If there was ever a book in need of a Character Sheet, it would be ''Literature/{{Otherland}}''. As this page is a work in progress, assistance is appreciated.

'''Spoiler alert!''' All spoilers are unmarked -- read at your own risk!
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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Sellars' "volunteers"]]
The RagtagBunchOfMisfits that Mr. Sellars puts together to invade Otherland. Some of them never actually meet.

!!Patrick Sellars
Ex-military test pilot and participant in a secret government project to outfit subjects for near-light speed interstellar travel, which was later turned into a SuperSoldier project and destroyed by a PsychoPrototype.
* AttendingYourOwnFuneral: His real body dies from overstress, but he triggers the BrainUploading program before everything shuts down, so he (or rather a copy) gets to join Orlando as a digital person and watch the funeral proceedings.
* BigGood: He is the primary opponent of the Brotherhood.
* TheChessmaster: He has ''lots'' of free time to plot and plan, making his schemes nearly as complex as Jongleur's.
* CreatingLife: Sellars was given the most advanced antiviral software available at the time in preparation for a long solo journey. He incubates and sets these programs against one another in a confined environment in order to provoke evolution. When the Other discovers these creations, it steals them, prompting his investigation into and discovery of Otherland.
* {{Cyborg}}: Adapted to connect with his starship. Too bad the project got blown up, making him a cripple with burn scars all over his body.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His justification for all his actions, except the CreatingLife bit - that was from boredom.
* LastNameBasis: He always refers to himself as Sellars and his first name is only mentioned once.
* TheMentor: Getting cut off from Sellars' guidance is an important plot point for the Otherland party at the end of the first novel, forcing them to decipher its mysteries on their own. Sellars goes on to subvert part of the trope later, since although his physical body dies, a copy of him survives thanks to BrainUploading.
* MissionControl: For the entire Otherland expedition. He's one of the few people capable of breaking through the network's security to communicate with the people trapped inside.
* MysteriousInformant: His recruitment scheme for his "volunteers" is designed to preserve his anonymity as much as possible; justified given the people he's working against. He's the thread that ends up connecting all the other protagonists, many of whom don't even know it.
* TricksterMentor: A mild example, he tantalizes hundreds, if not thousands, of people with hints and riddles and clues to lead them to the Otherland, and only a small fraction makes it, with people dying in the process. This is justified in that he's an imprisoned cripple capable of accessing the outside world only after he turned his body into a living antenna and he's fighting an organization that owns, at a guess, roughly two-thirds of ''everything''. Everyone he tried to talk to legitimately was quietly murdered.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Sellars manages the feat of being more anonymous and secretive than is typical for even the 'Net's most reclusive denizens.
* WhatTheHellHero: His recruitment of the six-year old Christabel to aid his schemes gets him royally chewed out by her parents.

!!Inside Otherland
!!!Irene "Renie" Sulaweyo
The primary viewpoint character. A college professor of network programming at Durban University in South Africa, Renie enters Otherland to search for her younger brother, Stephen, whom she believes to be trapped there. Her force of will drives the party to continue even when all hope appears lost.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Implied in her narration at times, especially early on. Spending her time [[PromotionToParent caring for an irresponsible younger brother]] and a drunken ManChild father has given her a cynical suspicion that all men are lazy and useless. When in Otherland, she becomes irritated with all of the misogynist [=NPCs=] coded into the worlds she finds.
* GenderBender: Given her temperament and other practical considerations, Martine chooses for Renie to take on the character of a male hero when the group enters the Trojan war. If she were a woman, she'd have considerably less mobility. Renie finds the sensation of having a penis very disturbing.
* TheHero: It is her quest to rescue Stephen that focuses the motivations of the Otherland group and drives them to make most of their progress.
* HotBlooded: Her anger and tendency to rush to judgement make her life considerably more difficult.
* MamaBear: Her motivation is mainly to protect her younger brother, for whom she is a stand-in parent.
* PromotionToParent: For Stephen, thanks to her mother's death and her father's descent into ennui.
* TeamMom: She tries to act as leader and protector of the Otherland group, which causes a great deal of friction since they all have their own agendas and resent being "parented".

!!! !Xabbu
An African Bushman and Renie's student who justifies much of her {{exposition}} through his ignorance (at first) of the 'Net. His unique perspective on life gives him unusual capabilities in Otherland.


* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: In the eyes of Otherland's puppets, since he spends about half of the story in a baboon sim.
* LastOfHisKind: He believes himself to be the last African Bushman, as his tribe had disappeared by the time he went to search for it.
* LoveInterest: He becomes Renie's deepest and closest friend throughout their experiences in Otherland and finally becomes her lover at the end.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: Specifically, an African Bushman, or San. His different world perception is a major plot point.
* ManicPixieDreamGuy: To Renie. While he's not particularly manic, he otherwise fits the trope of bringing some whimsy and wonder into her hyper-rational all-work-and-no-play life and helping her open her mind to new possibilities.
* TheUnpronounceable: His name begins with a clicking noise that's unpronounceable to most people. Long Joseph mispronounces it "Kobbu" or "Gobbu". In audiobook form, his name is pronounced "Habbu" with a raspy "H".
* TheWatson: His ignorance of the 'Net allows Renie to provide a JustifiedTutorial about how it works.

!!!Martine Desroubins
A blind French researcher who lives in an underground facility. She is recruited by Renie to aid in the search for Otherland and becomes trapped along with the rest of the party. Frequently the viewpoint character when focus shifts from Renie.
* AdultsAreUseless: Her {{backstory}} details an upbringing at the hands of drugged-out, social-phobic parents whose ennui enables the events leading up to her blinding.
* ApocalypticLog: Her viewpoint segments are all narrated retrospectively in the form of her subvocalized journals, which she later recovers from Otherland with Sellars' help.
* BlindSeer: She [[LampshadeHanging notes the irony herself]] that her blindness gives her dramatically improved sensory perceptions in Otherland.
* ChekhovsGun: The odd circumstances of her childhood blindness are key to the revelations about the Other's nature.
* TheFaceless: Until entering Otherland, all her sims are featureless blocks. This is because she is blind, so she doesn't feel the need to provide visual feedback to others.
* GenreSavvy: She is one of the first members of the group to realize that events in Otherland seem to be getting forced into a narrative framework; she also notes the resemblance of the various members to narrative roles -- most especially her own.
* IneffectualLoner: She lives in a bunker under a mountain, talking to machines.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: More than most characters, because her blindness means she operates without visual feedback and declines to provide others the same.

!!!Florimel Kurnemann
A reclusive German doctor who was born inside a cult, she goes to Otherland to rescue her daughter from a coma.
* DeadpanSnarker: Turns into this as she gradually eases up around Renie, catching the latter completely off-guard a few times with her remarks.
* HotBlooded: This frequently drives her into conflict with the equally HotBlooded Renie.
* TheLancer: As a parental figure herself, she competes with Renie for the leadership role and acts as a secondary leader when the group splits up.
* MamaBear: For her daughter, who fell into a coma and is later revealed to be with her in her VR immersion getup.
* RedHerringMole: She is one of the people in the group suspected of being Dread in disguise, as she is never given narrative POV. To throw the reader off, Martine even senses a duplicity to her before TheReveal of whom Dread was embodying; the duplicity, as mentioned above, is actually Florimel's daughter.

!!!Javier "T4b" Rogers
A born-again street kid who was recruited by the Circle to enter Otherland and be an agent among Sellars' recruits.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: He acts very "macho" and standoffish to disguise that he's really an insecure teenager. The armor he wears becomes symbolic of this facade, as he becomes more personable when he loses it.
* TheMole: For the Circle, but a benevolent one, since they're technically on the same side.
* SpikesOfVillainy: In his PoweredArmor sim. Inverted, since he's a protagonist, and {{lampshaded}} several times.
* StreetUrchin: He used to be a member of a street gang that dealt in charge.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: His nickname is a street name for a variant of "charge", a common street drug that he used to deal in.

!!!Sweet William
An American man who, in his waning years, started an online relationship with a girl whom he later discovered to be underage. He enters Otherland out of guilt when she enters a coma, feeling responsible for her.
* TheAtoner: For his perceived sin of associating with an underage girl.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: He is almost violently standoffish when asked to share his history with the group; it's later revealed that this is out of shame.
* PimpedOutDress: His sim in Otherland is described as somehow resembling a goth clown.
* RedHerringMole: As another character who never gets narrative POV, he's among the suspects for being Dread's hijackee. He pays for it by getting killed by Dread.

!!!Quan Li
A Chinese woman who's in Otherland because of her granddaughter's coma.
* GrandTheftMe: She turns out to be the person whose sim Dread hijacks.
* TheMole: The "real" Quan Li is killed in the beginning of the journey and her sim is used by Dulcinea Anwin and Dread.

!!!Orlando Gardiner
A teenage boy who suffers from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/progeria progeria]], a rapid aging disease, and spends most of his time online as a result to compensate for his physical disability. He enters Otherland in the search for Sellars' "golden city", unaware of the risks involved. He is frequently accompanied by an AI companion named Beezle that acts as an ExpositionFairy.
* AttendingYourOwnFuneral: He join"s Sellars in viewing his own funeral, thanks to BrainUploading.
* BackFromTheDead: The Other seemingly idolizes him as a hero, and rewards him by bringing him back to life to [[spoiler:[[BigDamnHeroes defeat the clones of Finney and Mudd at the Well]]]].
* TheBigGuy: In his gameplaying sim of brawny barbarian Thargor.
* DeadpanSnarker: He's impatient with "stupidity" -- fair enough given that he knows his days are numbered, and inflicts it on those around him, mostly Sam, in the form of sarcasm.
* LittlestCancerPatient: Due to incurable progeria, he is doomed to die young. Atypically for the trope, he doesn't sit down and take it, instead compensating by being a brawny warrior in his online persona.
* NightmareFetishist: Because he knows he's going to die, he has a macabre attraction to death simulations.
* YouCanBarelyStand: He spends much of his time in Otherland barely functional due to his progressing illness in real life. During his moments of lucidity, he engages in badassery to make up for it.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: As a progeria victim, he is doomed to die as a teenager and knows it.

!!!Salome "Sam" Fredericks
A teenage girl, Orlando's best friend and his constant companion throughout the story.
* CaptainObvious: A part of the relationship dynamic between Sam and Orlando is that she'll deliberately point out the obvious in a situation because she knows it drives him crazy.
* {{GIRL}}: Inverted. Her online persona is male, to avoid being picked on, and she "forgets" to tell Orlando when they become friends. He is quite shocked when he finds out. But, considering he didn't tell her about his illness...
* TheLancer: In the Trojan War simulation, when Orlando is ill, Sam dons Achilles' armor to fight in his stead, accidentally imitating the genuine story when she runs into Hector.
* SweetPollyOliver: In VR, you can be whoever you want to be, and Sam wants to be "one of the boys", so she wears a male sim. Orlando doesn't find out the truth until he looks her up in real life.
* {{Sidekick}}: To Orlando, promoted to potential LoveInterest by the end of the story once the shock of her gender reveal has worn off and Orlando is no longer afraid of dying.
* TomboyishName: She intentionally chose "Sam" as her nickname for the gender ambiguity.
* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: She was pretending to be a boy, and then got too deep into friendship with Orlando for any sort of natural segué into revealing her gender, so found herself trapped in an unwinnable situation vis-a-vis her crush on him. Then he up and ''dies''.

!!Outside
!!!Decatur "Catur" Ramsey
A lawyer who is hired by Orlando's parents to solve the mystery of his coma. He ends up being recruited by Sellars to help rescue the latter from captivity.
* MissionControl: He's Olga Pirovsky's link to the outside world when she infiltrates J Corp.

!!!Olga Pirofsky
A grandmotherly lady who works as an actor for Uncle Jingle's Jungle, a popular online kids' program. Her mysterious headaches lead her on a path of discovery that takes her all the way to J Corp's headquarters.
* ChekhovsGunman: After a long, long time of having no obvious connection to the main plot, it is abruptly revealed that [[spoiler:her child did not die, but was taken away from her at birth, becoming the Other]].
* CoolOldLady: She successfully infiltrates a highly fortified building and manages to do what she came for, all while keeping her cool even when the plan seems to go sour.

!!!Christabel Sorensen
A kindergarten-age girl who lives on the same military base as Mr. Sellars, and whom he recruits to help him escape. Her parents end up finding out about the relationship and, coming to the logical (but incorrect) conclusion, force Sellars to take them into his confidence.
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Her point-of-view segments play up her innocence and also the anguish that Sellars suffers by using her. Given her sheltered life in a military base, she's utterly shocked when she runs into the far more worldly Cho-Cho.
* {{Irony}}: Christabel's father is the man charged with ensuring Sellars remains imprisoned, incommunicado with the rest of the world. Naturally, it's his daughter Sellars recruits to aid him, which ultimately results in his defection to Sellars' side.

!!!Carlos "Cho-Cho" Izabal
A street urchin who accidentally stumbles across Christabel's secret meetings with Sellars and joins his party under duress.
* SlapSlapKiss: Well, clearly not the "kiss" part, but his relationship with Christabel fits the trope remarkably well in other ways.
* StreetUrchin: He grew up on the streets as part of a gang of homeless kids, and encounters Christabel while scavenging for food.

!!!Susan van Bleeck
A white South African woman and Renie's college mentor; she helps Renie and !Xabbu in the search for Otherland but is beaten to death by Jongleur's goons.
* AlmostDeadGuy: Her last message to Renie while dying in the hospital leads her to contact Martine Desroubins.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: She is beaten to death for daring to investigate Otherland on Renie's behalf.

!!!Jeremiah Dako
Susan's butler, he joins Long Joseph in watching over Renie and !Xabbu while they're immersed in VR within the decommissioned military base.
* HaveIMentionedIAmGay: He openly laments not having any time for romantic pursuits.
* StraightGay: While Long Joseph somehow picks up on his orientation immediately, it is not immediately obvious to any of the other characters.

!!!Long Joseph Sulaweyo
Renie and Stephen's father. Emotionally crippled by the death of his wife in a fire, he copes by drinking, and his absenteeism forces Renie to become the ''de facto'' head of the Sulaweyo household.
* TheAlcoholic: He copes with a world that he no longer wishes to emotionally connect to by drinking.
* DrowningMySorrows: To retreat from the pain of losing his wife.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's forced to come to terms with his problems when he's isolated from the world without alcohol.
* LeeroyJenkins: He tends to wildly impulsive and irrational behavior -- leaving the military base in pursuit of a drink and attempting to visit his son in the hospital results in the badguys discovering their hideout.
* NailedToTheWagon: There is nothing to drink at the decommissioned military base. When he runs out of the booze he brought with him, he has no choice but to dry out.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: "I just wanted to see my son." Yeah, well, you just blew your daughter's cover.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Grail Brotherhood and affiliates]]
!!!Felix Jongleur
The head of the Brotherhood, and the oldest living man on Earth, even more so than most people realize. He lives inside a custom-built life support tank atop J Corp's tower, but spends his time as a fearsome online executive. Goes by "Osiris" in Otherland.
* AnimalMotifs: He is frequently described as looking like a hawk.
* BadBoss: He tortures two of his employees into gibbering insanity in front of the Brotherhood.
* BigBad: He starts out as the main antagonist before Dread takes over that role and it is his desire for immortality that drives the plot.
* BigBadWannabe: An interesting example in that he starts off as the legit BigBad of the story. Over the course of three books, however, he gradually loses control of his position as his fellow Grail Brotherhood members begin to plot against him, the operating system that he relies on to maintain his Otherland network develops a will of its own, and his increasingly erratic behavior fails to inspire confidence in his co-conspirators. Jongleur's fall from grace finally occurs when Johnny Dread successfully seizes control of Otherland and he is forced into an EnemyMine situation with the heroes. Even Jongleur's last-minute attempt to seize back control of his network fails miserably and Dread remains the primary threat.
* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: He grew up in one, causing psychological scars that drive him all his life.
* BodyHorror: His ancient body floats in a dark tank and would be unable to live without machines supporting it.
* TheBully: Bullied as a child, his response is to become, in effect, the biggest bully in the entire world.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Based on what Olga Pirovsky finds when she visits J Corp, Jongleur appears to pretty much own the state of Louisiana and brazenly flaunts any law or moral that doesn't suit him.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: He serves as the main villain for three of the series' four books. At the climax of the third book, Jongleus is essentially dethroned by his DragonWithAnAgenda, Johnny Dread. And although Jongleur remains an active figure in the story, he never regains his position as the BigBad.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Considered cloning his mother as part of his plan to replicate his childhood but could not bring himself to desecrate her grave.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He cares for his daughter/clone Avialle.
* EvilIsPetty: He singled out Paul Jonas as a tutor to his daughter, Avialle, fully intending to have Paul murdered once the job was complete. His reason? [[InsaneTrollLogic Paul went to the same public school where Jongleur was bullied as a child]].
* ForeignCultureFetish: Jongleur is obsessed with Ancient Egypt. He spends most of his time in his Egypt simulation and gives Egyptian names to phases in the Grail project.
* ImmortalitySeeker: His motivation since surviving UsefulNotes/WorldWarI is to live forever. He regards death as a foe to be defeated at any cost.
* [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Really Two Hundred Years Old]]: His visible persona, when he chooses to present a face to the world through the 'Net, is that of a middle-aged executive, and only a few people know the truth that he's a shriveled ''thing'' in a life support tank.
* ReturningBigBad: Subverted. He attempts to become this at the climax of the fourth book, managing to escape from the virtual world and return to his real-world body that is safely ensconced at his headquarters. By that point, however, Sellars and Olga Pirofsky have hacked into his system, rendering his capabilities, beyond siccing his CoDragons onto Olga, useless.
* TortureTechnician: He tortures two of his employees by invoking their deepest fears in a VR environment.
* WickedCultured: He based most of his simulations on classic literature and mythology.

!!!John "Dread" Wulgaru
Aka Johnny Dark, aka John "More Dread", aka [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dread]]. A sociopathic killer hired by Jongleur for his unique psychic power. His ambition goes beyond even what his boss is capable of predicting, resulting in near-total disaster. In Jongleur's Egypt simulation, he goes by "Anubis".
* AGodAmI: Once he takes over Otherland.
* BastardUnderstudy: Trained to be a perfect assassin by Jongleur's people, he proves to be even less loyal than Jongleur anticipated.
* CatchPhrase: "Confident, cocky, lazy, dead." and "Hello, sweetness."
%%* DragonWithAnAgenda
* EvenEvilHasStandards: After he goes on his orgy of destruction in Otherland, he regrets taking such sadistic pleasure in demolishing Toy Land, since he despises pedophiles and worries that he might be crossing that particular line.
* EvilerThanThou:
-->'''Felix Jongleur''': You think ''I'm'' vicious? You haven't seen anything yet.
%%* ForTheEvulz
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He keeps recordings of all the women he has killed on his system. In his final moments, just when he needs all his attention to escape the Other, Dulcinea floods him with those images. Dread is put into a catatonic state from sensory overload, and proceeds to dream about those women now hunting him. [[FateWorseThanDeath Forever.]]
* MeaningfulName: "Dread", but it's a double pun. "More Dread" = Mordred, which ties in with Jongleur's "Grail" project via the legend of Myth/KingArthur, and is Dread's way of poking fun at his boss. Further, "Wulgaru" is a shortened name of a monster found in Myth/AboriginalAustralianMyths, and was given to him by his mother to reflect her desire to turn him into a monster.
%%* MisanthropeSupreme
%%* MoodSwinger: Extremely so.
* MommyIssues: His mother deliberately turned him into what he now is.
* NightmareFetishist: Once he gains control of Otherland, he begins warping it and torturing its inhabitants because he can, and actively ponders just how far he could make it go.
%%* OmnicidalManiac
* PsychoForHire: His role working for Jongleur.
* SendInTheClones: Of himself, in Otherland, once he gains control of the system.
* SerialKiller: Of young to middle-aged women, particularly ones who remind him of his mother.
* {{Technopath}}: His psychic power, which allows him to take over computer systems.
%%* TortureTechnician

!!!Robert Wells
American corporate executive and Yacoubian's companion outside the Brotherhood. He's second in command to Jongleur thanks to supplying of the majority of the technology behind Otherland. Creator of the Nemesis program. Goes by "Ptah" in Otherland.
* DirtyCoward: He willingly sells out the Brotherhood to Dread after the latter's takeover.
* KarmicDeath: Finds out [[YouHaveFailedMe the hard way]] that Dread is even more of a BadBoss than Jongleur.
* MrExposition: Initially serves this purpose for the Grail Brotherhood.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: His portrayal rather unsubtly evokes a Bill Gates who's turned to evil.
* PoliticallyCorrectVillain: When Yacoubian makes a reference to "the boys" in Wells' tech branch, Wells teasingly berates Yacoubian for being so old-fashioned - quite a few of his techs [[EqualOpportunityEvil are in fact girls.]]
* TheStarscream: With Yacoubian, he plots against Jongleur to usurp leadership of the Brotherhood.

!!!Daniel Yacoubian
American four-star general who provides military resources "under the table" to the Brotherhood. He acts as a foil to Jongleur and is a constant irritant because of his bickering. Goes by "Horus" in Otherland.
* CommanderContrarian: An evil version.
* GeneralRipper: His "brash American" mannerisms and gung-ho military mentality are exaggerated almost to the point of satire.
* TheWatson: To Wells' MrExposition.

!!!Ymona Dedoblanco
Corporate executive, runs one of the two largest electronics companies (Wells owns the other). Goes by "Sekhmet" in Otherland.
* TheWatson: Her ignorance prompts Jongleur to re-explain the Grail Project for the readers, despite having participated it it for years.

!!!Ricardo Klement
South American drug lord; the Nemesis program winds up inhabiting his virtual clone. Goes by "Kephera" in Otherland.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The rest of the Brotherhood seem to despise Klement for dealing in drugs, but they need his money.
* MeaningfulName: "Kephera", Klement's sim in Otherland, is a dung beetle. Jongleur picked it deliberately due to his disdain for Klement's occupation.
* VillainousVirtues: His complete lack of shame and dignity seems to come with a corresponding avoidance of {{Pride}}. While his peers use sims that are often tasteless in how impressive they are, and in one case goes so far as to [[AGodAmI pretending to be a god,]] the sim Klement uses in his home network shows him as exactly what he is - an elderly, dying man hooked up to an extensive life-support system.
* YesMan: To Jongleur.

!!!Jiun Bhao
Chinese industrialist and major financial backer of the Brotherhood.
* EnigmaticMinion: He plays a deeper game with Jongleur than Wells and Yacoubian, taking advantage of Jongleur's apparent weakness to negotiate for a privileged position in the Brotherhood. It doesn't do him any good, though, as he dies shortly after Dread takes over the system.

!!!Finney and Mudd
Jongleur's chief minions; they supervised the Avialle project but messed it up so badly that he had them imprisoned in Otherland.
* FatAndSkinny: In all their forms.
* SendInTheClones: The Other makes virtual copies of them that show up in every simulation, as the personification of its nightmares.

!!!Dulcinea Anwin
A black-hat hacker who is recruited by Dread and falls into his charismatic web, until she discovers his dark secret.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: It backfires horribly.
* AnArmAndALeg: While she's able to help take Dread down in the end, he gets off a parting shot that damages her spine and leaves her unable to walk.
* AntiVillain: Complete with HeelFaceTurn at the end.
* TheCracker: Her job.
* [[PetTheDog Pet The Cat]]
* PlayfulHacker

!!!Kunohara
A wealthy entomologist who supports the Brotherhood but is not a part of their inner circle; he runs a simulation in Otherland where researchers can pay to study insects in a very up-close and personal way. He ends up playing a minor supporting role to the protagonists and is one of the few Grail-related characters to survive to the end.

* NeutralNoLonger: Kunohara remains resolutely neutral in the conflict between the heroes and the Brotherhood, reasoning that he sees no value in helping them considering how easily it could jeopardize his position. At least until Dread takes over, when the escalating confrontation forces his hand.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Others]]
!!The Circle
A multireligious group whose goal is to stop The Grail Brotherhood from interfering with God's will.
* MirroringFactions: Kunohara hints at one point that he thinks they and the Grail Brotherhood have more in common than either would care to admit. WordOfGod has further clarified this: the Grail Brotherhood works on the assumption that human life is a coincidence and that therefore it has the right to do anything it needs to sustain itself. The Circle believes that human life was purposefully created and that therefore it has a responsibility to serve that purpose. What those two beliefs have in common is the assumption that humanity has a central importance - the idea that it might need to pass the torch to a new lifeform and resign itself to obscurity would be anathema to both of them.
* WeAREStrugglingTogether: Many of the Circle wouldn't tolerate each other for more than a second if it weren't for their higher cause.

!!!Bonnie Mae Simpkins
American Baptist who befriends Orlando and Sam.
* ApronMatron: She incessantly "mothers" everyone she meets, even the adults.

!!!Nandi Paradivash
Indian mystic who acts as a temporary mentor to Paul Jonas.
* TheFundamentalist: He's a true believer in one of the most extreme Hindu sects and barely tolerates the rest of the Circle.
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: After he tells Paul how he found his religious faith after surviving a bioengineered virus outbreak and asks him if he understands.
-->Paul was too stunned to reply for a moment. He could not tell if he had just been told something profound or had endured the ravings of a religious maniac, a man driven mad by tragedy.\\
'''Paul:''' I don't think I do. Not really.\\
'''Nandi:''' You are wondering what sort of lunatic accompanies you, are you not?\\

!!Online Characters
!!!The Other
Mysterious and dangerous sentient operating system of Otherland.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Subverted. A big part of the plot is finding out ''why and how'' acts and thinks like he does. Turns out its a WetwareCPU.
* AndCallHimGeorge: The Other's attempts to "play with" children online send them into comas. Ouch.
* BrainInAJar: In a satellite in geosynchronous orbit.
* DrivenToSuicide
* FetusTerrible: Quite literally. Its initial telepathic burst at its birth ''kills'' several attending doctors and nurses.
* FriendToAllChildren: Subverted very sadly. It ''likes'' children, but ends up "breaking" them when it plays.
* LongLostRelative: The lost son of Olga Pirofsky.
* PsychicPowers: It has such strong telepathic power that it has to be isolated on a satellite in orbit and deep-frozen to keep it from ''killing'' anyone it touches.
* PsychopathicManchild: The Other is at least thirty years old, but has never "grown up" mentally. It's never had the chance.
* RealityWarper: Within Otherland, that is.
* StoryBreakerPower: Literally has this, as it partially shapes [[TheHerosJourney the heroes' journey]] through Otherland according to its will.
* TakingYouWithMe: Drops the satellite its in on the BigBadDuumvirate.
* TorturedMonster
* TragicMonster: Never had a single chance at a normal, or even functional life since the day it was ''born''.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters
* WetwareCPU: Revealed to be the still living brain of Olga's son.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm

!!!Paul Jonas
Amnesiac resident of Otherland, who discovers his connection to the plot through his gradually recovered memories. He was hired by Jongleur as a tutor to Avialle but fell in love with her and tried to "rescue" her, resulting indirectly in her accidental death. Jongleur imprisoned him in Otherland as punishment.
* BadassBookworm: He's somewhere between this and [[ActionSurvivor Action Survivor]]. As a mild-mannered museum employee without combat experience (real or online) or computer knowledge, he has very few practical skills that would make him likely to survive in Otherland. He survives nonetheless, and discovers strengths in himself he didn't knew he had. And his knowledge of classical literature comes in handy a few times, especially when he ends up in Ancient Greece
* BrainUploading: It turns out to have happened to him retroactively.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Inflicted as part of his imprisonment.
* HeroicSacrifice
* ThePunishment: Reliving WWI in the trenches of France, again and again and again...
* [[WalkingTheEarth Walking Otherland]]

!!!Avialle Jongleur
There are two Avialles. One is Jongleur's "daughter", designed to be a part of one of his immortality schemes (before the Other started to show promise), but tragically killed due to the bungling of his assistants. The other is the avatars of Avialle created by the Other and captured within the system, living out a shadow life but all strangely attracted to Paul Jonas, whom the real Avialle fell in love with.
* GenerationXerox: Jongleur's mother was also in love with her tutor.
* HotForTeacher: Actually invoked by Jongleur as part of his scheme to replicate his own upbringing.
* TheLostLenore
* OppositeSexClone: Of Jongleur.

!!!Beezle
Orlando's AI companion, originally a kids' toy but upgraded many times until it's almost as sentient as a real person. It ends up locating Catur Ramsey and acting as a vital surrogate MissionControl when Sellars goes incommunicado.
* BenevolentAI: Beezle does everything in his power to help Orlando, even grudingly performing some tasks that Ramsey gives him because he knows they'll benefit Orlando.
* ExpositionFairy: In-story, Beezle's voice in Orlando's ear reminds him of many things he'd rather avoid or forget.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: Inverted: When Orlando falls into a coma for entering Otherland, his parents look to terminate Beezle as a possible cause for it. Beezle manages to contact Orlando [[TalkingInYourDreams via his dreams]] and begs him for permission to escape into the internet, so that he can survive.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Except there's just the voice; there's no actual "person".

!!!Gally
A virtual orphan whom Paul Jonas befriends.
* {{Sidekick}}: To Jonas, through a great many virtual worlds.

!!!Azador
A "gypsy" adventurer that the protagonists encounter throughout Otherland; he seems to be a devil-may-care opportunist strolling at will through the network thanks to an access device he stole from Yacoubian.
* CunningRogue: He's drawn from Jongleur's fantasies as a child that he was really a care-free gypsy adventurer.
* JerkAss
* TheMole: It's eventually revealed that Kunohara manipulated him into spying on the protagonists.

!!!Nemesis
An advanced AI search program deployed into Otherland by David Wells to search for Paul Jonas; it works at the code level rather than the surface level of the simulation, but in the course of its travels becomes something much more than was originally intended.
* HumanityEnsues

!!Australian Police
Detectives who investigate one of Dread's murders and play an important role in his defeat.
* GoodCopBadCop: Lampshaded - they take turns.
!!!Calliope Skouros
* ButchLesbian
* BuryYourGays: Averted.
* GutFeeling: She is good at it.

!!!Stan Chan
* DeadpanSnarker
[[/folder]]