Swordmaster's Youngest Son Character Guide: Runcandel Family

This Swordmaster's Youngest Son character guide starts with the one thing that makes the cast click: the Runcandel children are ranked. Each holds a flagbearer number, and Jin Runcandel, the youngest son, starts below all of them. Learn that ladder, then the people outside it who actually look out for Jin, then the Zipple family on the other side, and the rest of the cast falls into place.

The series runs in English on Tapas as The Swordmaster's Son (Korean title 검술명가 막내아들), adapted from Hwangje Penguin's web novel with story by COBY and AZI and art by Je-Won Lee. Every name and relationship below comes from the character entries on AniList, not a fan wiki. Our review rates the series 7.6/10.

Jin Runcandel, the youngest son

Jin was meant to head his swordmaster clan, but despite his best efforts he's banished for his shoddy swordsmanship. He makes a contract with the god Solderet, is freed from the curse that held his abilities back, and still meets an unfortunate end. Then he wakes up as a baby, long before any of it happened, with a second chance and some new powers. AniList's bio for him is one line: "The youngest son of Runcandel family." In this house, that line is the whole problem.

The Runcandel household

Chiron Runcandel is Jin's father and the clan's current head, described as "the only true knight of the present age, the strongest knight, and the undisputed strongest human." Rosa Runcandel is the lady of the family. Zed Runcandel, Chiron's younger brother, is the clan elder and an 8-star knight.

Below them, the children are ranked by flagbearer number. Here's the ladder as AniList records it:

Yona Runcandel, the sixth daughter, has no flagbearer number listed; she lives with the Nameless Assassins. The twins sitting at 10th and 11th, just two years older than Jin, are the clearest picture of how far down the ladder he starts. Luna is the interesting one at the top: the strongest of them all, and she wants no part of the succession fight.

Top row: Chiron, Rosa, Luna. Bottom row: Mary, Daytona, Heytona. Portraits via AniList.

The people on Jin's side

Gilly McLauran is Jin's nanny, and she matters more than her job title suggests. She was once a 7-star-level knight with enough talent to be called the next First Sword of the McLauran family, and she cared for Jin more than anyone, in his past life and this one. AniList also lists her as Strawberry Pie.

Murakan, also called the Shadow Dragon or Black Dragon, is on AniList's cast list without a bio, so we'll leave the details to the story. Shuri Runcandel started as the witch Heluram's pet cat and became Jin's cat through a pact; the Runcandel name came with it, not blood. Tess is the phoenix that made a contract with Jin.

His friends are a short list. AniList's bio for Dante Hairan, heir to the Hairan family and a swordsman who rivals Jin, says that he and Veradin Zipple are Jin's only friends. That's worth holding onto in the next section.

For where this clan-politics-first structure ranks against the rest of the genre, and which other regression manhwa do it well. Best Regression Manhwa 2026 →.

The Zipple family

The Zipples are the other great house, led by Kelliak Zipple, and the history between them and Jin's world is bloody. Valeria Heaster (also listed as Aria Owlheart), Jin's magic mentor in his previous life, is the sole survivor of the Heaster family, which the Zipples annihilated.

• Andrei Zipple, Kelliak's younger brother, is the vice-head of the family, nicknamed the Wind King, a contractor of Melzier under the protection of the wind dragon Buretta.
• Octavia Zipple, Kelliak's younger sister, is the true second-in-command. The world thinks she retired at 7-star; she actually led the Shadow Squad, a secret unit of 9-star and 10-star Zipple mages.
• Veradin Zipple, Kelliak's youngest son, is a powerful next-generation head of the family with two guardian dragons, Phinia (earth) and Tuyan (water). He's also one of Jin's only friends, which makes him the most interesting Zipple to watch.

Octavia Zipple (left) and Veradin Zipple (right). Portraits via AniList.

Power players outside the two houses

Casimir Alfrion, the Demon Sword, leads the Free City of Tikan and its intelligence network, the Seven-Colored Bird. He was a prince of the Viment Empire until he was expelled from the imperial court. His wife, Alyssa Badger, a former vice-captain in the Viment Special Forces, now captains Tikan's defense, and their daughter Yulia Alprion is Az Mil's contractor.

Talaris Endorma, the 51st master of the Ice Palace, is a 10-star knight, one of the world's most powerful warriors and a friend of Chiron; Ceres Endorma is her only daughter. Enya, a six-star wizard of commoner origin on scholarship at the Viment Magic Academy, is the contractor of Olta, the god of time, and a devoted fan of Jin. Quicantel, the Silver Dragon of Time, is listed as the guardian dragon of Olta's contractor, and she and Murakan were lovers for about five centuries, a thousand years ago.

One thing trips readers up: the flagbearer numbers only rank Runcandel children. The star ranks (7-star, 8-star, 10-star) are the world's own scale for knights and mages. Don't try to convert one into the other.

Where the story stands

The English release on Tapas sits at 201 episodes. Tapas posted a hiatus announcement on September 5, 2026: Season 2 is over and the series will return with Season 3. The Tapas page already credits Season 3 to Mr. BIG and Jogomi, alongside Hwangje Penguin. Tapas itself is scheduled to close on March 31, 2027, so read what the shutdown means before you buy episodes there.

Readers who finished the first two seasons are already hunting for a replacement. One r/manhwa poster, recommending it alongside another sword-clan regression title, wrote: "These two are best. I kinda obsessed with them." If that's you, our manhwa like Swordmaster's Youngest Son list picks up from there.

Our Take

Keep three people in view and the cast stops feeling crowded: Chiron, because everything in the house bends around him; Gilly, because she's the one adult who's plainly on Jin's side; and Veradin, because a Zipple who's also Jin's friend is where the story's loyalties get tested. The rest of the flagbearers can wait until they step into a scene.

How We Checked This

For this update we re-read every character entry on AniList's cast list for the series and the Tapas series page, one quoted row per fact in our sources table. That pass fixed several things: the hiatus notice on Tapas is now dated September 5, 2026, not June 20; the Zipples are the rival house, but Veradin is listed as one of Jin's only friends; and the flagbearer ladder is now complete, from Luna at the top to the twins at the bottom. We dropped the AniList popularity figure, the "Korean original runs one season ahead" line (no source), and the old TL;DR, Key Takeaways, Overview, Step-by-Step, Tips and FAQ blocks, which repeated the body.

Last reviewed: October 15, 2026

Related Reading

• Swordmaster's Youngest Son Review: our verdict on the clan politics and the art this cast belongs to.
• Swordmaster's Youngest Son Reading Guide: the season-by-season breakdown of where each character enters.
• Swordmaster's Youngest Son Season 3 Recap: a refresher on Seasons 1 and 2 before the return.
• Return of the Blossoming Blade Character Guide: the sword-sect cast that comes closest to this one.
• Best Action Manhwa 2026: the wider genre shelf if the sword-clan setting is what pulled you in.

References

• The Swordmaster's Son character list on AniList
• The Swordmaster's Son on AniList: credits and synopsis
• The Swordmaster's Son on Tapas: episode count, hiatus announcement, Season 3 credits
• Tapas end-of-service notice
• Anime News Network on the Tapas shutdown