Introduction (before reading the book)
- Sievaahdra Jesstar Aaouen: Dr. Aaouen lives in Bradbury Burrow on Mars working as an emotisim artist, but he has a bad reputation. He is rumored to be “unstable” and to do freelance genealogy and offer temporal seances. He is 80+ chronological years old, but the longevity drugs keep him physically 50 years old.
- Krizel Kane: He is a 70+ chronological year old physicist whose schizophrenic personalities include a teenager, a tech sidekick, and anold man: K, Krizel, Mr. Kane. He was one of Dr. Aaouen’s first clients, but is now his colleague.
- Kunigunde Wolf: She has long brown hair and is in her early thirties. You can imagine the rest, just insert your favorite muse here. Her father was a soldier, and used to tell her exciting stories of the exotic places they sent him to on Earth. They were living on Luna at the time, but he died when she was twelve. Her mother kept them together for a while by painting scenery for some of the traveling entertainment troupes. They went with them to Mars for a year, but then came back down to Earth. By the time she was sixteen she had been in dozens of cities on all three worlds. Then her mother was killed by her abusive lover, and Kunnigunde ran off to San Francisco. Her poetry is mythic, heroic, and violent. She describes huge events, and her characters respond bravely. That is the way she sees life.
- Shamel Jackson: A muscular black man in his early twenties. He is a rookie, working for FoM security investigating the conspiracy of the anti-emigrationists and assigned to vett Dr. Aaouen for the Man in the Moon.
- Mandalay Xi Morrissey: The Governor of Luna, also called the Man in the Moon, is involved with the launching of the colonization expedition from the Luna to the outer moons of the solar system. He wants Dr. Aaouen to create some emotisims of the Prophet’s ancestors for inclusion in the Fleet’s libraries.
- Flrrmako: (Fishman) The alien Fishmen are double-decker octopus beings with streamlined bodies and tentacles that can be compressed and combined into fins, or used separately as arms and legs for manipulation and walking. They speak with sonar and clicks. Flrrmako is the Flowmiculon’s first mate and communications specialist.