These three I'm really looking forward to characterising.

Wang Yun, a junior minister from Taiyuan with an aptitude for both administrative and military matters, is one many would like to see rising higher. Serving in the mainland, each time with distinction, he's first tracked to senior positions but soon finds himself caught up in the dangerous power vacuum in the wake of Emperor Ling's dying days. During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he serves as Protector of Yu Province, the land most damaged by the rebellion and the corruption that caused it. While he and Cao Cao become good friends, they often find their personal philosophies clashing at inopportune times.

Diaochan, a young palace maid who chooses her own name for no-one else has, becomes Cao Cao's confidante during his time serving in Luoyang. She, Bian Yuexiang and Cai Wenji become great friends and due to her skills in seeing without being seen, dressing as eunuchs and other faces in the crowd, she becomes a wealth of knowledge reserved for Cao Cao and his fellow reformists. Eventually, as suspicion in the palace grows rife, she shares her concerns with Cao Cao, confiding in him that the Emperor is dying and before his corpse is killed, there will be blood and fire in the Imperial Palace.

Bao Xin, one of the greatest warriors in the mainland, commands the finest cavalry the empire have to offer. Down-to-earth and easy-going, he and Cao Cao hit it off almost immediately while the young go-getter is serving in Jinan and as the rebellion escalates, both are called to serve in the new volunteers unit which the pair forge into an all-purpose elite corps driving the Han's spear forward into battle time and time again. Contemptuous of the privileged and self-righteous scholar-gentry, he makes more than a few enemies during his time in office and makes no attempt to hide the fact that he'll only see one man worthy of uniting the volatile court, stamping out corruption and dissent and restoring the empire to its former glory; and that man is Cao Cao.

If it's not obvious, Bao Xin is a character I consider thoroughly awesome and sadly underrated. So I aim to remedy that the only way I know how.