Designed placeholder card for Characters: the title set in pale serif type over a dark blue-black gradient, headed ILLUSTRATION PENDING. No illustration for this entry exists yet.

Characters

These are the named lives inside the record: officers, civilians, constructs, beings, and entities whose choices keep the frontier functioning or force it to change. Species labels reflect canonical classification—not how characters name themselves or one another.

Galen Kane, a grey-haired man in a dark jacket, standing alone at the back corner of a timber-and-whitewash meeting hall full of seated colonists, watching a speaker at the far end. Morning light comes through the tall windows down the length of the room.

Human · Chief Ranger, Star Rangers Frontier Corps

Galen Kane

Brother Daire at work in a stone cell, a monastic scribe in a coarse undyed habit and hood, bent over a sloped desk with a quill in hand. An ink pot and a knife sit beside a vellum leaf already half-covered in close script; light falls from a narrow window onto the page.

Human · Monastic Scribe, Cill Aoife (fl. 1216 AD)

Brother Daire

aka The Chronicler of Cill Aoife

Aoife, a woman in an undyed woollen dress and shawl with long dark red hair, standing at a low stone-kerbed spring in a blackthorn thicket at night, her face turned down toward the water and lost in shadow. Moorland and a plain sky of small stars lie behind.

Human · Holy Woman of Cill Aoife (b. c. 1186 AD – d. 1241 AD)

Aoife

aka Saint Aoife, Aoife of the Thorn Well

Levril (Dragon) · Dragon — detection, containment and perimeter isolation at boundary-integrity events

The Kept Line

aka The Kept Line, the flat trace

An abstract field of turquoise and green iridescent light curling through a dark starfield, with no figure and no face

Levril (Higher Levril) · Higher Levril — cross-Concordant coordinator and Champion mentor

The Turquoise Dove

aka The Dove, Turquoise Dove

Demelza Trevithick at work in the Ridge Processor machine hall, a woman in middle age in worn engineering coveralls with her hair tied back, both hands on the casing of a large rotating machine, her attention entirely on it. Pipework and gantries rise around her and a furnace throws orange light from the right.

Human · Chief Engineer, Ridge Processor Cooperative (Kernowek Reach)

Demelza Trevithick

aka Chief Trevithick

Kattik, a small six-legged Chthonari with a low, segmented slate-grey carapace and a smooth featureless head, standing on bare deck plating beneath a habitat's dock ring with the two forelegs resting on a plain flat slab of dull grey stone laid on the deck. A second Chthonari stands on a mounting bracket behind, out of focus, and a curve of walkway lights comes on around the ring in the distance.

Chthonari · Cutter and log-keeper, Federation contractor crew — dock-ring understructure, Eden Space Habitat

Kattik

Qiren Tal, a Veyr Basaltborn engineer, at work on a hull junction in a dim service space. The body is an open lattice of fine dark iridescent struts with no solid trunk — the bulkhead is visible through it — carried on many slender jointed limbs at irregular angles, several braced for load while others work a single point. Clusters of small compound eyes sit around the upper lattice.

Veyr Basaltborn · Hull Systems Specialist

Qiren Tal

Rhian Gwynne at an open equipment panel in a dome growing bay, a woman in a padded work jacket with her hair pushed back, one hand in the wiring and her eyes on the connection she is making. Racks of young green crops stand behind her, and beyond the curved glass the light is cold and the water grey.

Human · Senior Fabrication Engineer, Ynys Wydrin Dome Engineering Base

Rhian Gwynne

Tekka, a small six-legged Chthonari with a low, segmented slate-grey carapace and a smooth featureless head, mid-stride along the top of a heavy horizontal structural beam beneath a habitat's dock ring, legs placed exactly between two bolted brackets. The curve of the ring's understructure fills the frame behind, with a line of walkway lights in the distance.

Chthonari · Cutter, Federation contractor crew — dock-ring understructure, Eden Space Habitat

Tekka

Tikket, a small six-legged Chthonari with a low, segmented slate-grey carapace and a smooth featureless head, pressed close against a heavy bolted mounting bracket on bare deck plating beneath a habitat's dock ring, every limb in contact with the metal as if listening through it. Girders, pipework and a distant walkway recede into shadow behind.

Chthonari · Apprentice cutter, Federation contractor crew — dock-ring understructure, Eden Space Habitat

Tikket

Tsikk, a small six-legged Chthonari with a low, segmented slate-grey carapace and a smooth featureless head, standing alone at the centre of a wide expanse of bare deck plating beneath a habitat's dock ring, all six legs planted and the body raised slightly at the front. The ring's understructure curves overhead, and a long line of walkway lights is coming on around it in the distance, as if the structure had noticed.

Chthonari · Cutter, Federation contractor crew — dock-ring understructure, Eden Space Habitat

Tsikk

A bumblebee feeding on the pale primrose-yellow pincushion head of a giant scabious, seen from below against a bright overcast sky, with dark out-of-focus conifers closing in on both sides and the flower's green stem running down out of the bottom of the frame.

Bumblebee (unaugmented) · Queen of the wool-shed nest, Gleann na gCaorach, Drithane

Bumble

aka Bumbóg, the wool-shed bee

Sorcha Nic Dhiarmada, a small figure wrapped against the cold, walking a rough hill track at night with a dog at her heel and pale sheep on the slope. Below lies a valley of steadings with every light out; above, a sky thick with stars lights the whole scene.

Human · Valley Warden, Gleann na gCaorach, Drithane

Sorcha Nic Dhiarmada

Agent Barsik, a black cat seated squarely on an untidy stack of paperwork on a steel desk, a plain metal disc on his collar, looking directly at the viewer with complete composure; behind him the matte panelled bulkhead of a space habitat with pipework along it and a closed circular pressure hatch.

Cat (Smart Pet, Detective Agency) · Field Agent, Undercover Pets Detective Agency

Agent Barsik

Andrew Falkorian, a man in his late forties with greying hair, in plain grey Star Rangers service dress with a small tab at the collar, standing at a steel bench with one hand resting on a part-built instrument, a bare alloy frame with its optics cradled and no housing yet. A wide dark viewport onto stars lies behind him; the section is spare and evenly lit.

Human · Chief Science Officer, Science Section (Season 1 start)

Dr. Andrew Falkorian

aka Falkorian, Dr. Falkorian

Anne Wender, a woman in her early fifties with dark hair greying at the temples and tied back, in a canvas work coat, standing in the gravel yard of a young frontier settlement among timber buildings, stacked lumber and grey equipment units. She is turned three-quarters away, pointing across the site as she takes a count; two workers and early mist lie beyond.

Human · Safety Officer, Wender settlement (Season 1 start); later the first elected Sheriff of Wender

Anne Wender

aka Anne of Wender, Wender

Bubochka, a fluffy white rabbit, sitting inside a large brown mug filled with pink and white marshmallows, surrounded by more marshmallows on the plate below.

Rabbit (Smart Pet, Detective Agency Trainee) · Trainee, Undercover Pets Detective Agency (Eden Station)

Bubochka

The interior of Eden Space Habitat seen along the curve of its ring, the floor rising away in both directions until it closes overhead: green cultivated terraces, low buildings, and the Ring-Rail running lit through the middle distance. Walkway lamps are lit, a hatch stands open with the light on inside, and there is nobody anywhere in the frame. The Warden has no body; this is the nearest thing to one.

AI (Kernel-Compliant, Plural System) · Habitat AI Collective, Eden Space Habitat

The Eden Warden

aka Ward, Custos

Iklix Varn, a lean young person with short dark hair, in plain grey-brown Star Rangers service dress with a small tab at the collar, standing in a narrow, evenly lit instrument compartment on a space habitat's ring reading a printed document held in both hands, eyes down on the page. A rack of identical sealed grey monitoring housings, each with a single small indicator light, fills the wall to the right; a closed hatch with a flush handle stands behind, and the floor is open grating.

Human · Deputy Officer, Star Rangers — first field posting, fold-approach watch, Eden Space Habitat, under Field Officer Zoe Smith

Iklix Varn

Mayor Imogen Petrakis walking a curved habitat concourse on Eden, a woman in middle age in a plain overcoat, looking toward the viewer while residents move past her in either direction. The corridor's long windows curve overhead and show the habitat's interior landscape beyond.

Human · Mayor, Eden Space Habitat

Mayor Imogen Petrakis

Jeeves — a matte ivory-grey domestic-model frame in a dark waistcoat, plainly jointed, with round dark lens eyes and no mouth — setting down a tea tray on a wooden table in the compact galley kitchen of a habitat apartment, a circular viewport behind him showing Eden's green interior.

AI (Domestic-Companion Kernel) · Assigned Household Intelligence, Eden Space Habitat Welfare Program

Jeeves

Kate Ukrainka, a woman in her sixties with grey curls in a knitted cardigan, at a small wooden table with both hands round a mug, half-smiling toward the window. A closed notebook and a pen lie by her hand, a potted plant stands on the sill, bookshelves crowd the wall, and the wide window looks onto the green curving interior of an orbital habitat.

Human · Author; resident, Eden Space Habitat

Kate Ukrainka

Knopka, a brown domestic rabbit, sitting upright on a pale wooden floor in a tidy apartment and looking straight at the camera, entirely composed. A sprig of carrot tops lies ignored on the floor to one side; a bag stands by the door and a chair leg shows behind.

Rabbit (unaugmented; failed Smart Pet candidate) · Personal pet of Detective Marisol Achebe, Eden Space Habitat

Knopka

Lev Saunders, a boy of about eight in a plain olive jumper and brown trousers, walking along a pale curving habitat corridor with a grey plastic pet carrier held in both arms, its wire door shut and nothing visible inside, his eyes on the carrier; a few adults in plain work clothes walk away behind him past a lit doorway.

Human · Resident, Eden Space Habitat — a boy of about eight, keeper of one cat and, on an application in the compliance queue, of Muffin

Lev Saunders

aka the boy with the cat, the boy with the wrong rabbit

Lucene-9000, a humanoid machine of female form in a dark jacket, seated to one side at a bare interview-room table with her hands folded, watching someone whose shoulder shows in the foreground. Her matte face carries a fine seam at the jaw and temple, her eyes are recessed lenses, and her collar carries no rank mark.

AI (Kernel-Compliant Social Gynoid — classic design) · Detective Assistant, Eden Space Habitat Civil Detective Bureau

Lucene-9000

A young Black woman with locs tied back, in a plain grey work jacket with a small white tab bearing one black stroke on the lapel, sits on stacked paper sacks of flour in a warm, tidy dry-stores room, hands loosely clasped, watching a blank pale wall panel to her left. A brown rabbit sits upright on the floor beside her, facing the same wall, where a patch of warm light falls low from an unseen source.

Human · Detective, Eden Space Habitat detective bureau

Detective Marisol Achebe

The Deck 7 galley door on a working deck: a scuffed steel deck plate, a plain vent grille low in the wall, and warm light spilling from the open galley across the floor. In the warm patch by the vent something small, soft and out of focus is curled up, impossible to make out, with a chipped saucer set down beside it.

Meta-dimensional predator, cute-predator feeding pattern — filed Class III (lamb-mask); filing disputed, see below · Resident hazard, Eden Space Habitat, Deck 7 galley approach

Muffin

aka the galley cat, somebody's rabbit

Analyst Naomi Kestrel, a young woman with short dark red hair, green eyes and freckles, at her station in a large analysis bay aboard a space habitat. A long fitted work surface curves away past other analysts at their own stations; a viewport shows starfield. One slim closed matte slate lies flat in front of her, and small geometric marks sit at her collar.

Human · Field Investigator, Eden Civil Investigations Unit

Naomi Kestrel

Noah Adeyemi, a young man of nineteen or twenty, crouched on one knee in a pale curving habitat corridor beside a small potted plant standing on the floor, a grey watering can held in both hands, looking up and to one side at someone out of frame, about to speak.

Human · Resident, Eden Space Habitat — the door with the plant outside it, fold-approach side of the ring

Noah Adeyemi

A young Japanese woman in a plain grey work jacket with a small white tab bearing one black stroke at the collar stands writing in a spiral notebook, looking down at the open lid of a lost-property container in front of her, where six clear bags are laid out in a row, each holding one small object and a blank paper slip: a stylus, a clip, a spoon, a reel of tape, a pair of glasses, a rubber stamp. Behind her a records room of the far future, seamless pale panels curving into the ceiling, a recessed line of soft light, and a low sealed unit with no handles.

Human · Detective, Eden Space Habitat detective bureau

Detective Priya Nakamura

Superintendent Rasa Oyelaran, a Black woman in her fifties with short greying natural hair, in a plain grey work jacket over a maroon shirt, standing in the doorway of a busy detective bureau aboard a space habitat. Detectives work at terminals behind her; a lit corridor runs away to the right.

Human · Detective Superintendent, Eden Space Habitat

Superintendent Rasa Oyelaran

An abstract emblem for an investigative intelligence: cool blue points of light scattered across a deep indigo field, a handful of them joined by faint thin lines into a partial figure while the rest stay unconnected — a pattern half-found and not yet claimed.

AI (Kernel-Compliant Investigative Intelligence) · Detective Assistant, Eden Space Habitat Civil Detective Bureau

Reeves (Eden Space Habitat)

Rosalind Vey, a woman with short fair blonde hair pushed back, standing in a dim habitat corridor in a grey tactical-response jumpsuit marked with small chevrons at the collar and shoulders, composed and unbothered, lit by recessed overhead panels.

Human · Field Investigator, Eden Civil Investigations Unit

Rosalind Vey

Sylvie Harrow, a woman in her forties with shoulder-length brown hair, in a dark cardigan over a grey top, seated at a bare grey table in a plain office with her hands together, smiling pleasantly at someone out of frame. A filing cabinet and a partition stand behind her. Nothing in the room is out of place.

Human · Claims assessor, Eden Mutual Assurance Society; witness in an open bureau matter

Sylvie Harrow

A woman in plain civilian clothes with her arms folded, leaning against a workbench in a softly lit habitat interior, her expression neutral and unreadable

Human · Field Investigator, Eden Civil Investigations Unit

Tamsin Reyes

Thrum, a small animal with a smooth dark glossy hide and short stubby limbs, pressed flat against a metal plate in a narrow service void with no visible eyes or ears, occupied with the surface beneath it. Warm amber light leaks in from an open panel; cables and ducting recede into the dark.

Vessik (Undersong burrow commensal, unaugmented) · Resident animal, Eden Space Habitat; no registered status of any kind

Thrum

Human · Chair of the Terrace Committee, Eden Space Habitat, and grower on terrace five

Tomas Brennock

Detective Inspector Wendell Albercombe, a middle-aged man in a worn herringbone jacket over an open blue shirt, standing in the doorway of a clean well-lit habitat bureau at the end of a long shift. Beside him a stencilled plainmark panel carries four stacked colour bands, each bearing a single geometric figure.

Human · Detective Inspector, Eden Space Habitat

Detective Inspector Wendell Albercombe

aka DI Albercombe

Space Commissioner Zara Wayland on an upper walkway inside Eden Space Habitat, a woman in a dark suit standing squarely with her hands at her sides, facing the viewer. The habitat's inhabited interior curves away and upward behind her, lit along its length.

Human · Space Commissioner, Eden Space Habitat (Orbital Habitats Compact)

Space Commissioner Zara Wayland

A young grey-and-white cat sits upright on top of a plain two-door cabinet in a bare, softly lit room of seamless pale panels, one forepaw resting on a wooden-handled rubber stamp, looking straight at the viewer. Laid out beside him on the cabinet top are a stylus, a wooden reel of thread, a spoon and a pair of glasses. No collar; nothing on the walls but a single recessed line of warm light near the ceiling.

Cat (unaugmented) · A boy's cat, transfer berths, Eden Space Habitat

Zhulik

aka the cat

An archival official portrait of a stern grey-haired general in an austere high-collared slate uniform, seated with hands folded at a table, against a plain dark backdrop

Human · General, Military Space Command; Solar Command, Mars (b. 2665 UCSD – d. 2720 UCSD)

Maren Solveig Krast

aka General Krast

Sildron Drey, a woman in her fifties with short grey hair, in a severe olive-grey service uniform, standing at a bare metal desk with both hands resting on it and looking down at the work. A tall window behind her opens onto flat rust-red Martian ground under a pale sky, with two figures outside.

Human · Director of Operations, Military Space Command; Solar Command, Mars (b. 2662 UCSD – d. 2744 UCSD)

Sildron Drey

aka Director Drey

Thalassa Vexar, a woman in her fifties in a plain worn administrative jacket, seated at a bare metal counter in a cramped amber-lit Belt office, turned attentively toward someone standing out of frame. A queue of people waits behind her, out of focus.

Human · Assistant Deputy Viceroy, Office of the Viceroy, Belt Settlements Directorate (Imperium) (b. 2551 UCSD – d. 2619 UCSD)

Thalassa Vexar

aka Viceroy Vexar

Sofia Santos, a woman in her fifties with short grey hair, in a dark knitted jumper and plain trousers, standing inside the heavy riveted pressure hull of a seabed city beside a wide thick viewport onto dim green-blue water, where the lit domes of other structures and a work light show in the dark. Pipework and plain gauges line the wall behind her; no sky anywhere.

Human · President of the Joint Seabed Authority, Thalassa (2822 UCSD – ); first holder of the office

Sofia Santos

aka President of Thalassa

A thin, wind-matted wild tabby cat standing on barnacled black rock at the tideline, surf and grey sea cliffs behind her, staring directly at the camera

Cat (wild, unaugmented) · Solitary resident, Carraig Bán

Nessa

Asteria Wessex in her hundreds — a broad-shouldered white-haired woman, face deeply creased and spotted with age, in the plain belted working robe of a contemplative order with sleeves pushed back over strong forearms, hands set on her hips before a dry-stone wall, a walled lane winding into green hills behind her.

Human · Retired Star Captain, Star Rangers; chapter leader, Fellowship of Light

Asteria Wessex

aka Asteria the Sage, Asteria

Peran Slade at dusk in the open stone doorway of the chapter house, a small lit oil lamp cupped in their hands as the only warm light, gazing out toward green hills going dark — plain undyed novice's tunic, short practical hair, caught between staying and going.

Human · Novice, Fellowship of Light

Peran Slade

Elvira, a woman in her forties in dark working clothes, crouched on a chalk-dusted stone floor holding a thread of a survey grid taut and sighting along it. Small glass and earthenware vessels stand at intervals across the floor; a folding rule and closed record books lie on a table; flat marsh daylight comes through a small window and an open door.

Unclassified · Boundary Practitioner, Outpost Keeper

Elvira

aka the Enchantress (misclassification by locals)

A woman with long silver-fair hair, in homespun wrapped robes, kneeling in a candlelit stone room with one hand resting on a blanketed figure and a worn leather satchel at her hip

Human · Itinerant Healer

Sorcha Lichata

aka Sorcha, the Quiet Woman (local usage, several settlements)

Aldera, an alert tabby cat with a fine silver implant tracing one ear and a faint lens glint in one eye, sitting upright on a weathered causeway rail above a misty marsh at dawn.

Cyber-Enhanced Cat (Smart Pet, Detective Agency) · Field Observer, Detective Agency Unit

Aldera

Detective Inspector Bertram Ashcombe in the station constabulary office, an older man in an immaculate three-piece suit with a pocket square, standing at ease beside his desk and smiling toward the viewer. Colleagues work at lit displays behind him, a worn leather armchair stands to one side, and a tall window at the left looks out past the station's structure to the planet below.

Human · Detective Inspector, Threshold Station Constabulary

Detective Inspector Bertram Ashcombe

aka Inspector Ashcombe, Bertie

Dr. Iona Vale at the observation position of a teleportation bay, one hand on an unmarked metal hold lever, plain dark uniform, calm and immovable, the empty transit platform in shadow behind her.

Human · Transit Safety Officer, Harmonic Operations

Dr. Iona Vale

aka Dr. Vale

Sir Galahad Thorne on a misted marsh at first light, one hand steadying a plain unmarked optical survey instrument on its tripod, a line of bare wooden marker posts receding into the haze behind him.

Human · Survey Team Lead

Sir Galahad Thorne

aka Galahad, Thorne

A smiling commander in a navy flight suit standing at an observation-deck window, a modular orbital habitat and Earth behind him, an operations floor busy below

Human · Commander, Orbital Five-O (Governor's Investigative Task Force)

Commander Kai Larsen

aka Commander Larsen

A woman pilot in a navy flight suit seated at a helm station, hands on the control yoke, her face lit by glowing navigation displays, starfield through the canopy behind her

Human · Chief Pilot, Pilot Section (Season 1 start)

Karla Wender

aka Wender, High Captain Wender

Designed cover for Mira of Brine: a streamlined teal humanoid silhouette with gill-like striations, current lines, and rising bubbles, in a ringed emblem on a dark starfield.

Pelagene Littoral · Environmental Surveyor

Mira of Brine

aka Mira

An abstract emblem for an investigative intelligence: cool blue points of light on a deep indigo field, joined by fine lines into a dense ring that is almost closed and still open along one edge — the same emblem as Eden's Reeves, further along.

AI (Kernel-Compliant Investigative Intelligence) · Investigative Support Intelligence, Threshold Station Constabulary

Reeves

An aging scuffed grey service robot with several mismatched retrofit sensor modules bolted around its head unit, seated at a cluttered desk in a dim station office

Robot (Investigative/Analytical chassis) · Field Analyst, Threshold Station Constabulary

Rook-7

aka Rook

Sethka Ru, a Serephine Dunekin scout, on a high stony ridge at dusk. The body is a low pale sealed carapace held clear of the ground on six slender radial limbs, with several enormous thin translucent respiratory vanes unfurling from its upper surface, caught halfway open for the evening margin. Small dark eye-spots glazed with pale membranes ring the carapace.

Serephine Dunekin · Long-Range Scout

Sethka Ru

Syra seated perfectly still at a bare table in a dim room, hands folded at rest, gaze level and direct under a single overhead light, closed equipment cases in the shadows behind her.

Krenyi (Quiet-Built) · Boundary Analyst

Syra

aka Nai Syra

Tissadelle Shepherd in her early thirties, red hair tied back and blue-green eyes, in the dark slate-grey Ranger field uniform with a stand collar, a small square metal rank tab marked with three concentric rings on her chest, a plain diamond patch and a short row of service ribbons beside it, working at a sealed wall unit with a small window in a pale panelled compartment, her attention on the unit and not the viewer

Human · Cadet (Season 1) → Line Captain (Season 5)

Tissadelle Shepherd

aka Shepherd, Tiss

Anne de Courtney, a woman in her fifties with grey hair and a dark blue scarf, standing inside a plain cool stone room and looking out through an open doorway at a harbour town of tiled roofs and terraced hills in warm afternoon light. She has not stepped toward it.

Human · Chief Ranger, Survey Corps — head of the standing delegation, Vellamar (Kingdom of the Five Islands)

Anne de Courtney

aka de Courtney

Aravena, a slight surveyor in a grey-green field coverall with a single pale tab at the collar, seen from beside and behind in a narrow frost-crusted rock passage, the relay unit strapped across the back, a hand lamp held low with its beam on the floor, face turned toward the dark end of the passage, breath faintly visible in the cold.

Human · Surveyor, Fliade surface party — the newest and smallest of the three

Aravena

aka the smallest of the three, the one who knelt to the humming stone (the Told)

Emma la Chapelle, a young woman with dark hair in a braid, in a green field jacket over a brown leather vest, seated at a plain wooden table in a grey stone hall with her hands still and her head slightly tilted, listening to someone out of frame. A closed notebook and a pencil lie in front of her; cold daylight comes through a tall narrow window.

Human · Field Officer, Xenolinguistics Branch, Survey Corps — standing delegation, Vellamar (Kingdom of the Five Islands)

Emma la Chapelle

aka la Chapelle

Ernesto Strozzi, a grey-bearded man in his sixties in a khaki shirt, standing at the head of a bare wooden table in a whitewashed room, one hand open as he lays something out. Two listeners are seen from behind in the foreground; warm light falls in bars through wooden shutters.

Human · Principal Officer, Xenolinguistics Branch, Survey Corps — standing delegation, Vellamar (Kingdom of the Five Islands)

Ernesto Strozzi

aka Strozzi

Human · Chief, Star Rangers Survey Corps — correlation calibration; the Counterpane revisits

Ingrid Halvorsen

Hesper Nakagawa, in middle age, standing still in a grey-green field coverall with a single pale tab at the collar on the floor of a frost-crusted cavern junction, hands empty at the sides, looking down at the stone; the relay unit stands upright on its base to the left, and two dark passage mouths open behind.

Human · Survey Lead, Fliade survey — Star Rangers Survey Corps

Hesper Nakagawa

aka the survey lead

Human · Section Lead, Star Rangers Survey Corps — boundary monitoring, a Threshold-class station; certified boundary analyst; called to the Fliade station in the survey's third year

Odile Ferrant

aka the boundary officer (Fliade surface party)

A stocky grey alien with a panda-like build standing upright in a cavern lit by teal and amber fungus, large dark eyes ringed in darker grey, looking toward a small plain cylindrical instrument standing on pale silt where a line of bootprints ends.

Pandoid · An individual of the deep networks, Fliade — no role the record can assign

Teddy

aka the Teddy Bear, Individual Four (Fliade survey log), Carried-It-Sleeping (the Told)

Krenyi (Quiet-Built) · Cadet, Survey Corps (boundary desk, Threshold Station)

Toval

aka Nai Toval

Human · Fellow in Comparative Records, the Institute

Ilsabet Corren

Sen Lovax at the archivist's desk deep in the Survey Archive stacks, reading an open volume under a single shaded lamp, one hand flat on the page. Shelving runs away into the dark on both sides, filled with boxed records and film cans.

Human · Senior Archivist, Survey Archive

Sen Lovax

aka Sen

Starwarden Luke Valerius, a man in his forties with dark hair going grey, in a grey jacket, standing beside a wide dark viewport onto an ordinary starfield and looking off to one side. Behind him on a plain bench stand two matched unmarked metal cylinders.

Human · Starwarden, boundary-proximate post, outward frontier (2824 UCSD – )

Starwarden Luke Valerius

Lumbarian, a vast trussed repair machine of armoured housings and long articulated manipulators, working against the pale curving hull of a starship in open space, one manipulator laid flat and still along the plate. A human-sized hatch with a handrail beside it gives the scale.

AI (Kernel-Compliant Heavy Repair Robot — EVA class) · Exterior Repair, stations and starships; ship's complement, Karla Wender's command

Lumbarian

Xenon, an old maintenance robot with a boxy sensor head and worn many-jointed hands, bent over a workbench in a ship's machine bay under a single bench light, holding a small part with care. A small service machine lies intact on the bench beside a tray of clean parts laid out in order; tools hang on the wall behind.

AI (Kernel-Compliant Maintenance Robot — classic design) · Robot-Maintenance Specialist, ship's complement, Karla Wender's command

Xenon

Alala, a raven with blue-black iridescent plumage, perched on a metal handrail in a bright habitat concourse under a great glass dome, head turned, a slim collar fitting at the back of her neck. Crowds and green planting fill the concourse behind her, out of focus.

Raven (Smart Pet) · Field Observer (Aerial), Orbital Five-O (Governor's Investigative Task Force)

Alala

Chief Commissioner Dorian Calloway on a habitat coordination floor, jacket open and one sleeve turned back, half-turned from a bank of wall displays showing orbital ring diagrams, telemetry traces and a schematic floor plan.

Human · Chief Commissioner, Orbital Space Habitats (Orbital Habitats Compact)

Chief Commissioner Dorian Calloway

Governor Petra Voss, a Black woman with close-cropped grey hair in a plain grey high-collared suit, standing at a wide habitat window and looking out past it. Earth fills the view below, with lit orbital structures ringing the dark above the limb.

Human · Governor of Orbital Space Habitats (Orbital Habitats Compact)

Governor Petra Voss

Cormac Dubhghlas at the edge of his own crop rows at first light, a lean, grey-bearded man in a worn waxed jacket and knitted cap, hands clasped in front of him, standing entirely still. Young crop runs away behind him into low mist, the far end of the field lost in haze.

Human · Clan Head, Clan Dubhghlas (Aethelrock)

Cormac Dubhghlas

aka The Old Rotation's Man

Fergus Aonghas outside the cut of a mine working in the granite highlands, a broad, solidly built man in a scuffed quilted jacket with his arms folded, looking directly at the viewer. Bare rock rises on both sides of the opening behind him and the workings stand on the ridge above.

Human · Clan Head, Clan Aonghas (Aethelrock)

Fergus Aonghas

aka The Blunt Ridge

Catherine Galen in a plain grey service uniform with small ring-and-bar collar marks, standing at a tall window in a quiet arrivals hall in soft overcast daylight. Beside her a stencilled plainmark panel carries stacked bands of black, slate-blue, bone-white and ochre around a single lozenge diamond.

Human · Ranger Liaison Officer, Tír na nÓg Gateway

Catherine Galen

aka Galen

Idris Bryneth on open high moor, a lean, wind-burned man in his forties with dark close-cropped hair and several days' stubble, in an oiled storm coat with the collar up, hands empty at his sides, watching something well beyond the frame. A wall of rain crosses the moor behind him with sun still on the near ground.

Human · Clan Head, Clan Bryneth (Aethelrock)

Idris Bryneth

aka The Northern Watch

Niamh Ó Ceallaigh on a working fjord quayside, a practical woman in middle age with grey-streaked hair pulled back against the wind, in a waterproof deck coat, looking out across the water rather than at the viewer. Moored boats line the shore behind her and the flat water holds the cliffs upside down.

Human · Clan Head, Clan Ó Ceallaigh (Aethelrock)

Niamh Ó Ceallaigh

aka Fleet-Mistress of the Fjords

A weathered woman in a grey wool coat and scarf on a misty rocky upland pasture, shepherd's crook in hand, sheep grazing among lichen-covered volcanic stones behind her

Human · Flockholder, the Shepherd croft, Boirinn Uplands (Tír na nÓg)

Órla Shepherd

Rhiannon Ceridwen beneath the mast of her relay station at dusk, a composed woman with grey curling hair in a heavy practical coat, standing level and unhurried on the platform decking with her hands at her sides, facing the viewer. The mast rises directly behind her, guy lines going up into low cloud, one small steady light burning high on it.

Human · Clan Head, Clan Ceridwen (Aethelrock)

Rhiannon Ceridwen

aka The Relay-Keeper

Sorcha Shepherd, a woman in her thirties in a green outdoor jacket, standing at a tripod-mounted survey instrument on bare fissured limestone pavement with one hand steadying it, looking off along her line rather than through the eyepiece. Thin grass grows in the cracks and a drystone wall runs along the skyline under bright overcast.

Human · Cartographic Surveyor, Union Land Registry (Tír na nÓg)

Sorcha Shepherd

Designed cover for Sohrel: a cephalopod-like figure with a central mantle and eight radiating limbs, each ending in its own ganglion node, in a ringed emblem on a dark starfield.

Cerebraun · Administrator-Voice, Halyx System (Cerebraun Hegemony)

Sohrel

aka Administrator-Voice Sohrel

Human · Author; the Called In stories

Ariel Pinya

aka Ariel Pipyka

Pandoid · Keeper of the margin, the deep networks, Fliade

Stone-First

Pandoid · An adult of the Told, the deep networks, Fliade

Went-Round

Zoe Smith, a woman in her fifties with short grey hair, in plain grey-brown Star Rangers service dress with a small tab at the collar, standing in a worn, evenly lit residential corridor of a space habitat, half-turned toward someone at a doorway on the right and listening, hands loosely together. The hatches around her are plain and unmarked.

Human · Field Officer, Star Rangers (general operations track)

Zoe Smith

Ilsabet Marrowtide standing composed in the stone passage of her house, in a plain grey habit and white wimple with a worn leather belt, hands loosely clasped. Behind her an open arched doorway shows wet flagstones and grey sea beyond.

Human · Abbess, Tideward Sisterhood (the Abbeylands, Aduine, Kingdom of the Five Islands)

Ilsabet Marrowtide

aka The Abbess of Aduine

Human · Novice, Tideward Sisterhood — the Abbeylands, Aduine, Kingdom of the Five Islands; set to learn the hand

Oriel Fenwick

aka the new novice at the practice desk (delegation notes)

Human · Keeper's son, the Casimor watch-post, Krilzat — Kingdom of the Five Islands; keeps the Castle's door

Bram Tollick

aka the keeper's boy (court shorthand)

Human · Youngest of a Knight's house of the Old Houses, Kingdom of the Five Islands — sent to the Castle on Krilzat to learn the chronicle

Wren, of Knight Pellam

aka Pellam's girl (court shorthand)

A plain middle-aged man in a dark high-collared uniform seated at a paperwork desk, surrounded by stacked files and shelved records in a dim archive

Human · Assistant Deputy Viceroy, Belt Settlements Directorate (Imperium); Bureau of Outer Compliance (b. 2558 UCSD – d. 2621 UCSD)

Osric Fenholt

aka The Honest Man of the Directorate

Dagny Voss, a woman in her fifties with grey hair tied back, in grey industrial coveralls with rust-orange panels, one hand on the railing of an overlook gallery, turned back toward the camera with a dry smile. Below and behind her a clean, orderly refinery floor of gantries and hoppers runs away toward a wide port showing a ringed planet and the curve of the world.

Human · Orbital Refinery Director, Aspenar (Federation of Sentient Beings)

Dagny Voss

A gaunt elderly officer in an archaic dark greatcoat and garrison cap, collar sealed to the chin, a thin silver seam tracing her temple, standing at attention in a derelict depot corridor

Human (cyber-revenant) · Colonel, Inner System Defence Fleet (Imperium); Unbroken Command holdout

Colonel Ilse Korvain

aka The Ashfall Colonel

Lorien of Drithane in a worn but intact unmarked leather flight jacket, standing in the compact cabin of her courier ship. Tools hang racked on a board behind her, cases sit stowed and strapped on shelves, cables are coiled and clipped to the bulkhead, and a small viewport shows stars. Everything is spare and meticulously kept.

Human · Freelance Captain, Independent Survey and Salvage

Lorien of Drithane

aka Lorien "the Wanderer" of Drithane, Lorien the Wanderer, The Wanderer

Isren Farrowkin, a Verdani delegate, in a bright stone hall beside a tall window. A low broad body rests close to the floor on many short sturdy limbs, and from it rise several very wide thin fern-like vanes held half-open toward the light, their upper surfaces carrying dense patches of deep chlorophyll green. Rows of small dark sensory nodes run along the leading edges; there is no face.

Verdani · Fourfold Accord Delegate; Federation of Sentient Beings Assembly Seat (Verdance)

Isren Farrowkin

aka The Canopy's Voice

Suvra Kel keeping a night watch on a frozen plain: a long, low, segmented slate-grey body on several pairs of short limbs, broad vanes folded flat along the flanks, resting beside a dark frost-free outcrop. The forward crest carries wide round hollows holding faint reflections of the sky. A small dim sun sits low on the horizon under a handful of stars.

Ilveth · Search and Rescue Specialist

Suvra Kel