The Inner Circle — The Library

The Inner Circle is the small, fiercely loyal band of warriors, spies, and power-wielders that High Lord Rhysand keeps closest — the true governing heart of the Night Court and the guardians of its hidden city of starlight, Velaris.

Not a council of the powerful by blood or rank, but a family chosen out of centuries of war, grief, and trust — each member a weapon, each a refuge for the others.

At a glance

The circle

TypeFound family / inner court of the Night Court

Led byRhysand, High Lord of the Night Court

SeatVelaris, the City of Starlight (Night Court)

Core membersRhysand, Feyre, Cassian, Azriel, Morrigan, Amren — later Nesta and Elain

Bound byWar, loyalty, and the secret of Velaris

Who they are

The chosen few

The Inner Circle is the handful of people Rhysand trusts with his life, his city, and the truth of the Night Court. To the rest of Prythian, the Night Court is a place of nightmares ruled by a cruel High Lord — a mask Rhysand wears to keep Velaris and its people safe. The Inner Circle are the few who know the lie, and who hold the real Night Court together: a court of dreamers hidden behind a court of fear. They are less a political body than a family forged across five centuries of war and survival, each member bound to the others by choice rather than blood.

The members

Each a weapon, each a refuge

Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court and the most powerful High Lord in Prythian, stands at the centre. Feyre Archeron, his mate and High Lady, is the only High Lady Prythian has ever known. Cassian and Azriel are Illyrian-born warriors and Rhysand's brothers in all but blood — Cassian commands the Night Court's armies; Azriel is the spymaster and shadowsinger. Morrigan, Rhysand's cousin, is the Court's Third in command and emissary. Amren, an ancient, otherworldly being older than the Night Court itself, serves as Rhysand's Second. In later books the Archeron sisters Nesta and Elain are drawn into the circle's orbit.

Velaris and the secret

The city behind the mask

The Inner Circle's defining duty is the protection of Velaris, the City of Starlight — a sanctuary of art, music, and freedom hidden from the rest of Prythian for thousands of years. It was kept secret even through the war with Hybern and the reign of Amarantha Under the Mountain. The Circle governs Velaris not as overlords but as its keepers, and the cruelty Rhysand performs in the wider world is the price of that secrecy. When Hybern's forces finally breach the city, it is the Inner Circle who stand between Velaris and ruin.

Forged in war

Found family

What binds the Inner Circle is not rank but shared history — centuries of battle, loss, and the slow work of trusting one another. Rhysand built the circle deliberately, gathering the broken and the dangerous and making them a home. The bond is most often expressed in the language of family: brothers, sisters, mates. It is this chosen-family core, as much as their combined power, that makes them the emotional centre of the ACOTAR series and one of its most beloved fixtures among readers.

The roster