Cade Quarter was a Fourtling, the son of Sensa and Thadeus Quarter, was the nephew of Nate Quarter, the descender. He is the protagonist of the Cade Saga.
Before The Nameless One
Cade was born to Sensa and Thadeus Quarter in Great Glade. His mother, Sensa, died when he was three years old to a disease known as the 'wasters'. Thadeus claimed she got it from distributing alms to the down-and-outs of East Glade and Copperwood. He however had a happy and stable childhood. He lived in the Cloud Quarter and attended the Junior Academy alongside the other privileged children of academics. In the mornings he had chanted his cloud tables, learned wind currents and studied phrax crystals; in the afternoons he had played tensticks on the playing fields or raced sumpwood model skyships with his friends in the long gallery. His father worked most of his life at the Institute of Phrax Studies, part of the School of Flight. He at some point received perfume his mother once owned, and a spyglass from his uncle with the initials N.Q. One night, his father woke him and told him to pack his things, for he had to leave the Cloud Quarter that night. When Cade questioned why he had to leave, Thadeus informed him that his brother, Nate Quarter, had returned. Thadeus told him of how Quove Lentis, High Professor of Flight, considered descending heresy, and how he was using the return of Nate to purge the academy of any he suspects of supporting the descenders. Both Thadeus and Cade were at the top of the list of those Quove intended on taking out. Cade was instructed to make his way to The Ledges, where a cargo-handler who owed Thadeus a favor would help hide him. His father also gave him a group of barkscrolls, which he claimed was very important. Cade packed up his things hastily, including his mother's perfume, the spyglass from his uncle, and his father's barkscrolls, and made out for the Ledges. He had run through the deserted cloisters and courtyards of the Cloud District and down the avenues of Ambristown to lose himself in the alleys and backstreets of the Ledges district. After an hour of searching he had found the small tumbledown house belonging to Lembit Flodd, a humble cargo-handler, and his young family. Lembit had been expecting him, and his wife had given him a warming mug of charlock tea before showing him to a hammock by the chimney place. The next day, Lembit had returned from the marketplace with an ashen place. He informed Cade that Quove Lentis was sweeping the district looking for him, and that his father was found dead at the bottom of the School of Flight. Not wanting to put their lives in danger, he made his way to the top of the Ledges, and became a forlorn hoper.
The Nameless One
Hoping to hop onto one of the skytavern, Cade waited in the top of the Ledges together with other forlorn hopers, who want to begin a new life in Hive. Cade, unlike the others, successfully jumped on a sky tavern, but was brought to the criminal Drax Adereth. Drax threatened to inform the guards of the blind passenger if he didn't pay off for the voyage. Cade agreed to steal when Drax Adereth showed him the fingers of other bling passengers. When released, Cade nevertheless struggled to steal and ended up helping Tillman Spoke with raising his prowlgrins when the pedigree grey prowlgrin Rumblix imprinted on him. When a fellow blind passenger gave Cade a pearl purse to hide, Cade was caught and, having deeply disappointed Tillman Spoke, fled the sky ship. He abandoned ship on the sky platform of the Farrow Ridges, where he settled down. Struggling with his life in the Deepwoods, he met new friends such as Gart Ironside who supplied him with tools, Thorne Lammergyre who helped him build his house and Celestia Helmstoft who introduced him to the secrets of and joys of a life at the Farrow Ridges and in the Deepwoods. A 'monster' in the Deepwoods turns out to be Tug, a Nameless One who along Rumblix became Cade's companion. When Celestia's father, Blatch Helmstoft, disappeared exploring the caves behind the Five Falls, Cade, Celestial and Thorne went in to search him. They encountered the White Trogs living behind Five Falls, but failed to rescue Blatch at first. It then turns out that Gart Ironside stole the red jewel the adventurers were supposed to be sacrificed for but came back because he regretted what he had done. Cade however was wounded and survived barely when a stranger who introduced himself as Goom sacrificed his last water from Riverrise to save Cade out of gratitude for saving Tug.
Doombringer
Events in Doombringer