Karakterler

Crystal Merchant

An elderly and devout Arab who gives a job at his shop to Santiago, whose money was stolen when he arrived on the African continent (Tangier). He has been a successful crystal merchant all his life, but lost his former wealth due to changing trade routes. Although he says he saves money every day to go to Mecca, his greatest dream, he remains in place, saying deep down that this dream gives him the joy of living and that his life would lose its purpose if he actually went there. With the innovations Santiago brought (setting up a display outside, selling mint tea in glasses), he grows the shop significantly; he both regains his lost fortune and provides Santiago with enough wealth for his journey through the desert.

Fatima

A beautiful desert girl living in the Al-Fayoum Oasis, where life is shaped only by the present moment and the laws of the desert, who enters Santiago's life with a sudden and spiritual collision. From the moment they meet by the well, they both understand each other through the Language of the World. They fall in love while stuck in the oasis due to the war. Fatima is not one of the other seductive or conformist obstacles (like the Merchant) that appear before Santiago; on the contrary, she is the true divine force that sends him toward his Personal Legend. Opposing the principle that love locks the beloved into inaction or imprisonment, she virtuously practices the tradition of desert women sending their husbands and loved ones away and waiting for them.

The Englishman (Traveler / Alchemist candidate)

A well-to-do and intellectual researcher. He has spent ten years reading hundreds of books on chemistry, history of religions, Esperanto, and alchemy. He is traveling through the desert with a caravan to find the legendary 200-year-old Alchemist said to live in the Al-Fayoum Oasis and learn from him the secrets of the Great Work (the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life). He meets Santiago in Tangier, and they set out together. He is overly attached to his books, so much so that during the journey through the desert, he devotes his time to studying his massive thick books instead of observing nature and people.

Melchizedek (King of Salem)

A legendary character who is originally the King of Salem, who approached Santiago and began to converse with him while he was reading a book in Tarifa. He knows the lives, dreams, and fading Personal Legends of all people on earth. By taking a tenth of Santiago's sheep, he showed him the way to the Pyramids and instilled in him the concepts of the Soul of the World, signs (symbols), and the Personal Legend. He gave Santiago two magical stones named Urim and Thummim to use for divination when he was undecided.

Santiago (The Boy)

Santiago is a talented young man from a small Andalusian town who is literate and expected to become a priest. However, driven by a desire to travel the world and see new cultures and places, he left seminary and became a shepherd, buying a flock with three gold coins given to him by his father. While sleeping, traveling the Andalusian countryside, a dream he has twice in a row at a ruined church calls him to a treasure buried at the Egyptian Pyramids. His meeting with Melchizedek, the King of Salem, allows this quest to be defined as a 'Personal Legend.' Despite losing all his capital, he embarks on a massive journey that leads him from Tangier in Africa to the Sahara Desert. On this adventure-filled path, he learns to speak with the universal language and his heart, to read nature, and to love. In the end, even though he understands that the treasure is actually at his starting point, where he saw it in his dream, this treasure is not just gold, but the vision, wisdom, and love he gained in the desert.

The Alchemist

A very powerful sage who resides in the desert near Egypt's Al-Fayoum oasis, hidden in Arab garments, and rumored to have lived for over 200 years. He is known to be able to turn lead into gold and to possess the elixir of immortality (the Elixir of Life). Not only has he understood and realized his own Personal Legend, but he has also made it his business to find those rare people on earth capable of realizing their own and to guide them. He enabled Santiago's ultimate enlightenment by teaching him the language of the desert, how to listen to his heart, and how to command the elements of nature (the wind and the sun) during his greatest test.