Bastian Balthazar Bux is described as a lonely boy, about 10 or 12 years old, who is raised by his father and still mourning the sudden death of his mother (she died of an unspecified illness).
As the story progresses, Bastian slowly loses his memories of the real world as his wishes carry him throughout Fantastica and change him into a different person.
With the help of Falkor and Atreyu, he manages to return to the human world with the capability of loving, and brings the Water of Life to his father, curing him of his melancholy.
The identity of the other child remains unclear throughout the remainder of the series, until Bastian is tricked upon rereading a chapter (after Xayide had caused her own demise by reading from the book) by his classmate Fallon, with whom he had started to bond.
His parents were killed by a Purple Buffalo soon after he was born, and his entire village raised him; wherefore his name means "son of all" in his native language.
Carl Conrad Coreander (German spelling: Karl Konrad Koreander) is a cantankerous bookseller; Bastian finds and steals the Neverending Story from his store.
In the 2001 television series, Tales from the Neverending Story, he functions in a double role as a wizard in Fantasia wherein he is called "the Curiosity".
In the 1995 cartoon series, the Childlike Empress has golden hair, wears a green gown, and is voiced by Lisa Yamanaka.
Engywook (German: Engywuck) and his wife Urgl are a quarrelsome pair of gnomes who live close to the Southern Oracle.
The two go with Bastian, Falkor, and Bark Troll to find the Empress for help, but are stranded on Earth and arrive in Alaska, where they mail themselves to the others and return home, their house rebuilt.
Their only distinctive ability is incredible luck in everything they do, as shown when Falkor locates and rescues his companion after being lost in a violent, blinding storm.
It was noted that Falkor was forbidden to take part in a great Race because his exceptional speed and luck would be too unfair to the other competitors.
Their meeting in Spook City occurs in the film as well, where Gmork attacks Atreyu, impaling himself on an improvised stone knife held by the young warrior.
In fact at the beginning of the series he causes the death of Bastian's mother, under the appearance of red-eyed Groenendael (a variety of a Belgian Shepherd).
His role also changes from more menacing at the beginning to that of more comical underling, after being punished by Xayide for his inability to steal the book from Bastian.
In the animated series, Grograman (voiced by Gary Krawford) is a fire lion who burns down Perilin to protect Fantastica from being overrun by its roots and branches.
Rockbiter and his wife nearly split due to the absence of their son and the further effects of the Nasties, who are in possession of the book and Auryn, but the family is reunited at the end of the film.
Blubb is a will-o'-the-wisp (German: Irrlicht) sent by his race to see the Childlike Empress at the Ivory Tower during the Nothing crisis.
To speak with Uyulala, one must pass through the three gates: Once past, Atreyu learns the reason why the Childlike Empress is ill and what he must find in order to restore her health.
In The Neverending Story cartoon series, the Southern Oracle is depicted as two sphinxes facing each other and are voiced by Ellen-Ray Hennessy.
Xayide is portrayed by actress and model Clarissa Burt in The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, which is loosely based upon the second half of the novel.
In the adaption, she is the personified avatar of an entity similar to the Nothing, called the Emptiness, which is born of the dying imagination of the collective human species.
In the miniseries Tales from the Neverending Story, Xayide is portrayed as the Childlike Empress' sister and the ruler of a Dark City.
In the second film, these creatures were called "Giants" because of their towering size and possess a horned crustacean-like appearance and lobster-like claws.
Ygramul's poison is deadly and kills within one hour, but grants the victim the ability to teleport to any location within Fantastica before succumbing to its effects.
Cairon the Black Centaur (German: Caíron, der Schwarz-Zentaur) is a herald of the Childlike Empress and in-between bearer of Auryn who passed it to Atreyu.
The Four Heroes are swordsmen who appear in the second half of the novel, said to be the bravest and strongest warriors in all of Fantastica, who participate in a tournament in the Silver City of Amarganth.
One is identified as Hero Hynreck (or Huunreck), who is infatuated with Princess Oglamar; the other three, Hykrion, Hysbald and Hydorn, accompany Bastian on his journey and swear allegiance to him.
Shexper is recalled as a past traveller to Fantastica in Chapter XVIII, from whom Hykrion, Hysbald and Hydorn learned a song ("When that I was a little tiny boy, With Hey, Ho, the wind and the rain...").
He had the tail of a scorpion, back legs of a grasshopper, body of a rat, and wings of a bat, with the heads of an old man and old woman instead of eyes.