By the time the novel begins, the six main characters have all lost their homes. Some of them lost loved ones to war and disease, and others were forced from their homes. Only Jesper chose to leave his home and his loving family, but the pressure he felt to hide his Grisha identity in Novyi Zem influenced that decision.

Cast adrift from their original homes, the Dregs struggle to find their place in the world and choose to become a family for one another.

This process varies from character to character and is not always easy or straightforward. Jesper is grateful to find “a home and a family in the Dregs when Ketterdam might have swallowed him whole” (471). By contrast, while Kaz assembled the crew, his layers of armor often bar him from expressing his attachments to them. His care for his friends instead shines through in the tenacity with which he fights to protect them and help them achieve their dreams. Wylan’s journey presents another variation on the theme. He originally sees his membership in the Dregs as a means to an end—a way to protect himself from his father until he can flee Ketterdam. Nearly losing his friends makes him realize that he would choose them again “even if he’d had his pick of a thousand companions” (324).