Character page for Star Wars: The Vow of Silver Dawn.
It should be noted that Chinese names are written with surname first and personal name last. This page puts personal names first and surnames last.
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Jedi
Sean
Jedi Padawan Sean, "Baiwan Xiao" In Chinese
Species: Human
Appearances: The Vow of Silver Dawn
The main character of Vow of the Silver Dawn. Sean is Jedi Master Mostema's padawan. After getting separated from his master in an attack by the Zhuque pirates and becoming indebted to the Silver Knights, he's forced to rename himself to Baiwan Xiao as a sign of his debt to the organization.
- Meaningful Name:
- Sean sounds like "shine".
- Only One Name: Sean's surname isn't revealed. When he renames himself for his debt to the Silver Knights, his surname becomes Xiao, the first sound in his regular name.
- Spell My Name With An S: As there is no official English transliteration for his name yet, his name could be spelled as Sean, Shaun, and so on. Wookieepedia uses Sean.
- You Are Number 6: Members of the Silver Knights rename themselves to reflect how much they owe the captain. Sean is forced to rename himself to Baiwan Xiao — baiwan literally translating to (one) million in English.
Mostema
Jedi Master Mostema
Appearances: The Vow of Silver Dawn
The master of Sean.
- Ironic Name: Her name is derived from Mastema
, a fallen angel. Mastema's name in of itself is taken from the Hebrew word mastemah, meaning "hatred" or "hostility". Not a name you'd expect from a Jedi Master. - Spell My Name With An S: As there is no official English transliteration for her name yet, her name could be spelled as Mostema, Mostima, Mostemah, and so on. Wookieepedia uses Mostema.
Qiankun Group/System
Location: Oplovis Sector
Also known as the Qian Group or Qian Space for short, the Qiankun Group is a corpatocracy isolated from the rest of the Galaxy economically, politically, and culturally.
In General
- Crapsack World: Apparently, the environment on Gen is irradiated, highly toxic, volatile, and infested with dangerous beasts. Combined with constant attacks from the Qinglong pirates, the native Longren were quick to accept the advances of the Qiankun Group, who promised better lives for them if they left to work for them.
- Expy: Of the Corporate Sector.
- Theme Naming: Each of the worlds and other celestial bodies are named after the Eight Trigrams. The system is called Qian for short, the capital world is Kun, the economic capital is Xun, a civilian space station is Li, the asteroid belt is called Dui, the homeworld of the Longren is Gen, and the other worlds are Zhen and Kan.
The Silver Knights
An criminal organization that operates in Qian Space.
In General
- You Are Number 6: Members of the Silver Knights organization are given codenames to reflect how much Qiankun coins they are indebted to Li. Their number can be lowered as a reward or raised as punishment. These codenames act in place of their personal names, so it technically counts as a Meaningful Rename. These codenames are in Chinese and would be a bit of a mouthful if literally translated to English...
- Chen: Sanwan (30,000/thirty thousand)
- Huang: Siwan (40,000/forty thousand)
- Sean: Baiwan (1,000,000/one million)
Li Yu
LiIn Chinese
The leader of the Silver Knights.
- Bait-and-Switch: At first, it seems that Li is a scummy, eccentric pirate boss along the lines of Hondo Ohnaka, but then Chapter 24 reveals that Li's hometown is impoverished and harassed by pirates — Sean thinks the organization is called the Silver Knights because they help the poor, and the reason for Li's seeming obsession with money is actually because they're constantly broke since the money goes to those in need. However... Li immediately then claims that Sean's assessment is wrong, explaining that the Silver Knights only look out for themselves and don't claim moral superiority over others, as their only individual goals is to clear up their debts to him.
- Theme Naming: His organization is called the Silver Knights and his ship is called the Silver.
Bai
Bai In Chinese
Li's droid.
- Canon Immigrant: Not her, but her droid build does remind sean of the replicator droids which came from Legends.
- Meaningful Name:
- She is named for the color white, because, well, she's a white-colored droid.
- The Chinese character for her name is also the first character used in baiyin, meaning "silver".
- It's also a Punny Name as the pinyin for Bai is a homonym for another bai that means "(one) hundred", befitting the You Are Number 6 Theme Naming in the Silver Knights.
- Painted-On Pants: White was coated with pure and simple white paint that glistened in the light instead of a human replica droid's cloned skin. leading Sean to observe that White seemed disdainful of imitating humans.
- Punny Name: The Chinese character for Bai's name means "white" and is pronounced bái, but another Bai (百, băi) means "(one) hundred", which goes with the You Are Number 6 Theme Naming that Li uses on his crew.
Chen
"Sanwan" ChenIn Chinese
The mechanic of the Silver Knights. Chen owes thirty thousand to Li Yu and was forced to rename himself to Sanwan Chen.
- You Are Number 6: Chen renamed himself to Sanwan, meaning "thirty thousand" in Chinese, because he owes thirty thousand to Li.
- Huang threatens to tell on him for tinkering instead of fixing the ship's machinery, which would raise Chen's debt to forty thousand and means he would have to rename himself to SiwanIn Chinese .
Huang
"Siwan" HuangIn Chinese
- Affectionate Nickname: He's known as Old Huang In Chinese to the crew.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Li encourages his crewmates to report on each other to decrease their own debts, and therefore, keeping them in his debt, first shown when Huang taunts Chen about how his name will be demoted from Sanwan to Siwan while Huang's will be promoted from Siwan to Sanwan.
- You Are Number 6: Huang renamed himself to Siwan, meaning "forty thousand" in Chinese, because he owes forty thousand to Li.
- Huang threatens to tell on Chen for tinkering instead of fixing the ship's machinery, which would lower Huang's debt to thirty thousand and means he would get to rename himself to SanwanIn Chinese .
Baijin
Baijin "Jiuqian"In Chinese
- Punny Name: 白金 (Báijīn) means "platinum" or "silver", while 拜金 (Bàijīn) means "to worship money".
- You Are Number 6: Jiuqian means "nine thousand" in Chinese, representing that they owe nine thousand to Li.
Red Apricot TeamIn Chinese
Anping
Captain AnpingIn Chinese
The captain of the Red Apricot Team.
- An Arm and a Leg: He has a prosthetic arm.
- Cast from Hit Points: After Sean destroys his prosthetic arm, he uses his other arm to backhand Sean in the back of his head. However, his arm was in a position that normally can't reach far enough... because he dislocated his shoulder to do so. When Sean asks about it, Anping explains that he believes that dislocating joints is a good way to catch opponents off-guard and that it's part of doing whatever it takes to survive over dying.
- Old Master: He's an older, tall man, though Sean notes that he looks like a built fighter. The first thing he does to Sean after he arrives is test his fighting skills.
- This Cannot Be!: His reaction to Sean somehow shattering his metal arm into pieces.
Xu
XuIn Chinese
The medic of the Red Apricot Team.
- Affectionate Nickname: He's called Uncle XuIn Chinese .
- Innocently Insensitive: He jokes that Lu Chang's poor cooking skills caused her little brother to get food poisoning, which resulted in him losing his sense of taste. Lu Chang reacts poorly to his mention.
- Miniature Senior Citizen: He's described as being short, but is older than An Ping.
- Odd Name Out: It's pointed out he has no surname or codename.
- Older Than They Look: He's 37 years old. Initially, Sean wonders if he misheard and that Xu is actually 73 or if Xu is of Beethian descent (Bith?). Lu Nan jokes that he could get a longevity package that the city's welfare center gives out to the older rich folk, which he apparently has tried but only had useless trinkets and no cash.
- Running Gag: Sean keeps describing him as the "73-year-old-sounding 37-year-old" in his internal monologues.
Lu Chang
Deputy Captain Lu ChangIn Chinese
The weapons expert of the Red Apricot Team and Anping's second-in-command.
- Cold Sniper: She's in expert in all arms, especially sniping.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her little brother, Xiao An, died about a decade ago, and she still grieves for him.
- Getaway Driver: She's also skilled at driving, serving as the team's getaway driver in critical moments.
- I Call It "Vera": In Chapter 28, one of her favorite short-barreled blasters has a name engraved on it.
- Identical Stranger: According to Anping and Xu Bo, Sean bares a resemblance to Lu Chang's deceased younger brother Xiao An — they even have similar names!
- The Lancer: She's Anping's deputy captain of the team.
- Lethal Chef: Xu Bo jokes(?) that her brother Xiao An lost his sense of taste after he got food poisoning from Lu Chang's cooking. Whoops.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's a beautiful woman and is taller than Anping (who is 1.8 meters, or roughly 5'9).
- Team Mom: She acts motherly towards Zhuang.
- Walking Armory: In Chapter 29, she straps twelve long blasters and six shorter blasters to her body along with carrying her sniper rifle on her back as preparation to train Sean.
Zhuang Yuanying
Zhuang YuanyingIn Chinese
Species: Human (Subspecies: Longren)
The mechanic of the Red Apricot Team.
- Adorably Precocious Child: She's young enough that she's still Literal-Minded and is clearly shy in the presence of grown-ups, although Xu mentions that they've known each other for years.
- Affectionate Nickname: She is called Young Zhuang or Little ZhuangIn Chinese , xiao being how young children are affectionately referred to in Chinese.
- Ambiguously Human: Sean discovers that in Chapter 32 that she has super-strength despite appearing to be a normal, non-Force-sensitive human, and wonders if she's actually an non-human. Chapter 90 to 93 reveals that she's a Longren, a human subspecies created by Qiankun experimentation.
- The Baby of the Bunch: She's the youngest member of the team. Sean initially mistakes her for being An Ping's daughter. Turns out she's the oldest.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: In Chapter 32, despite her size, she manages to lift up a heavy machine repair gun with no effort and nothing assisting her. Sean wonders if she's even human. He's right.
- Literal-Minded: Due to being a kid. When Lu Nan mentions that Sean had fought "hundreds" of Zhuque pirates, Zhuang is amazed and Lu Nan has to clear up that she was exaggerating and
asks her not to take her seriously so much because it makes her look like a liar. - Meaningful Name:
- 瑛 (Yīng) can mean "crystal" or "lustrous".
- Morality Pet: As the team introduces themselves to Sean in Chapter 27, Anping gets angry when Xu half-jokingly thinks aloud about using Zhuang for a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme. Later in the same chapter, An Ping is embarrassed when he has to ask Zhuang to pay for the damages from testing Sean, which Lu Nan calls him out on.
- Older Than They Look: It's revealed that because she's a Longren, Zhuang is a few decades older than she looks.
- Please Keep Your Hat On: She wears a hat that she hides behind when she gets shy. It's revealed that she hides a pair of horns underneath her hat.
- Punny Name: A different yuan (though pronounced the same way as Zhuang's surname) is base unit in the Chinese currency (like a dollar).
- Noodle Incident:
- Apparently, Li owes his life to Zhuang — according to Lu Nan, if it weren't for Zhuang, Li would've been "skinned and boned" by Bai, and it's not clear if that's hyperbole or not.
- For some reason, she's a wanted criminal and public enemy, and she shyly claims it's an exaggeration. This might have to do with her being a Longren, a persecuted subspecies in the Qiankun Group.
The Four Great Families
A group of families who make up the Qiankun Group's board of directors. They consist of the Nan family, the Xia family, the Ma family, and the Chen family.
The Nan familyIn Chinese
Nan Heli
Nan Heli
The head of the Nan family. He was known for wanting the Qiankun space to integrate with the Republic against his people's separatist beliefs and was discovered by the Jedi to have studied the Force extensively in secret before he was mysteriously killed in his manor.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Sean and Mostema being sent to investigate his murder is what kicks off the story.
- Posthumous Character: He was assassinated shortly before the events of the story.
Nan Yujin
Nan Yujin
The brother of Nan Heli and the uncle of Nan Wuyou.
Nan Wuyou
Nan WuyouIn Chinese
The daughter of Nan Heli and the heir to the Nan family.
- Meaningful Name: 无忧, or wúyōu, means "worry-free", "no worries", or "carefree".
The Xia family
Xia Shan
Xia Shan
A senior researcher for Xiarun Pharmaceutical.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: When Sean asks if he cares about the injustices that Xiarun Pharmaceutical is guilty of, Xia Shan argues that the company's work keeps people healthy and safe, not caring that this comes at the price of mistreating the Longren.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He works for a pharmaceutical company that conducts inhumane experiments on indigenous species and is described as wearing glasses.
Others
Kongzhang
KongzhangIn Chinese
Species: Hutt
A Hutt in league with the Qiankun Group.
- Meaningful Name: Kongzhang (孔璋) was the courtesy name of Chen Lin, one of the Seven Scholars of Jian'an. He served as a military advisor to Cao Cao, a legendary Grand Chancellor of the Han Dynasty.
Captain of the Heishihao
???
Species: Twi'lek
A Twi'lek lobbyist who smuggles Longren and criminals in his ship, the Heishihao.
- At Least I Admit It: When Sean and Zhuang ask how he could help traffic Longren, he points out that he never said he was a good person.
- Human Traffickers: He reveals to Sean and Zhuang that he smuggles Longren from their homeworld to be experimented on by Xiarun Pharmaceutical, and in fact, helped "civilize" them in order to convince them to leave their homes.
- Irony: For a Twi'lek, he sure doesn't have any problems with trafficking and enslaving an entire species…
- Meaningful Name: Heishihao is the Chinese translation of "Batu Hitam", the Malaysian name given to the ship in the Belitung shipwreck. The ship, returning to Arabia from China, was discovered to be carrying the largest collection of ancient Tang Dynasty treasures outside of China.
- No Name Given: We never learn his name.
Longren
Longren
A human subspecies native to Gen. Three notable traits that make the Longren distinct from regular humans is the pair of horns on their heads, superhuman strength, and their longer lifespans and slower aging process.
Others
Jamie Brasen
Jamie Brasen
Appearances: The Vow of Silver Dawn
President of Begamore.
- Complexity Addiction: Sean believes this is the case as it explains how he is able to maintain his facade as a beloved politician.
- President Evil: The story opens with Sean and Mostema being sent to the world of Begamore to investigate the president's corruption.
