In R. F. Kuang’s “The Poppy War,” the main character is Fang Runin, usually called Rin.
Rin begins as a war orphan in the Nikara Empire, where her foster family involves her in opium smuggling. Determined to escape an arranged marriage and control her own future, she studies for the Keju, the empire-wide examination used to select students for elite academies. Her exceptional result sends her to Sinegard, the capital’s military school.
At Sinegard, Rin faces class prejudice, develops a rivalry with Nezha, and attracts the attention of Master Jiang, who helps her investigate shamanic powers. She eventually learns that she is connected to the Speerlies and the Phoenix, a god associated with destructive fire. Her supernatural abilities lead to her recruitment into the Cike, an elite unit of shaman-soldiers.
Readers sometimes confuse Rin with Altan, the older Speerly commander who becomes an important mentor, or Nezha, her rival and later ally. Rin remains the novel’s central viewpoint character and drives its transformation from academy story into wartime tragedy.