Character guide

Nah-ee-lah

major

Also known as Nah, Nah-ee, Nah-ee-lah the Nonovar, the Nonovar, little Nah-ee-lah

A lunar princess whose contempt for a suspected traitor turns to desperate trust when assassins strike her father's court and only Julian stands between her and the blades.

Julian

major

Also known as Julian 5th, Julian 1st, Julian 2nd, Julian 3rd, Julian 6th, Julian 9th, Julian 8th, Julian 18th, Julian 20th, Brother Julian 9th

A name carried across generations of one bloodline, each Julian inheriting the same stubborn defiance against whatever empire rules the Earth or Moon.

Orthis

major

Also known as Lieutenant Commander Orthis, Or-this, The Or-this, Brother General Or-this, General Or-this

A brilliant Kalkar commander whose intellect could have saved a conquered world, but whose treachery instead dragged both ships burning into the sea.

The Kalkars

major

Also known as Kalkars, The Kalkars, the accursed Kalkars, the hated Kalkars

A relentless lunar race that spreads like ants across the Earth, grinding down resistance through sheer numbers and centuries of unbroken occupation.

Julian 5th

major

Also known as Julian

An Earthman aboard the Transoceanic Liner Harding on the night Mars answered, whose voyage would carry him far past the red planet's orbit.

Juana

supporting

Also known as Juana St. John

A fierce Earth woman under Kalkar rule whose sharp tongue and hidden tenderness make her both Julian's hardest critic and his most steadfast ally.

Peter Johansen

supporting

Also known as Peter, Johansen

Peter lives among a taxed, watched people whose brief contentment shatters the moment the Kash Guard rides in. When Or-tis comes to claim Juana, Peter steps between them and stakes a claim that is half lie, half defiance, knowing traitors do not live long. His reckless stand sets the story's central conflict of love against tyranny in motion, and the thirty days of law that follow become a countdown he cannot escape.

Norton

supporting

Also known as young Norton, Mr. Norton, Moon Norton

Norton serves under the commander on the first voyage to the Moon, the man sent into the ship's guts to find why they are falling. He discovers the opened intake valve and reports it without panic, then learns the radio is destroyed and greets the news with a smile and a single regret for the world's ignorance. His selflessness under sentence of death gives the doomed mission its moral weight and makes the coming crash on the Moon feel like a loss worth mourning.

Ko-tah

supporting

Also known as Ko-tah the Javadar, the Javadar, Javadar, Ko, the false Ko-tah, XII Ko-Tah

Ko-tah commands a network of retainers and spies so deep that the men who came to kill Sagroth wore imperial livery. He wants the throne of Laythe, and he offers Nah-ee-lah a shared crown rather than none, a compromise she refuses at swordpoint. His grab for power forces the princess and her handful of loyal guards into a desperate race for the throne room, and his presence turns the palace itself into enemy ground.

Ga-va-go

supporting

Also known as Ga, Old Ga-va-go

Ga-va-go leads the Va-gas who capture the Earthmen and the princess, and he sees in Nah-ee-lah not a person but a price: one hundred young women of Laythe. He keeps his prisoners apart and sends messengers to her father, calculating a ransom he may never collect. His matter-of-fact cannibalism forces the narrator to confront a world where human faces are meat, and his bargain makes Nah-ee-lah's worth a question of arithmetic rather than love.

Mother

supporting

Also known as poor Mother

Mother belongs to the Julian household whose generations carry the story across centuries, a quiet presence in a family defined by war and exploration. Her world is one where peace has finally come and no one knows what to do with it, where the young are trained only for conflict and the old can barely remember stillness. She matters because the saga is built on lineage, and her place in it reminds the reader that the Moon voyage is not just adventure but inheritance.

Raban

supporting

Also known as VIII Raban, Raban the Giant

Raban towers over the ruined hilltop stronghold, a mountain of flesh who takes what he wants and roars to summon his fellows when challenged. He seizes Bethelda, an Or-tis, intending to make her his woman, and meets the Red Hawk's challenge with a frenzy born of cowardice rather than courage. His size and savagery make him the physical embodiment of Kalkar cruelty, and the duel he forces becomes a test of whether skill and love can overcome brute strength.

Moh-goh

supporting

Also known as Moh-goh the Paladar

Moh-goh is a priest of the Kalkar regime who, having been captured and imprisoned in City No. 337, escapes with Julian's help and returns to the Laythean city where his name still carries weight. He moves through the world with a practical ease, coiling his rope at the crater's rim and assuring Julian that the people of Laythe will receive him well. His friendship is the bridge that carries Julian from enemy territory into a fragile new allegiance, and his testimony before Ko-vo the Kamadar is what transforms a fugitive into an accepted guest.

Father

supporting

He sits alone at a small table in the Blue Room of the Transoceanic Liner Harding on Mars Day, 1967, and invites a stranger to share the only vacant chair. His face lights with a smile that compels liking, and his account of a world exhausted by half a century of war and suddenly electrified by communication with Mars becomes the doorway into everything that follows. He is less a character than a keeper of memory, the voice through which the Julian line's long entanglement with the Moon and with the Kalkars is transmitted to those who come after.

Jim Thompson

supporting

Also known as Jim

Jim Thompson belongs to the generation born into unbroken war, men who knew nothing but the alarm of battle and then found themselves adrift in a peace they had never been trained to inhabit. He is the kind of comrade whose steadiness matters most when the cause is losing, and his presence in the narrative anchors the human cost of the Julian dynasty's long struggle. What he wants is simple and hard: a world worth the fighting, and companions worth dying beside.

Red Lightning

supporting

Also known as Lightning, Leading Red Lightning

Red Lightning commands the desert clans and fights with a ferocity that turns the tide in the chamber where Sagroth falls, his blade finding the heart of an assassin before the man can realize what has happened. He is a leader who measures himself by his honor and by the opinion of those he respects, and the word 'traitor' hurled at him by Nah-ee-lah cuts deeper than any sword. His loyalty, once given, is absolute, and his presence in the early–middle arc signals that the resistance is not one people's fight but many.

Mollie Sheehan

supporting

Also known as Mollie

Mollie Sheehan comes of age in a world that has just buried its last great war and does not know what to do with the peace, and she chooses to make herself useful rather than wait for someone to tell her how. She is drawn to the rebellion not out of romance but out of a plain refusal to accept the Kalkar order, and her energy and nerve make her the kind of person others rally around. In the early–middle arc she is the human face of the cause, the reminder that the fight is not only for dynasties but for ordinary people who refuse to be ruled.

Soor

minor

A Kalkar officer and antagonist in the later lunar conflicts.

The Kash Guard

minor

Also known as Kash Guard, the Kash Guard

The elite Kalkar military force that enforces the regime's will.

Sagroth

minor

Also known as Sagroth the Jemadar, the Jemadar, Jemadar, the Emperor Sagroth, Sagroth of Laythe

The Jemadar (emperor) of Laythe, a ruler on the Moon.

Bethelda

minor

Also known as VII Bethelda

A female character from the Moon, involved in the later dynastic struggles.

West

minor

Also known as Mr. West

An Earth official and ally in the early space voyage.

Jay

minor

Also known as Mr. Jay

An Earth official involved in the early space mission planning.

Laythe

minor

Also known as Jemadar of Laythe, the Jemadar, The Jemadar of Laythe, the new Jemadar

A ruler of the lunar city Laythe, often a title held by various characters.

Saku

minor

A Nipon (Japanese) character encountered in the later desert adventures.

O'Konnor

minor

Also known as Okonnor

An Earth soldier and comrade in the resistance against the Kalkars.

Pthav

minor

A Kalkar official or officer in the lunar hierarchy.

The Wolf

minor

A desert clan leader and ally in the later resistance.

Orrin Colby

minor

Also known as Colby, Orrin

An Earth soldier and member of the resistance movement.

Samuels

minor

Also known as old Samuels, Old Samuels, Samuels the Jew

An Earth merchant or trader encountered in the later parts.

Rain Cloud

minor

Also known as The Rain Cloud

A Native American character and ally in the desert clans.

The Red Hawk

minor

Also known as Red Hawk

A title or alias for a Native American leader in the desert clans.

The Rattlesnake

minor

A desert clan member or ally in the resistance.

Ko-vo

minor

Also known as Ko-vo the Kamadar, Ko-tah

A Kamadar (official) on the Moon, possibly a variant of Ko-tah.

Tav

minor

Also known as Presently Tav

A minor lunar character, possibly a servant or guide.

The Rock

minor

A desert clan member or landmark in the later story.

Vonbulen

minor

Also known as Brother Vonbulen

A Kalkar brother and official in the oppressive lunar government.

Jarth

minor

Also known as Jarth the Jemadar, the Jemadar, a Jemadar

A Jemadar of Laythe, a ruler during the later lunar conflicts.

Gapth

minor

A Kalkar character, possibly a guard or minor official.

The Laytheans

minor

Also known as Laytheans

The people of the lunar city Laythe, often in conflict with the Kalkars.

The Twentyfour

minor

Also known as Twentyfour

A group or council of Kalkar leaders.

Va-gas

minor

Also known as Va-nah, The Va-gas

A quadrupedal humanoid race native to the Moon, encountered early in the story.

Earth Man

minor

Also known as the Earth Man

A generic term for Earth humans, often referring to the protagonist Julian.

Zo-al

minor

Also known as Zo

A minor lunar character, possibly a servant or attendant.

Barsoom

minor

Also known as The Barsoom

The spaceship that carries the first Earthmen to the Moon.

Yank

minor

Also known as Dirty Yank

A derogatory term for an American, used by Kalkars or enemies.

The Officer

minor

An unnamed Kalkar or Earth officer appearing in various scenes.

Nipons

minor

Also known as The Nipons, the little Nipons

Japanese people or soldiers encountered in the desert resistance.

John Carter

minor

Also known as Mars, that deathless Virginian

A legendary Earthman who traveled to Mars, mentioned as a historical figure.

The Kolrados

minor

Also known as Kolrados

A group or tribe encountered in the lunar or desert regions.

Barsoomians

minor

The inhabitants of Mars, referenced in the prologue and lore.

The Jemadav

minor

Also known as Jemadav, Jemadav of Jemadavs

A high-ranking Kalkar title, possibly a supreme ruler.

The Stranger

minor

An unidentified character appearing briefly in the narrative.

Corrigan

minor

Also known as Dennis Corrigan

An Earth soldier and member of the resistance.

Earth Men

minor

Also known as the Earth Men

Generic term for human astronauts or soldiers from Earth.

Ju-lan-fit

minor

Also known as Javadar, Ju-lan Javadar, Ju-lan the Javadar

A Javadar (lunar noble) appearing in the story.

The Moon Maid

minor

Also known as VII The Moon Maid Escapes

A title for Nah-ee-lah, the lunar princess.

Hoffmeyer

minor

A minor Earth character, possibly a scientist or officer.

The Vulture

minor

Also known as Vulture

A desert clan member or enemy in the later parts.

The Kash Guards

minor

Also known as Kash Guards

Members of the elite Kalkar military guard.

The Flag

minor

A symbol of the resistance, possibly a character's name or title.

The Jemadars

minor

Also known as Jemadars, Jemadar of Jemadars

The ruling council or class of Kalkar leaders.

Brother

minor

Also known as Brother General Or-this

A Kalkar title for a religious or military brother.

Julians

minor

Also known as the Julians

The dynasty of Julian descendants across generations.

Laythean

minor

Also known as A Laythean

An inhabitant of the lunar city Laythe.

Moses

minor

A biblical figure mentioned in passing, not a character.

The Butcher

minor

Also known as X The Butcher

A Kalkar executioner or brutal official.

Americans

minor

The American people, referenced as a group in the narrative.