Lan Qiren
COURTESY NAME: Lan Qiren (蓝启仁 / “Blue,” “Open” or “Awaken,” “Benevolence”)
WEAPON: Long lectures, closed-book exams
A Lan Clan elder and the paternal uncle of Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji. He is well known across the cultivation world as an exemplary (and extremely strict) teacher who consistently produces equally exemplary students. He loves his nephews deeply and is clearly extremely proud of their accomplishments and skill as cultivators and gentlemen both. However, he does not exclude them from the prescribed clan punishments on the rare occasion that such things are warranted. Lan Qiren saw how his older brother Qingheng-jun was ruined by love and is desperate to keep his nephews from making the same mistakes as their father.
Lan Sizhui
BIRTH NAME: Lan Yuan (蓝愿 / “Blue,” “Wish”)
COURTESY NAME: Lan Sizhui (蓝思追 / “Blue,” “To remember and long for”)
WEAPON: Unnamed sword
INSTRUMENT: Unnamed guqin
A junior disciple in the Lan Sect. He is close friends with Lan Jingyi and appears to have a special kind of admiration for Lan Wangji. Lan Sizhui is poised and quite mature for his age, and is a natural leader of his peers when the juniors are sent out on investigations. Although raised in such a strict sect, Lan Sizhui retains an air of warmth about him. He is kind, intuitive, and willing to see beyond surface appearances.
Lan Xichen
BIRTH NAME: Lan Huan (蓝涣 / “Blue,” “Melt” or “Dissipate”)
COURTESY NAME: Lan Xichen (蓝曦臣 / “Blue,” “Sunlight,” “Minister” or “Subject”)
SOBRIQUET: Zewu-jun (泽芜 / “Moss-shaded pool,” honorific “-jun”)
WEAPON: Sword: Shuoyue (朔月 / “New moon”)
INSTRUMENT: Xiao (end-blown flute): Liebing (裂冰 / “Cracked,” “Ice”)
Unnamed guqin
The current Lan Sect head and Lan Wangji’s elder brother. He is also sworn brothers with Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue, and together they are known as the Three Zun.
Lan Xichen possesses a warm and gentle personality and can easily get along with anyone and everyone. He possesses the unique and curious ability to understand his reticent little brother at a glance. He is as calm and undisturbed as the shaded pool from which he takes his sobriquet and will lend an ear to anyone who approaches, whatever their social standing.
Qingheng-jun
BIRTH NAME: Qingheng-jun (青蘅君 / “Green ginger,” honorific“-jun”)
Qingheng-jun was the former leader of the Lan Clan of Gusu and the father of Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji. That being said, the clan was actually managed by his younger brother Lan Qiren, as Qingheng-jun spent his days in seclusion.
Madam Lan
Madam Lan was the mother of Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji. Due to her rumored ill health, she lived in a small, secluded cottage away from the (relative) hustle and bustle of the Cloud Recesses proper. Her two sons were rarely permitted to visit her, but she seemed to love them dearly and showered them with affection when they came by.
Mianmian
SOBRIQUET: Mianmian (绵绵 / “Continuous”)
A young female cultivator from a minor clan. She is harassed by the lecherous Wen Chao when imprisoned at his clan’s training facilities, and this provokes the furious jealousy of Wang Lingjiao. As Wei Wuxian never wheedled her real name out of her during their brief meeting, she is known to him by her nickname only. He used this nickname to tease her flirtatiously by referencing the lady lead of a romantic folksong from the Han dynasty. The verse in question used is Mianmian si yuandao, “Unendingly do I long for [my husband].”
Mo Xuanyu
COURTESY NAME: Mo Xuanyu (莫玄羽 / “Nothing” or “There is none who,” “Mysterious” or “Black,” “Feathers”)
The young man who offered up his own body to bring Wei Wuxian back into the land of the living at a most horrible price: the obliteration of his own soul. He is one of the many illegitimate sons of Jin Guangshan. After he was expelled from the Jin Sect, the humiliation took a dreadful toll on his mind. He endured years of relentless abuse by the Mo household and eventually turned to demonic cultivation to exact revenge on those who tormented him. With his soul destroyed, Mo Xuanyu himself is now but a memory, and Wei Wuxian inhabits his body.
Nie Huaisang
COURTESY NAME: Nie Huaisang (聂怀桑 / “Whisper,” “Cherish,” “Mulberry”)
SOBRIQUET: Head-Shaker (一问三不知 / “One Question, Three Don’t-Knows”)
WEAPON:
Unnamed saber (ostensibly)
Crying (actually)
The current Nie Sect head and Nie Mingjue’s younger half brother. When they were young, he attended school at the Cloud Recesses with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng. Nie Huaisang is a dilettante dandy who possesses a passionate love of fashion and the arts, but unfortunately possesses no such innate genius for politics or management. He is frequently seen looking stricken and panicked, and largely relies on the compassion and assistance of his older brother’s sworn brothers (Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao) to keep the Nie Sect struggling along.
Nie Mingjue
COURTESY NAME: Nie Mingjue (聂明玦 / “Whisper,” “Bright” or “Righteousness,” “Jade ring”)
SOBRIQUET: Chifeng-zun (赤锋尊 / “Crimson Blade,” honorific “-zun”)
WEAPON: Saber: Baxia (霸下 / “To be ruled by force,” also the name of one of the mythical Dragon King’s nine sons.)
The former Nie Sect head and Nie Huaisang’s older half brother. He is also sworn brothers with Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao, and together they are known as the Three Zun. Nie Mingjue was a fierce man who was quick to use violence as a solution. He was unable to tolerate injustice or underhanded behavior, and was fearless in calling out even those in the highest seats of power. Unfortunately, his temperament eventually got the better of him, and he died at a young age from a qi deviation.
Ouyang Zizhen
BIRTH NAME: Ouyang Zizhen (欧阳子真 / Surname Ouyang, common male prefix “Son,” “Genuine,” “Truth”)
WEAPON: A sentimental heart