Cast of Characters: From Shadowed White To Dark Grey

Cast of Characters: From Shadowed White To Dark Grey

It's time to line up the characters and to decide which ones will be 3d and which will be 2d; or which have arcs and which are plot devices.  I am going to describe them in artist's colors. Italics indicate primary and permanent motivations.

3D CHARACTERS (ARCS)

Rintiala (Shadowed White)

The reason the whole story was written: the Rise of the Bright Queen, and the End of the Sky Wanderers.
Rintiala's arc concerns the Greek concept of hubris--blinding pride--she simply cannot see the mistakes she is making until it is too late.  Her decision to tamper with the technology of Nuegua, as noble as it appears at the time, is the decision that alters the fate of the Empty Earth.  Ariana dies because of it, as does Alathea, and also Don Benedetto.  Dianire becomes a monster as result of Rintiala's decision. I use the Pregnant Virgin's warning in 'The Furniture of Paradise' the same way Euripides used the Sphinx in 'Oedipus Rex'.

Ariana (Shadowed White)

Bubbly and vivacious, and also the single most beautiful woman in the Empty Earth, Ariana is the ultimate party girl: sociable, funny, able to laugh at herself, yet loyal to a fault, especially when it comes to her older sister Rintiala. She feels deeply betrayed by Rintiala's handling of the crisis in 'The Furniture Of Paradise', and so begins to lose her faith in the Nueguan mythos. She decides to drop out of the Healing Guild, only to hear her mother Alathea threaten "You either are part of the Guild, or you serve it. You do not just leave." Ariana rebels, by accepting an offer from Berylia to become a Companion to the Apache Traders, a subordinate group to the Guild of Gardeners.  When it is clear she is expected to be a prostitute, not just a geisha, she jumps at the chance to help rugged, handsome Apache Trader Hunts-The-Ruins help the Jicarilla Apache.

Don Benedetto Sepulveda (Shadowed White)

Finally, Don Benedetto The Remade One is the last character who is primarily good, with only one flaw. However, that one is a doozy.  As strong and noble as he is, he totally misunderstands and misreads the women in his life. Luckily for him, he is surrounded by strong women: his mother, his fiance, and finally the mystery woman out of the desert.

Dona Maria Sepulveda (Light Grey Warm)

In order for a character to have a Light Grey Warm arc, they must be basically motivated by good intentions, but have absolute positions that they will not yield.  Dona Maria Sepulveda is aunt (and foster mother) to King Carlos Sepulveda, mother of Don Benedetto Sepulveda, and mother of the missing (and considered long dead) Don Genaro Sepulveda.  She will preserve the Sepulveda position at the apex of New Spanish (and therefore all of Empty Earth) society, and is willing to do anything that fits into her moral world view.  If a decision agrees with Family, New Spanish nobility, and Catholic Religion, she will do it. 

Hunts-The-Ruins (Light Grey Warm)

Hunts-The-Ruins is an ambitious young (25 in 2528) Apache civil engineer with a specialty in irrigation and sewage who wishes to become a full Apache Trader, the highest position in Apacheria society. When we first meet him in 'Ghost Sickness' he is single-minded about this goal; the Nueguan Sisters are simply a means to an end. Since his tribe--the Phoenix Apache--are not considered one of the Seven Apache Nations within Apacheria, his elevation to Trader will life his entire tribe, not just himself. A lot is riding on his performance at the Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale. If a moral decision agrees with his ambition to become a Trader and raise the status of his tribe, he will do it. This helps to explain why he would talk confused Ariana into sneaking off with him to help the Jicarilla, a forlorn group of Apache who live within New Spain, perilously close to Santa Fe and King Carlos.

Alope Redourine (Light Grey Warm)

Alope is a twelve-year-old Healing Novice; when we first meet her, Rintiala is her personal tutor, and Alope worships her teacher. Alope is the first Redourine to ever be accepted into the Healing Guild; her family are the leaders in the Guild of Builders.  When push comes to shove, she declares for the Redourines, for Nuegua, and for war against the New Spaniards. This occurs because she is placed in mortal danger in 'The Furniture Of Paradise'; under a Second or First Sister's guidance is never allowed to happen.  Ariana is blamed for this as well as Rintiala. Alope is so infuriated by the injustice of it all that she runs away with her pet Graspers Yassah and Shassah.  We do not meet her again until Dianire's Warrior Guild is chased into the Galiuro by the combined King's Guardsmen and Apache Police.


Alathea (Medium Grey Warm)

Alathea is First Among Firsts, the Papess of Nuegua.  It is she who inaugurated the reclamation of Phoenix project in conjunction with the Apache Traders.  She is a Darwinist to the core. This is the reason that she had a child--Rintiala--with the last of the Sky Wanderers, a handsome blonde explorer who accidentally got left behind, and died as a result of the Sixty-Minute War.  She believes in the Nueguan ideal, and sees all other humans as a lesser species; she tolerates the Apache because the Nueguans need them, but looks forward to the day when Nuegua rules all of the Empty Earth. 

Finds-Water (Medium Grey Cool)

Finds-Water is an opportunist, who makes moral choices based on 'enlightened self-interest'.  He has a wife in every Apache tribe, and dozens of Nueguan half-breed children among the Guild of Gardeners. Selling Nueguan medicines has made him rich, and now the prospect of controlling an entire Sky Wanderers city has led him to a moral precipice.  His seemingly noble decision to accompany  Rintiala to New Spain (where she will meet Don Benedetto and Dona Maria) is a scheme; he will hand her over to Alejandro Baca, to be taken to King Carlos.  Finds-Water has been informing on events in Nuegua for at least ten years when we meet King Carlos in Santa Fe in the chapter 'The Business At New Al Cazar'. This is his downfall; once Alejandro has an actual Nueguan woman in his charge, he has no further need of Finds-Water, who has become a liability.

King Carlos Sepulveda (Medium Grey Cool)

King Carlos is the visionary mastermind of New Spain. He is determined to see New Spain rule all of the Empty Earth. To do this, he must (at minimum) plunder the treasure cities of the Sky Wanderers and eliminate the homeless Western Bandits, who constantly challenge the peace of New Spain, enforced by the King's Guard.  As cold as he might seem, he develops a genuine affection for Ariana (it would be difficult to see him as entirely selfless in his love for her). Her assassination throws him over a moral cliff, and his worst tendencies dominate thereafter.

Consuela Baca (Medium Grey Warm)

Beautiful, lustful and cunning, Consuela Baca rules Casa Baca with an iron fist. She is respected, but not loved by her Indio and Mestizo servants. When she is remade, she seizes the opportunity to replace the Sepulvedas with the Bacas at the apex of New Spanish society.   Her upcoming marriage to Don Benedetto is purely political, but he does not see that; only Dona Maria does.

Long Jumper (Medium Grey Cool) 

Of all the Apache, the Jicarilla have fared the worst. While Apacheria rises to power, the Jicarilla, living only a day's ride from Santa Fe, have been kept in poverty by their own pride and by King Carlos' ambition. When cholera breaks out among the Jicarilla, Long Jumper uses this plague to cement his relationship with King Carlos, Finds-Water, and finally Nuegua, by supporting Hunts-The-Ruins and Ariana. After taking control of the Jicarilla, he intends to give Ariana to King Carlos as a concubine.

Alejandro Baca (Dark Grey Cool)

Alejandro's family--the Bacas--are in competition with the Sepulvedas for the control of southern New Spain, centered around Socorro. A New Spaniard noble with pretensions to Kinghood, Alejandro is King Carlos' left-hand man; the one who does all the dirty work. Oddly enough, his family estate is wealthy enough that he does not have to do anything of the sort; this only makes his actions all the more reprehensible. 

Berylia (Dark Grey Cool) 

Frustrated, humiliated, and brilliant, Berylia is the mirror image of Rintiala.  She has cold revenge on her mind at all times.  Rather than attack the Guild of Healers, and the Guild of Builders, she intends to render them irrelevant. She first intended to do this immediately after Ariana ran off with Hunts-The-Ruins, but after Ariana's assassination by Dianire, she needed no pretext to convince the Apache to disband the Nueguans. 


2D CHARACTERS 

Nueguans: 

Duji

Older brother of Dianire, twin to Tianara, betrothed to Rintiala.

Oldest Sister

Unknown age or origin; she has been part of the Dreaming Grotto as long as anyone in the Guild of Healers can remember. She is only a legend until the events of 'Mothering Day'. Her salvific death in 'The Furniture Of Paradise' is the beginning of the end for Nuegua.

First Sister of the Guild of Builders
First Sister of the Guild of Gardeners

Voices and arguments in the Council of Guilds, which is convened three times, in the chapters 'Mothering Day', 'Traders' Bazaar', and 'Warrior Guild'.

Spaniards:

Old Anna Sanchez
Pedro Sanchez
Felicia Sanchez
(future Abbot) Gaudentio Sepulveda

First encountered in the 'Laughing Sickness'. 

Federale Generale of the Flagellantes
Various King's and Queen's Gaurdsmen

Don Antonio Sepulveda
Dona Carmencita Sepulveda
Lieutenant Alfonso Sepulveda

In the 'Meeting At The Green Lake Room', and in the intermissions between readings. 

Apache:

(We only meet Hunts-The-Ruins, Finds-Water, and Long-Jumper) Everything and everyone else occurs off-stage.

Animals: 

Yassah and Shassah, a Grasper pair
Amtel, a Super Dog (or Spirit Wolf)

Western Bandits

Carl Reineke
Seamus Espinoza Sr.
Seamus Espinoza Jr.