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Ilus/New Terra
A planet opened up to humanity through the Ring system and settled by Belter refugees from Ganymede.
Although the settlers and UN hope to establish a permanent human presence and exploit its mineral resources, Ilus is also home to extensive Protomolecule artifacts that pose a lethal danger to all living things.
- Alien Sky: At night you're guaranteed to see at least two moons in the sky at any given time.
- Apocalypse How:
- Class 5: The Protomolecule artifacts are billions of years old but the native lifeforms are barely beyond primordial, indicating that Ilus had a previous biome that was completely wiped out and that the planet's ecosystem is rebuilding in the aftermath.
- Class 3a: The gatebuilders who originally inhabited the planet were wiped out by... something.
- Class 1: The Investigator accidentally blows up an alien reactor on the far side of the planet from the settlement, sending a massive shockwave around the globe, followed closely by an apocalyptic tsunami.Fayez: This planet will look very different tomorrow...
- Binary Suns: Ilus has two suns, a large yellow one and a tiny red one.
- Death World: Downplayed. It's habitable by human standards, but the native organisms have evolved in ways that are particularly deadly to humans. Bacteria in the air breed in human vitreous fluid, causing blindness, and there are aquatic slugs which secrete neurotoxin that causes almost instantaneous death on skin contact. Compare to how dangerous the Americas and Australia were to the first European colonists, before they adapted to all the new diseases and before they learned which new animals are poisonous.
- Eternal Engine: The entire planet is a massive Protomolecule machine of indeterminate purpose.
- Naming Your Colony World: The Belter refugees name it "Ilus" after the brother of the mythological Ganymede as a way of recognizing their previous home. The UN simply calls it "New Terra".
- Reality Is Out to Lunch: Like with Eros, the laws of physics go out the window when Ilus' Protomolecule artifacts activate. Chiefly, the moons generate a field that can inhibit fusion reactions.
- Weird Moon: Ilus has thirteen small moons, all spaced out equally along their orbit.
- World-Wrecking Wave: The Investigator unwittingly unleashes two after blowing up an alien reactor on the far side of the planet. First a shockwave, followed by a tsunami.
Barbapiccola Settlers
A group of refugees from Ganymede. In the wake of the Ganymede Incident, they've been bouncing from port to port, unable to find a place that will accept them and let them settle. Out of desperation, they decide to make a run at the Ring in orbit around Uranus, braving a joint UNN, MCRN, and OPAN blockade that shoots down any and all unauthorized ships.
Having arrived on a planet they christen Ilus (named after the brother of Ganymede), they discover a rich supply of lithium, which they begin mining in the hope they can sell it back in the Solar System and use the funds to buy much-needed supplies.
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Lucia
Lucia Mazur
Portrayed By: Rosa Gilmore
A medical technician from Ganymede who risks traveling through the ring to provide a better life for her daughter.
- Ascended Extra: In the books, the entire arc of blowing up the RCE shuttle is performed by her husband, a POV character. In the show, Lucia adopts that role.
- Faking the Dead: Holden elects (on Naomi's suggestion) to tell the UN that Lucia died during Murtry's attack on her ship, thus giving her a chance to make amends and be with her family instead of being made an example of for her role in blowing up the RCE shuttle.
- Gender Flip: The equivalent of a male character in the books.
- Karma Houdini: Even though she didn’t mean to kill most of the Earth team, she did intend to blow up their landing pad, and she continued to cover for her fellow Belters. She ultimately gets away without any repercussions.
- Interrupted Suicide: She tries to kill herself out of guilt, but Alex manages to save her life.
- The Medic: As a medical technician, she's the closest thing to a doctor the settlers on Ilus have.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She feels immense guilt in her role in taking down RCE's heavy shuttle. So much so that she decides to let herself die of her wounds. Alex manages to bring her back around.
- Ship Tease: With Alex, who's about to ask her out when he learns she has a husband.
Felcia
Felcia Mazur
Portrayed By: Kyla Madeira
Lucia's daughter, who grows to resent being brought to Ilus.
- Brainy Brunette: She is exceptionally bright and wants to go back to the Solar System to pursue a university education. Her mother, however, wants her to stay on Ilus and help grow the settlement.
- Broken Pedestal: She disowns her mother when she discovers Lucia's role in destroying RCE's heavy shuttle. They reconcile in the end.
Chiwewe
Carol Chiwewe
Portrayed By: Patti Kim
The leader of the Barbapiccola settlers on Ilus.
- Fighting for a Homeland: While the settlers and RCE security squabble over their tribal differences, she's the one pointing out that the settlers are refugees trying to build new lives for themselves.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Carol appears to be this; she does not ask for anything unreasonable from either Holden or RCE — she just wants her people to have a home, and with an entire empty planet for a few hundred people, it's hard to argue that there isn't enough space for everyone.
Coop
Coop
Portrayed By: Kris Holden-Ried
- Asshole Victim: Only the terrorist cell seems particularly upset at his death.
- Boom, Headshot!: Courtesy of Murtry, although he certainly had it coming.
- Bullying a Dragon: He taunts and threatens Murtry, seemingly not realizing how bloodthirsty Murtry is. Coop's foolish actions get him shot.
- Create Your Own Villain: Murtry was coming to negotiate with the Barbapiccola settlers and looking to come to a mutually beneficial solution. But Coop's botched plan to destroy the RCE shuttle resulted in Murtry becoming murderously angry and looking for a way to take out his rage.
- Jerkass: He's generally an unpleasant man.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Gets killed in the same episode that introduces him.
Royal Charter Energy
Murtry
Adolphus Murtry
Portrayed By: Burn Gorman
Chief of Security for Royal Charter Energy.
- Ambiguous Situation: We last see him about to get the shit beaten out of him by Amos as revenge for Wei's death. While Amos promised Holden that he wouldn't kill Murtry, his terrifying smile makes the audience question whether Amos intends to keep that promise. For what it's worth, he lives in the books.
- Keep in mind that there’s a lot of things Amos can do to fuck Murtry up very painfully while keeping him (barely) alive.
- Arch-Enemy: For Amos. Right off the bat, the two instantly hate each other. Murtry sees him as a wild animal that needs putting down, and while Amos tries to usually play it cool, it's undeniable that he gets under his skin. To make matters more complicated, Wei, Murtry's right-hand-woman, is Amos's latest fuck-buddy, instantly creating high-stakes tension.Murtry: Someday, I think you and I are gonna end up bloody.
- Ax-Crazy: He actually has a legitimate reason to go on a crusade against the Belters - they did try to blow up his shuttle, and they do plan to keep hurting and antagonizing his people - most of whom are just scientists who want to study Ilus and couldn't care less about who gets it, and he does have an official UN-Mars charter to New Terra. Alas, he's a complete psychopath who relishes the idea of turning the entire planet into a bloodbath.Amos: You've got all the excuses to make you seem right, but the truth is your dick got hard when you smoked that guy in front of everybody, and you can't wait to do it again.
- Big Bad: Of the Ilus arc in Season 4.
- Bullying a Dragon: He antagonizes Amos and implicitly challenges Amos to a brawl, despite Amos being a solid wall of muscle. He later discovers that this is a very stupid idea when he punches Amos after Amos had to kill Wei. Amos just turns back with a Bloody Smile and thanks him, before the first punch of a potentially lethal beatdown ensues.
- Create Your Own Villain: He's introduced speaking about how he'd previously dealt with Belter squatters by providing them with a bit of cash and water and sending them on their way. He anticipates doing something similar with the Belters on New Terra but then the shuttle gets destroyed and he stops feeling magnanimous.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Murtry is a security chief who, in most other circumstances, would have been another villain's henchman at most, but in wake of the shuttle crash on Ilus becomes a violent tyrant.
- Hannibal Lecture: Delivers one to Holden about how ruthless, pragmatic men like himself are necessary to precede civilization.
- Insistent Terminology:
- He frequently stresses that everyone's on New Terra, not Ilus.
- He also points out that RCE has an "official charter" to be on New Terra and that the Belter settler are legally squatters who should be evicted.
- It's All About Me: Although he's pretty good at hiding it from his underlings, the only person Murtry ultimately cares about is himself.
- Killer Cop: Technically a security chief, but he skips the interrogation and trial and shoots Coop without warning.
- Lack of Empathy: Remains completely unfazed by other people's suffering even if he could help them without much effort, and any bonding he does is just a facade to manipulate others into doing what he wants.
- Manipulative Bastard: Specifically towards Wei, whose Undying Loyalty he exploits while pretending to have a genuine bond with her, when in reality she is little more than a pawn to him. Outside of this instance, however, Murtry is largely devoid of this trope. He seems fully aware and even bitter that he rubs most people the wrong way, and largely prefers brute force, intimidation and legal threats over manipulation.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His first name, Adolphus, is similar to Adolf Hitler's, and he turns out to have a quite a bit of Fantastic Racism.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While Murtry at first appears to be motivated out of a desire to avenge his coworkers, Amos suspects that he just likes killing. It turns out that Murtry's real objective is the billions he stands to earn under his contract with RCE if the company becomes the sole owner of New Terra.
- Oh, Crap!: After seeing Amos No-Sell a solid punch to the jaw, a brief glimmer of realisation of what's about to happen runs across his face right before Amos starts to kick the crap out of him.
- Only in It for the Money: He and all his corporate security goons are essentially Private Military Contractors, so this is a given. However, Murtry's contract grants him a 1% cut of any profits his employer can get out of Ilus when he turns it over to them, so he has even more of a vested interest to get rid of the Belters any way he can.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He knows when to pick his battles, most of the time at least. He antagonizes the Belters but tries to appease Holden, since the former have little power while the latter is backed by the Secretary-General and is flying around in a Martian gunship that he will use. When forced to take shelter with the Belters, he schemes to get rid of them but also makes sure to keep hostilities to a minimum so the situation doesn't spiral out of his control.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted. For the first three seasons, the villains were of great social standing in some way with some equally grand vision. Mao was one of the richest men in the solar system with access to the best scientists and trying to study the protomolecule with hopes of starting a new age of humanity. Errinwright and Korshunov were very high ranking government figures each trying to control the protomolecule for military superiority. Though not a villain Hero Antagonist Ashford at the end of Season 3 was a renowned former pirate who briefly became captain of the OPA's flagship and ends up trying to destroy the protomolecule. Murtry is little more than a thug motivated by greed and racism. Based on a conversation with Wei, this low social standing and status as a disposable thug actually frustrates him and thus he sees Illus as his chance to make billions from his security contract. This also doesn't stop him from being less dangerous to the settlers and the Rocinante crew. Most of the high level destructive conflict on Illus is actually caused by the ancient machines and the Investigator. Murtry tries to take advantage of the confusion but does not attempt to control or destroy the protomolecule like the previous villains did.
- The Sociopath: Amos, who knows firsthand what it's like to have impaired empathy, pegs Murtry as this in their conversation.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With the Belter settlers and the Rocinante crew after Ilus suffers an environmental disaster. He desperately wants to get rid of them, but is smart enough to know that he can't just turn on them without an excuse.
- Villain Has a Point:
- Murtry is entirely justified in trying to bring to justice the people who bombed his landing pad and killed 23 of his colleagues, as well as doing what is necessary to protect the surviving RCE employees. According to Holden and Amos, he's just using that as an excuse to kill the settlers off one by one and they're eventually proven right. Amos notes that he's a cold and calculating killer who exploits this trope; Murtry waits until he has a valid excuse handy before he takes murderous action, that way his actions, regardless of how extreme, seem like the right reaction (or at least a justifiable one) to the situation he faces.
- While a cold-blooded killer and a callous bully who's willing to act as judge, jury and executioner, he is absolute correct when he suspects that Lucia, Coop and a handful of other Belters bombed the landing platform.Naomi: Murtry is an animal.
Lucia: But he's not wrong. We did this. We did what he said.
- You Are in Command Now: In the original plan for the mission to Ilus, he would have had to follow the mission commander's directions, but since they were among the many killed in the shuttle crash, he is thrust into the leadership of RCE and becomes the Big Bad.
Wei
Chandra Wei
Portrayed By: Jess Salgueiro
A security officer for Royal Charter Energy and Murtry's second in command.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has this dynamic with Amos from pretty much the moment they first met, and it continues unabated even after they had sex.
- The Dragon: She is Murtry's enforcer and the one RCE security listens to if Murtry's not around.
- Dating Catwoman: She and Amos start a relationship while their superiors are constantly coming to blows. It ends in tragedy when they both choose loyalty to their superiors over their relationship. Amos is ultimately forced to kill Wei in self-defense.
- Hypocrite: Played for Laughs when she puts her hand over Amos' mouth as he's having an Immodest Orgasm, only to have an unrestrained one herself moments later.
- The Immodest Orgasm: Gets pretty noisy in bed.
- Killer Cop: She describes herself as a someone who kills for a paycheck.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Although she seems to harbor some doubts about Murtry's behavior, she ultimately sticks with him no matter what.
- Only in It for the Money: She's only on Ilus because RCE is paying her to be there.
- Undying Loyalty: She is completely loyal to Murtry after he saved her life on a previous job. Sadly, her loyalty is a one-way street. Murtry uses her as bait to sneak up on Amos and is completely unconcerned when Amos kills her.
Okoye
Elvi Okoye
Portrayed By: Lyndie Greenwood
A Royal Charter Energy scientist.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After she learns of Holden's mysterious connection to the Protomolecule via Miller's ghost in his head, Elvi immediately concludes that she'd kill for a chance to experience something similar. She gets her wish — kinda — when she accidentally touches the weird glowy portal that wiped out the Protomolecule's creators on Ilus, which gives her similarly terrifying visions and leaves her a shaken wreck for a while.
- Black and Nerdy: A woman of color and a huge science nerd at heart.
- Handicapped Badass: Of the Science Hero variety. When everyone on Ilus except for Holden goes blind from an alien infection, she manages to come up with a cure despite being unable to use her equipment herself.
- Innocently Insensitive: She makes some comments about Belters that Naomi finds offensive but she doesn't mean any harm in them. Half the time, Okoye doesn't even seem realize that she's offended Naomi, and just excitedly explains what she meant in scientific terms, which mollifies Naomi. When Okoye does see that she's upset Naomi, she awkwardly falls silent.
- Jumped at the Call: She practically begs to go with Holden when he is exploring the Protomolecule structure, and says she'd gladly accept having Miller in her head for access to the knowledge that would bring.
- Nice Girl: Aside from a few Innocently Insensitive jabs at Belter culture, Okoye is one of the nicest, most caring characters in the show to date, doing everything in her power to provide medical care to Earthers and Belters alike despite Murtry's misgivings.
- Only Sane Woman: She's pretty much the only person on Ilus who isn't inflamed by the territorial dispute and is focused on the more pressing issue of the planet's Protomolecule artifacts.
- Science Hero: She uses her scientific knowledge to deal with all the horrors being caused by the Protomolecule.
Fayez
Fayez Sarkis
Portrayed By: Zach Smadu
A Royal Charter Energy geologist.
- Composite Character: He takes the role of Havelock, thanks to Jay Hernandez being busy with another show.
- Ship Tease: He tells Elvi that he wishes he were on the surface with her, as risking his life would be worth it if he were near her. While Fayez peddles back and claims he only meant that as a friend, Elvi tells him that she gets what he meant to say and she seems flattered. They actually do hook up in the books.
- Token Good Teammate: The only RCE employee on the Edward Israel who is symphathetic to the Rocinante crew. This causes him to warn Alex when his superiors send an explosive shuttle to ram into the Roci and Barb.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: He remains on the Edward Israel and gives Elvi (and occasionally Holden) instructions based on the information he gets from the Israel's sensors.
Native life-forms
Death Slugs
"Death Slugs"
Multicellular lifeforms native to Ilus that resemble gastropods of Earth. Typically an aquatic species found in ocean sediments, the explosions — and subsequent tsunamis — caused by The Investigator washed them up ashore, becoming a major threat to the settlers of Ilus. They get their name from the ridiculously potent neurotoxin secreted through their slime. Even slightly touching the slug, or the slime, without any protection will result in certain death within seconds.
- Instant Sedation: The most immediate effect a victim of the slug feels upon touching it isn't much different from being hit with a powerful sedative. Their motor reflexes would become instantly compromised, then the respiratory system, and then death — all within seconds.
- Kill It with Fire: The only way to deal with them. If you see a slug, you burn the shit out of it. Not only does it kill it, it also apparently renders the toxin inert (as the fumes would have outright killed everyone from just a few slugs).
- Non-Malicious Monster: They're not hostile, or even aggressive. They're just slugs, but their insanely deadly biology easily makes them the biggest threat on Ilus.
- Nothing Is Scarier: A one-two-punch. The slugs themselves are actually quite visible, being quite large, green and...sluggy. But as the settlers (save for Jim) were all suffering from Green Blindness, and trapped inside a Ring Builder structure, all they could do is huddle together while the slugs completely surrounded them.
- Reclaimed by Nature: When the Ring Builders terraformed Ilus, they essentially caused every other lifeform on the planet to go extinct, as the structures all predate the planet's entire ecosystem. As the slugs are the most advanced multicellular lifeforms seen on the planet thus far (due to the lizards from the original books being Adapted Out), their very existence is proof that Ilus' biosphere is finally recovering.
- The Swarm: Thanks to the Investigator's carelessness, millions of these normally-aquatic creatures end up washing up on the surface and swarming the Ring Builder ruin the settlers were taking refuge in. And they were all blinded at the time.
- Perfect Poison: If you touch the slug, or the slime, with your bare skin — even just a fingertip, you're dead. Almost instantly. End of story.
- Technicolor Poison: Zigzagged. The slugs themselves are bright green, but their slime is clear. However if a blacklight is shone the slime too becomes a very bright green color.
