The main characters, twins Matina and Mateo, have lived all their sixteen years on the side of one of the mountains surrounding Syelmänaye. Their journey starts when Neama shows up and informs them that they are the heirs to the throne.

They have black hair and eyes, about five feet tall (I'm gonna be short, so all my favorite characters have that characteristic). Stragov means ruler, so when coupled with the femanine (the spelling doesn't look right for some reason) 'a' or masculine 'o' it means queen or king respectively.

Their biggest challenge is coping with the transition into royalty, their parent's death a week before the story starts, and trying to keep the council from doing all the exciting stuff without them. (The council doesn't mean to, they just do it naturally because most of them have been ruling for a hundred hears).