Character guide

General Carlos von Schlichten

major

Also known as von Schlichten, Carlos, General von Schlichten, Authority Carlos von Schlichten

Von Schlichten commands Terra's armed presence on Uller, juggling military defense, Company politics, and native diplomacy while a revolt spreads. He is ruthless in battle — strafing a mob from an airjeep — yet candid enough to admit he is 'too old to play cowboy,' and his real struggle is whether conquest can ever become governance. His decisions in the early fighting shape whether the Terrans hold the planet at all.

Stanley Browne

major

Also known as Stanley - Browne, Browne, Willard Stanley - Browne

Browne covers the Uller conflict for a distant audience, and his reporting is shaped as much by bias and narrative appetite as by events on the ground. His presence raises the question of who controls the story of the uprising — the Company, the rebels, or the man with the transmitter. What he chooses to send home quietly influences how the war is understood far from Uller.

King Kankad

major

Also known as Kankad, The present Kankad

Kankad rules his own people and knows the Terrans well enough to fight them on their terms, borrowing their methods while pursuing Ulleran ends. His rebellion forces von Schlichten to abandon any pretense that the occupation is stable or consensual. As the uprising's political center, he transforms scattered unrest into a coordinated threat.

King Jonkvank

supporting

Also known as Jonkvank

Jonkvank arrives at the Terran Reservation in an ornate launch built for him at Konkrook, a monarch already half-dependent on the power he once rivaled. Von Schlichten intends to hand him the Spear of State as a vassal, not an equal, and Jonkvank's reign will be measured in concessions. His bargain shows how the Company converts defeated kings into instruments of rule.

King Firkked of Skilk

supporting

Also known as Firkked, Skilk

Firkked rules Skilk and throws his weight behind the anti-Terran uprising, making his court a node of resistance. Von Schlichten kills him personally in single combat — a calculated risk that, by local custom, makes the general King of Skilk. Firkked's death is then filmed and screened for other kings, turning his corpse into a tool of nervenkrieg.

Rakkeed

major

Also known as Rakkeed the Prophet, Rakkeed disciples

Rakkeed preaches holy war against the Terrans and their puppet kings, traveling disguised in coolie class on Company ships while nobles quietly host him. Intelligence ties him to money from Gurgurk and to followers like Keeluk, but his real power is the idea he spreads. Blount warns that calling him a barbarian is like calling Hitler a paperhanger — and the uprising proves the point.

Rev. Keeluk Von Schlichten

supporting

Also known as Keeluk, Mr. Keeluk

Keeluk moves between two worlds: the Terran administration that employs his brother and the Ulleran congregations he serves, and the correspondence he passes along becomes intelligence in a war he never chose. His divided loyalties make him a quiet pressure point in the escalating conflict, forcing the reader to ask where faith ends and politics begins. He matters because the letters he hands over help expose the network of anti-Terran agitation before it erupts.

Eric Blount

supporting

Also known as Blount, Lieutenant - Governor Blount

Blount is the political officer who sees what Harrington won't: that every spaceport and power-reactor the Company bestows deepens native hatred rather than gratitude. He needles the governor over the chessboard and the plutonium shipments, tracking Orgzild's ambitions and Rakkeed's reach with the patience of a man who expects the worst. His clear-eyed pessimism drives the early arc, turning scattered warnings into a case for action before the uprising fully ignites.

Sidney Harrington

supporting

Also known as Harrington, Sid, Sid Harrington, Governor Harrington

Harrington presides over the Company's Ulleran holdings with pipe-smoke optimism, dismissing native hatred as the grumbling of a few fanatics and merchants. He spars with Blount over chess and policy, waving away warnings about Orgzild's plutonium purchases and Rakkeed's sermons as burglars under the bed. His complacency is the wall the story's more clear-eyed officers must push against, making him the human face of the colonial blind spot that invites disaster.

Colonel Paula Quinton

supporting

Also known as Paula Quinton, Colonel Quinton, Miss Quinton, Dr. Paula Quinton

Quinton comes to Uller fresh from a near-murder on Seventy-second Street, bandaged and wary, and immediately bristles at the casual contempt in Terran speech. She presses von Schlichten and Blount on the onomatopoeia behind 'geek' and the native word 'suddabit,' refusing the comfortable us-and-them shorthand. Her outsider's conscience gives the early chapters their moral friction, and her intelligence work soon pulls her into the thick of the crisis.

Colonel Hideyoshi O'Leary

supporting

Also known as O'Leary, Hideyoshi, Colonel O'Leary, Hid O'Leary

O'Leary is von Schlichten's comrade-in-arms and the officer who runs the Kragan and native troops, comfortable in the slang and the tactics of the occupation. He leavens the grim briefings with dry asides, explaining the etymology of slurs and the mechanics of nervenkrieg with equal ease. His competence with auxiliary forces makes him a linchpin of the Terran military response once the uprising breaks.

General Themistocles M'zangwe

supporting

Also known as M'zangwe, General M'zangwe, Themistocles M'tzangwe

M'zangwe holds the military line while the civilian leadership debates, the professional counterweight to Harrington's optimism and Blount's warnings. He is the officer whose forces must translate political decisions into firepower once the Skilkan mobs and rebel kings move. His presence in the command structure signals that the Company's response will be organized, ruthless, and total, shaping the middle arc's escalation.

King Orgzild of Keegark

minor

Also known as Orgzild, Keegark, Pappy Orgzild

Ulleran king of Keegark, part of the rebel alliance.

Gurgurk

minor

Ulleran chieftain loyal to the Terran administration.

Kent Pickering

supporting

Also known as Pickering, Dr. Pickering

Pickering belongs to the Company's civilian brain-trust on Uller, the men who can explain why a planet two hundred percent richer still breeds prophets and riots. He sees Rakkeed's following as the human cost of imposed revolution — squeezed merchants, displaced Zirk caravan men — and says so plainly over cocktails. His clear-eyed analysis gives the early unrest its shape, turning a native uprising into a problem of policy and consequence.

Jules Keaveney

minor

Also known as Keaveney, Mrs. Jules Keaveney, Mr. Keaveney

Terran civilian married to a native, caught in the conflict.

Air-Commodore Leslie Hargreaves

supporting

Also known as Hargreaves, Les, Commodore Hargreaves

Hargreaves commands the skies above the Reservation, the officer von Schlichten calls when a geek column comes slogging up the highway. He reads a crowd's stubborn, winded deliberateness with a soldier's cold eye, then lights it up for the gunships without flinching. His readiness — contragravity on instant call, patrols along the Hoork — is what keeps the early violence from overrunning the Terran position.

Dr. Lourenço Gomes

minor

Also known as Gomes, Lourenço, Dr. Gomes

Terran physician and scientist studying Ulleran biology.

Prince Gorkrink

minor

Also known as Gorkrink, The Prince Gorkrink

Ulleran prince, son of a rebel king.

Brigadier-General Barney Mordkovitz

minor

Also known as Mordkovitz, General Mordkovitz, Barney

Terran officer commanding artillery units.

Colonel Jarman

minor

Also known as Jarman

Terran officer, commander of a Kragan rifle battalion.

Morton Buhrmann

minor

Also known as Buhrmann

Terran civilian engineer on Uller.

Colonel Cheng-Li

minor

Terran officer commanding a native regiment.

Major Falkenberg

minor

Also known as Falkenberg

Terran officer, commander of mercenary troops.

King Yoorkerk

minor

Also known as Yoorkerk

Ulleran king, minor rebel leader.

Colonel Robert Grinell

minor

Also known as Grinell, Colonel Grinell

Terran officer, commander of a native regiment.

Commander Dirk Prinsloo

minor

Also known as Prinsloo, Dirk Prinsloo, Commander Prinsloo of the Aldebaran

Terran naval officer commanding the starship Aldebaran.

Sergeant Harry Quong

minor

Also known as Quong, Harry

Terran non-commissioned officer in the colonial forces.

Mohammed Ferriera

minor

Also known as Ferriera, Mr. Ferriera, old Mohammed Ferriera

Terran civilian trader on Uller.

King Jaikark

minor

Also known as Jaikark, Jaikark the Seventeenth

Ulleran king, minor rebel figure.

Emmett Pearson

minor

Also known as Pearson

Terran journalist accompanying Stanley Browne.

Dr. Murillo

minor

Also known as Juan Murillo, Murillo, the Hispano-Indian Martian Murillo

Terran physician and xenologist on Uller.

Captain Pedolsky

minor

Terran officer, commander of a spaceship.

Lieutenant Morrison

minor

Also known as Morrison, Lieutenant (j.g.) Morrison

Terran junior officer in the colonial forces.

Konkrook

minor

Ulleran native, minor character in the uprising.

Corporal Hassan Bogdanoff

minor

Also known as Bogdanoff, Hassan

Terran non-commissioned officer in the colonial forces.

Znidd Suddabit

minor

Also known as Suddabit, znidd suddabit

Ulleran native, minor rebel figure.

Hildegarde Hernandez

minor

Also known as Hildegarde, one Hildegarde Hernandez

Terran woman, love interest of a main character.

Lord Ghroghrank

minor

Also known as Ghroghrank, old Ghroghrank

Ulleran nobleman, minor rebel leader.

Hans Meyerstein

minor

Also known as Meyerstein

Terran civilian, minor character.

Native-Major Kormork

minor

Also known as Kormork

Ulleran officer serving in Terran colonial forces.

Colonel Rodolfo MacKinnon

minor

Also known as MacKinnon, Rodolfo MacKinnon, Colonel MacKinnon

Terran officer, commander of a Kragan regiment.

Captain Inez Malavez

minor

Also known as Malavez, Inez Malavez, Captain Malavez

Terran officer, pilot and intelligence operative.

Prince Jaizerd

minor

Also known as Jaizerd, The Prince

Ulleran prince, minor rebel figure.

Hurkkurk

minor

Ulleran native, minor character.

Ed Wallingsby

minor

Also known as Colonel Wallingsby, Wallingsby

Terran officer, minor character.

Krink

minor

Ulleran native, minor character.

Piet van Reenen

minor

Terran civilian, minor character.

Hendrik Lemoyne

minor

Also known as Hendrik

Terran civilian, minor character.

Laviola

minor

Terran civilian, minor character.