses a blood jar to fend off the Fiend and keep him from taking Tom's soul. Tom, worried that Alice would have to face the Fiend's wrath, realizes that from now on they have to stick close together which would be a hard life as Tom would be really worried to so much as let Alice out of sight.

In the seventh installment, Alice is named by Bony Lizzie "her own gift for the County", as Mam said the same about her son Tom.

In the Spook's Destiny, she is dragged into the Fiend's Domain by The Fiend after the blood jar cracks. After the god Pan returns her as a favor to Tom after the Fiend is defeated, her hair is snow-white from the shock.

In the Spook's Revenge, she opens the Doomdryte grimoire, in order to read it to gain immense power and destroy the Fiend. However, upon opening the book, the supposedly dead Mage, Lukrasta appears and takes her away. Upon looking into his eyes in the first moment, Alice falls in love with him, and is enthralled with him, understanding that their fates are intertwined and that they are 'soul mates'. She immediately becomes a malevolent witch, finally going to the dark. She contributes to the re-attaching of the Fiend's head and body, as according to her, the Fiend would not allow the newborn God Talkus to rise and take over the world, and would fight with the humans. (We can guess from what we learn later on, that she hopes Tom will kill the Fiend because if he does not then he will be killed himself) However, Tom continues despite this and destroys the Fiend. Afterwards, she gives Lukrasta her power, in order for them to combat the rising Kobalos God, Talkus, who has been born and is going to rise in power and exterminate the men of the world in the future. Tom tells Alice to never come to see him in Chipenden ever again in their final meeting of the book, and that he shall put her in a pit. She claims to know that they shall meet again in the future, but that he will not put her in a pit. Upon that note, they separate on their own paths, with Tom loving Alice but she not loving him. (or so he thought)

In the Second book of the Spook's brand-new sequel series, Alice and Tom meet again after Lukrasta's death while attempting to defeat the Kobalos. She tells him that she was forced to be with Lukrasta by the old god Pan and that she loved Tom when they lived with John Gregory, that she loved him when she was with Lukrasta And that she loves him now. Although Alice is a witch that is certain to be separated from Tom for all of eternity after death, they stay together, along with Tom's new apprentice Jenny. She then goes off to Pendle to try to unite the Pendle clans against the Kobalos and finds out that Lukrasta was not dead and that Pan has a plan to kill the Kobalos god, Talkus the unborn. She takes Tom with her to his tower in Cymru. After Talkus is destroyed Lukrasta orders Alice to kill Tom and deprive him of his weapon, the Starblade which protects him from any Dark magic. She convinces Tom that she'll kill Lukrasta with it. When Lukrasta appears she pretends to kill Tom but at the very last moment she steps aside and kills Lukrasta instead showing that she wanted to be with Tom; now that Talkus is dead Lukrasta is no longer needed and she does not fear Pan because his goal has been achieved. They have a baby daughter named Tilda in the next series: 'Brother Wulf'.

Mam (Lamia/Zenobia)

Also known as Lamia and Zenobia in The Spook's Blood, she is the first witch of her kind. Allegedly, she was a wife to the Old God Zeus and had children with him. The jealous goddess Hera soon found out, having Lamia's hand nailed to a rock, sentencing her to be killed by exposure to the sun. She was saved by Tom's father and, after refusing another chance to return to the Dark by killing him, she gave up her immortality,^[1] married him and moved with him back to the County. She bought the farm so he could give up sailing and she had only seven sons with him. When Tom was born at last she started grooming him to become the next Spook.

Lamia/Zenobia also had several special abilities, as she never really was a normal human being. She had the ability to manipulate time for any being close to her: she could slow time or completely stop it. Just like The Fiend, this gift was passed on to Tom. She could also smell whether a person was close to death. She also passed this ability onto Tom.

She leaves the farm for Greece after her husband's death and bequeaths Tom her three coffers which held her money, books and potions and her two wild lamia 'sisters'. They helped drive the Mouldheels out of the Malkin Tower during the events of The Spook's Battle. Later, during The Spook's Sacrifice she asked Tom for her money to buy a boat and hire a crew. She sets for Greece, bound to confront her archenemy Ordeen. She holds Ordeen in her lamia form while the Ord falls back into the darkness, effectively killing herself.

She was a proud woman and an extraordinary midwife, having saved more than a dozen women in the County. She can allegedly see into the future and her letters seem to be further proof of that, although the Spook grudgingly explains them by good intuition and intellect, and she has helped Tom with advice whenever she could.

Bill Arkwright

A spook in operation in Caster, Bill Arkwright was one of The Spook's few apprentices to survive. He was in charge of training Tom in battle in the book: The Spook's Mistake. Bill has an alcohol problem, which he called 'demon drink'. Bill Arkwright was the Spook for the other side of the County who makes his first appearance in The Spook's Mistake. Tom was sent to him so that Tom could learn the physical side of being a Spook's apprentice and learn things that John Gregory could not teach him anymore. Bill was a drunkard and couldn't control the urge to drink, mainly because his parents could not be sent to the light and remained in the world in the form of spirits. It is later found out that The Fiend had bound them to the Earth. Arkwright's ways of teaching seem hard and aggressive, but they soon come in handy, especially when Tom comes to save him after he is captured by Morwena, a water witch. One of his dogs, Tooth, is killed by her, and his other dog, Claw, has two pups: Blood and Bone. He is the Spook of the North, and later on with the help of Tom and Grimalkin, Bill manages to set his parents free. After that his mood improves and he became a happier man. He lived in a mill surrounded by a moat full of salt to keep enemies from the dark away. He reappears in the book: The Spook's Sacrifice. In this he travels with Thomas Ward, Alice Deane, John Gregory, Mam (Lamia), and many witches to Greece, to face the Old God, the Ordeen. He joins Thomas, Alice and Mr. Gregory in the Ord, the Ordeen's home, and helps their efforts to find the Ordeen. Once the Ordeen is dying, they try to escape the Ord, and he stays back to stop fire elementals from harming them, sacrificing himself for them to escape. He also features briefly, and is mentioned in The Spook's Nightmare, as a ghost trapped in Limbo by Bony Lizzie, used to save Thomas Ward's life, by stopping his dogs- Claw, Blood and Bone, from killing Thomas under the power of the shaman, Lord Barrule. He is later freed into the 'light' due to Bony Lizzie's death.

• Tooth is a grey with black lines wolfhound
• Claw is a black wolfhound bitch and Tooth's mate
• Blood and Bone are their pups

Judd Brinscall

Judd Brinscall trained as a Spook's Apprentice under John Gregory. He then moved to Romania, learning from the spooks of the country, and finally moved back to the County, where he found his ex-Master, and his new apprentice, Tom Ward. He is first featured in the book The Spooks: Blood. Brinscall took part in the Battle of the Wardstone.

He ends up in the Caster Watermill, which once belonged to Bill Arkwright, and still has ties with Tom Ward.

The Ward family

The Gregory family

Beasts

Spirits