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Main or very recurring characters
Nävis
- Abnormal Ammo: It turns out the small disks she used as projectiles for her slingshot were data-storing units, which apparently also served as general-purpose platforms for a lot of human devices. However, young Nävis had no idea what they were for, and just thought small, compact metal thingies with pointy bits were ideal for hunting.
- Action Girl: She was already an accomplished hunter and survivor in book 1. She underwent special agent training before book 2, and sees a lot of action in every book after that.
- Art Evolution: While the art quality is consistent despite the series being 20 years old, Nävis's character design evolves from that of a teenager to an adult woman, which translates to progressively smaller eyes and a taller, stockier frame.
- Character Development: We watch Nävis grow from an intrepid, sassy, impulsive young Action Girl into a wiser, calmer and more responsible adult.
- Export Name Change: She's called Navee in the US.
- Facial Markings: The noticeable white stripe on her nose, although she's got similar marks on her arms, chest, belly, and thighs.
- Mark of Shame: Book 20 reveals that "Whipes" (maybe a Portmanteau for "White Stripes") were an entire human sub-race of servants, and they all had those marks both as a distinctive sign and to act as a biologically-integrated Shock Collar.
- The Paralyzer: She always tries to use non-lethal melee weapons over blasters. And almost always uses her blasters' stun mode, as she does not wish to kill anyone sentient.
- Psychic Block Defense: The (initially) only known member of the only known species who's entirely and naturally psy-neutral.
- Raised by Wolves: A "Tigrours" (Beartiger), in her case.
- Story-Breaker Power:
- Subverted with the fact that her mind is unreadable and uncontrollable is an incredible asset, but it also brings her a lot of unwanted trouble and attention. Also, it means that for some undercover missions, she must rely on someone to mock her thoughts.
- Book 20 gives her one of the most infamous story-breaker powers : Teleportation. Normally reserved to only the most powerful of psy-active entites, psycho-portals are accessible to her anyway thanks to a symbiote that the last of the Yiarhu-Kahs gave her. Howerver, it has some limits : it doesn't work in areas with strong gravitational fields, and creating a portal in crowded spaces is a risk she isn't willing to take.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: She's got a deep respect for life. Even as a wild child, she used to thank and apologize to her preys, and later always favours non-lethal weapons and fighting styles, except against strictly non-sentient robots. And weirdly, some bugs.
- Tribal Face Paint: Subverted. One might think her marks are this in her book 1 wild Jungle Princess appearance, but they are in fact permanent - and also react to electro-magnetic overloads.
- Unlimited Wardrobe : Nävis uses a different outfit at least every book, and regularly changes several times in a single adventure. Acknowledged and discussed by Juaiz in book 15, and later exploited: she shouldn't have been able to afford that kind of wardrobe with her Wake agent wages...
Bobo
- Badass Pacifist: He states that he hates weapons and will usually try to talk his way out of tense situations. While he does fight, and does so very well, from time to time, he strongly averts gratuitous violence. See Martial Pacifist below.
- Eye Patch Of Power: He lost his right eye in book one and never had an intervention to replace it, so he covers it with an eyepatch.
- Export Name Change: Called Booboo in the US version.
- Feel No Pain: Implied. If Migreurs can actually feel it, they likely don't even acknowledge it.
- Genius Bruiser: Being a migreur, Bobo is genetically designed to be large, stocky, super-strong and resilient to about anything you'd throw at him. He's also become very smart and wise even by non-migreur standards.
- Gentle Giant: Huge, strong, nearly unkillable, with a deep respect for life and enough brains to act as a voice of reason for Nävis.
- Going Native: In book 11, he joins an uprising on a Meiji-era Japan-like planet, and adopts their clothes, weapons, ideals and fighting styles.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He's got a few small, clean notches on his face, and his Eyepatch of Power.
- Landslide Election: Deconstructed. When he proposed a vote to decide whether or not Migreurs should claim Wake citizenship, he quickly realized that they are so stupid and easy to influence, that they all voted "Yes" simply because he implied in his speech that he would. Except for one, who'd simply misplaced his "Yes" ballot so put the "No" instead.
- Last of His Kind: He's technically the last living specimen of the batch of migreurs that was sent on a Hottaformation. He was the only one who was smart enough not to take the "reward", the suicide pill that makes them melt once their task is complete. He's also the last Migreur ever who was given a name (by Nävis), an individuality, and the only intelligent one.
- Made of Iron: Migreurs are designed to be able to withstand extreme working conditions, and keep working despite serious injuries. Bobo spent most of Book 1 with a metal disk embedded into his eye socket, and he's just fine in extreme temperatures.
- Martial Pacifist: He fights rarely, but when he does he's very good at it.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: All migreurs are big, strong, very stupid, and very obedient. Bobo was just like every other until he met Nävis and got a data-storing unit forcefully embedded into his head.
- The Noseless: He's got no need for one, so he was designed without any.
- Servant Race: Migreurs are designed for a specific task, grown in batches, sent to work and disposed of via a suicide pill once the job is done. Bobo is the only one with individuality and self-awareness.
Snivel
- Ace Pilot: Justified since he's a robot, he can calculate trajectories and coordinates at a very high speed and with extreme accuracy. Exploited and discussed in Book 13, in which Nävis participates in a high-octane, highly dangerous Trike race : while Nävis is a good driver, she's far below the other pilots' level and Snivel does most of the driving and crazy stunts ; but since the pilots are prohibited from using any kind of artificial assistance, he has to be carefully hidden into her suit, and Nävis must train extensively so she can hold her own.
- Brain Uploading: Quite easy to do that for him, again, courtesy of being a machine.
- Doomed Upgrade: He gets a protoype combat body in book 14 to fight the Yiarhu-Kah sent after Nävis and the Magister. Snivel is defeated in less than ten seconds without landing a single hit, and the body is destroyed afterwards.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Subverted. He's got four arms and can use firearms, but he's usually a very poor fighter.
- Multi-Armed Multitasking: He can do that.
- Robot Buddy: He acts as a companion, butler, cook, space (and trike) navigator and occasional fighting assistant to Nävis.
The Magister
- The Chains of Commanding: His job is difficult and often unrewarding. While he's made some very questionable decisions over the course of the story, he's also had to make a lot difficult choices because he was the only one there was to make them.
- Going Down with the Ship: He attempts this near the end of book 18, but is saved at the last moment.
- My Brain Is Big: He is non-human, with a veray large head compared to the size of his face. Unusually for this trope, his cranium expands in the form of a disk rather than up or backwards, earning him the nickname "Pie Head" from Nävis.
- Non-Action Guy: His few attempts at action were rather pathetic.
- Psychic Block Defense: He's got many, very high-end artificial mental bolckers implanted into his brain, due to his important position. It makes him one of the very few people on Wake who are completely immune to mind control, and who cannot be detected either. However, it also prevents him from using psy-active abilities, if he had any.
- Real Politik: He has to deal with that everyday, and thus is forced to be competent at it himself.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Usually.
Yannsei
Nävis' half-human, half-Pünta-Human Hybrid son. He was taken away as an embryo and was raised as a warrior by Consul Enshu Atsukau, whom he considers his only father.
- The Ace: An exceptional warrior. He's a non-psychic and managed to defeat a Yiarhu-Kah in single combat. He also held his won for a moment against three of them, but would have lost had he not received help.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Quick to brag about his skills.
- Challenge Seeker: He's arrogant and haughty, but also really that good. As such, he seldom encounters opponents who provide him a real challenge.
- Export Name Change: He's called Yanno in the US version.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Played with and downplayed. He's 86% Human, the rest is Pünta genome.
- I Shall Taunt You: He taunts a lot during fights. Even when he feels that he's losing.
- Rapid Aging: He grew up between three and four times as fast as a normal human would, and looks the same age as Nävis.
- Schizo Tech: He wields vibro-blades, Automatic Crossbows, rounded shields that deploy from his gauntlet, alongside blasters, combat ships and throwing knives.
- Teleport Spam: He and Atsukau made up a device that enables him to do this in a fight. He points where he wants a psycho-portal, and Atsukau generates it for him.
- Vibro Weapon: He used a pair of vibro-shortwords during training, and again in his fight against three Yiarhu-Kahs. Which he lost.
- Worthy Opponent: That's how he sees the Yiarhu-Kahs.
Other recurring characters
Consul Enshu Atsukau
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He very genuinely loves his adoptive son, and apparently grew into genuine care for Nävis, although he never told her.
- Evil Slinks: Look at the postures he takes in most of his appearances, you'll see that he rarely ever keeps the same one between panels.
- Lean and Mean: Leaner than any human could be courtesy of being an alien, and a decidedly unsavoury person.
- Manipulative Bastard: when he isn't convincing people to do has he wants through persuasion and intimidation, he can just forcefully mind control them.
- Mission Control : he plays this role in book 16 for Yann-Seï, thanks to a psycho-portal-enabled real-time connexion. And since he trained to be able to generate two at once, he can give Yann-Seï a teleportation ability.
- Pet the Dog: He deeply loves his adoptive son Yannsei.
General Rib'Wund
- A Father to His Men: This is the general opinion among soldiers who trained under him.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Very competent in a fight, he still sees a lot of action despite his high rank.
- Bio Weapon: The Symbiote on his chest.
- Four-Star Badass: He's a heroic, respected general.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: To Nävis.
- The Symbiote: He's got a cross-shaped Living Weapon symbiote on his chest, that can detach from him and fight independantly.
Juaiz Ramasz
The Magister's chief of security, and former colleague of Nävis.
- General Ripper: Compared to his mentor Rib'Wund, Juaiz is far less composed and quicker to bursts of anger. He's usually got his reasons, though.
- Genius Bruiser: A soldier, a giant, a commander, but he's apparently also competent enough in genetics to make the appropriate tests and discover who Yannseï is.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When he's not completely clueless about a given situation, he's smart and competent.
One-shot or temporary foes and villains
Various foes encountered by Nävis and/or her usual companions.
Madjestoet Heiliig
A Hottard alien tasked with supervising a hottaformation to save his people. He's book 1's main antagonist, and returns in book 10 as a neutral character.
- Death World: Both played straight and inverted with Nävis' planet/New Hottard, since it all depends on whether it's seen from his or Nävis' point of view. Hottards are accustomed to temperatures far above 100° C, so New Hottard looks like a hellish desert to a human. For him, however, Nävis's planet was lethally cold until he arrived.
- Noble Demon: He's arrogant and has no qualms about annihilating a planet's ecosystem, but mostly has his people's well-being in mind.
- Powered Armor: He wears a pressurized, heated exoskeleton during the Hottaformation, not only because it protects him from attacks and increases his strength, but mostly to prevent him from freezing to death.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: His exoskeleton is matte black with red eyes.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He's perfectly willing to annihilate all of the flora and fauna on Nävis' Planet, because it will finally give his people a planet to live on.
Atsukau's harem
Females of numerous species whom Atsukau seduced and who are completely submissive to his every whim. Three of them act as his personal Bodyguard Babes and occasional hitwomen, and pursue Nävis simply because he ordered them to bring her to him.
- Eye Scream: Each of them lack an eye which is replaced with a cybernetic one. It acts both as a way for Atsukau to see what they see, and as an amplifier to his Psychic powers.
Alceste Leboissard
A Frenchman whose ship crashed on ice planet Tri-jj 768, who was saved by the local Püntas. He used his medical and biological knowledge to engineer human-Püntas hybrids that would build a civilization with accelerated progress under his guidance, in order to make him a functioning spaceship so he could leave the planet.
- French Jerk: While intelligent, cultured and sophisticated, he's completely amoral and fine with creating a fake culture and engineering a new species that ostracizes the natives, just so he can get all the comfort he wants and eventually leave the planet.
- Mad Scientist: He's got the genius, arrogance and complete lack of any ethics whatsoever to fit the trope.
The Ftoross Terrorists
A group of terrorists who threaten to wipe out an entire species on Wake - that is, Nävis, the only human.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens : They may evoke this, as they are very humanoid but with bones that extend outside of their tissues, forehead included.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: They resorted to acts of terrorism
- War Cry: Translated as "My life for my kin".
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Less well-intentioned than desperate to be heard. Their people is the most numerous on Wake, yet they have no representative in the Constituante senate, live on slum ships in extreme poverty, and have been calling for help for years without results.
Kerhe-Dizzo's gang
Kerhé-Dizzo herself.
A gang of criminals and terrorists who were involved in a planet traffic, and whom Nävis infiltrated in volume 9. As it turned out, they knew she was The Mole from the beginning, and used her to accomplish a massive terrorist attack on Wake.The gang includes Stacc Medzopyruss (the enforcer), Soimitt (the sniper), and Kerhé-Dizzo herself.- Cold Sniper: Soimitt.
- Villainous Breakdown: In book 14, Kerhe-Dizzo is targeted by the Yiarhu-Kah assassin, and is very eager to fight him, well-prepared, and determined. When she realizes that he maimed all four of her limbs in the first tangle, the cold-hearted mass-murderer bursts into tears.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Downplayed on the "Well-intentioned" part. Kerhé-Dizzo used to accomplish terrorist acts as a way to protest against injustice, but became corrupt and eager to work for the very people she's supposed to despise, if she's paid enough. She also has absolutely no qualms towards killing innocents.
The Yiarhu-Kah
"Nature made you of pink, soft flesh... gave you no weapons, while I was made to cut ! Maul ! Pierce !"
An ancient, entire species of "ultimate killers" - although by the time we encounter them, there are only six left. The first Yiarhu-Kah seen in the series was sent after a number of witnesses who included Nävis, among others.- A Dog Named "Dog": Not in-universe, but they've got individual names - The first one encountered is called Kah-Sammhella, and the last one Yiarhu-Stannviss. However, since Kah-Sammhella's name wasn't revealed before two books after his death, it's easy to just call him "Yiarhu-Kah". Four of them also died anonymously.
- Bio Weapon: Their whole body.
- Double Tap: Yannsei usually follows a decapitation with a crossbow bolt or sword point to the severed head, as it is still alive.
- Healing Factor: They can regenerate most of their wounds. In fact, they can apparently regrow their whole body after being beheaded, which supposedly marks the end of their life as warriors and the beginning of a new way of life.
- Last of His Kind: Yiarhu-Stannviss, the last Yiarhu-Kah, whom we meet in book 18.
- Lean and Mean: On Atsukau-levels of Leaning.
- Made of Iron: Physically, their shells are tough enough to withstand crossbow bolts and lead bullets. Outside of that, well, see Nigh-Invulnerable below.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Their very durable bodies and highly afficient Healing Factor make them able to resist blades, bullets and bolts (blasters are out of the question because they can mentally control them), blunt force trauma, extreme heat such as lava or a thermonuclear explosion, and the vacuum of space.
- Kah-Sammhella in particular notes that separately, a combat knife to the neck and being Thrown Out the Airlock are nothing to him. Combined, it caused him a severe haemorrhage and forced him to retreat.
- Noble Demon: The last one we see was beheaded in battle but not finished off, and ended his life as a warrior. When he takes arms again in book 18, he's respectful, polite, and agrees to defeat his enemies only through non-lethal attacks. He is, however, the same entity that participated in a planet-wide genocide.
- No Kill like Overkill: Played with. It usually takes a lot of skill and efforts to kill one, but oddly, some of the usual options are actually not an option.
- Kah-Sammhella survived being Thrown Out the Airlock, and in the final battle was subsequently hit by metal projectiles, knives, nets, arrows, and an immobilizing spike trap before being beheaded, and having that head finished off.
- The second one survived missiles, pulse cannons, and being thrown into lava, but once this had him tired Yannsei used a diversion to catch him off-guard, immobilize him, and then shoot, cripple, maim and behead him before double-tapping the head.
- Subverted with one particular Yiarhu-Kah who survived multiple bullet wounds and knives, before Nävis destroyed the biosphere on which he was with fusion missiles. He absorbed the energy to regenerate, and could survive the vacuum of space just fine to get back into the fight - it was a Portal Cut and the traditional Double Tap to the severed head that ot him instead.
- The last two hostile Yiarhu-Kah are just thrown into a black hole.
- Not Quite Dead: As above, they are really hard to kill and still alive as long as the head isn't cut and perforated. One of them from book 16 gets reduced to a head with 4 vertebrae attached through Portal Cut, and even then he almost manages to impale Nävis with one of his neck spikes when she finishes him off.
- Obviously Evil: They have a terrifying appearance, and most of them are ruthless, sadistic killers.
- Off with His Head!: The most efficient way of killing one that we've seen so far, is to cut off their head to neutralize the body, and then killing the head separatly.
- White and Red and Eerie All Over: Except they can be quite scarier than just "eerie". Two of them are more grey)sih than white, too.
- Worthy Opponent: The first Yiarhu-Kah compliments Nävis after their last fight, and admits earlier that she managed th surprise him.
- The last Yiarhu-Kah has a deep respect for Yannsei's fighting skills, the others not so much. In both cases the feeling is mutual.
Others
Mackel-Loos
Ehmté-Ciss-Ron
One of Wake's most famous lawyers, who is known to regularly take on cases which highlight Wake's numerous flaws and shady aspects. He defended Nävis, among others.
Clément Vildieu
A Human-Pünta Hybrid from Tri-JJ 768 who tries to overthrow the oppressive governement under which he lives.
- Boldly Coming: Played with. He and Nävis fall in love and sleep together rather quickly in book 3, but on his part, he didn't know that she wasn't exactly the same species as he ; and on her part, Clément is the very first person with whom she has sex, precisely because he's one of the first remotely human people she encounters - and, of course, is handsome and kind.
