I feel like this story is turning me into George R.R. Martin, though - not in body count, fortunately, but in number of characters. I made a dramatis personae list before starting volume 2, and between the significant named characters who survived volume 1 and the new characters I'm planning to introduce in volume 2 (all the students at the academies graduated, so I've got to have a new class of students), I've got 37 named characters!