Rhiannon Matthias

Rhiannon Matthias is Violet Sorrengail's closest friend at Basgiath War College in Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean series — a fellow rider candidate whose fierce loyalty, physical courage, and protective instincts toward Violet make her one of the series' most beloved characters. Rhiannon is everything the War College is supposed to produce: skilled, brave, and committed to her fellow riders in a place designed to make that kind of loyalty dangerous.

Yarros writes Rhiannon with the specificity of a character who has her own history, motivations, and moral framework independent of her function as Violet's best friend. Her background, her dragon bond, and her navigation of the college's brutal social and political dynamics give her genuine substance as a character rather than simply a supportive presence.

In a series where trust is genuinely dangerous and the institutional structures around the characters are actively hostile, Rhiannon's friendship with Violet represents something real and valuable — earned rather than given, maintained despite real costs, and expressed in actions as much as words. She is the kind of friend that the series' darkest moments require.

Begin with Fourth Wing (2023) and continue with Iron Flame.