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Humans
Alex Lannon
Sgt. Alex Lannon
- Portrayed by: Christopher Egan
A rebellious young soldier who is a Sergeant in Vega's Archangel Corps. Alex is Claire's lover and is Charlie's son (from Legion). He discovers he is the unlikely savior of humanity, known as "The Chosen One."
- Battle Couple: With Noma in season 2.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: And it can fly to your location at a moment's notice. His attempt to leave Vega is thwarted almost immediately after Michael learns that he's left the safety of the walls.
- The Chosen One: He's the key to winning the war. However, as Michael warns, how he does that is something of a grey area, and it wouldn't be in the humans' best interests if Gabriel gets to him.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The series, quite literally, starts out with him stumbling upon a group of lesser angels playing poker and shooting one in the head. He later manages to take out one of the warrior class angels solo.
- Expy: of Jesus, as the original movie showed he was born on December 25.
- I Am Who?: Michael was careful to hide the truth from him, so that he would grow up mostly normal.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: He leaves Vega alone when he fears his status as The Chosen One is a threat to Claire and Bixby. It only lasts an episode. Then he does it again in the season finale, and sticks with it until about halfway through the season.
- Military Maverick: He sneaks out of the city on a regular basis, which is against regulations.
- Parental Abandonment: His mother is dead and his father left on a scouting/fact-finding mission, leaving Alex alone. Then his father came back and died in the span of a day.
- Parental Substitute: To Bixby, a young orphan girl.
- Power Tattoo: His tattoos line up to form messages which only he can read. The first warns him not to trust those close to him. New tattoos are also shown to form as necessary, which he uses to recover the faded ink on a book about exorcisms. Taken a step further when his tattoos spread to those he performs exorcisms on, allowing them to survive the exorcism.
- Refusal of the Call: He rejects being called The Chosen One and insists he's just a normal soldier, but naturally has to step up.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Claire, which was complicated enough before Whele decided to marry her off to his son as a power grab.
Claire Riesen
Claire Riesen
- Portrayed by: Roxanne McKee
Riesen's daughter, a teacher to orphaned children and believer in Saviorism, Claire is the city's de facto "princess," heir apparent to her father's seat as ruler of Vega. Claire is deeply opposed to the V-System, and her defense of the people's rights have made her beloved by the people. Claire is Alex's lover (a relationship that is forbidden but continues with a few having knowledge), but is betrothed to marry William.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's definitely a nice person, but that doesn't mean she can't force people into doing what she wants when she's particularly irate. When she finds out about her father's relationship with the eight-ball inhabiting her mother, she forces him to cede power to her once her wedding to William has gone through. When she loses her baby in season 2 due to a sniper bullet, she coldly executes Zoe for her assumed responsibility.
- Cool Teacher: Works as a teacher and says she prefers doing this instead of leading.
- Love Triangle: She's betrothed to William and in love with Alex.
- Parental Substitute: Puts Bixby under her protection and basically adopts her.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Alex, which was complicated enough before Whele decided to marry her off to his son as a power grab.
General Edward Riesen
General Edward Riesen
- Portrayed by: Alan Dale
The head of House Riesen and Claire's father, Riesen is the Lord Of The City, Vega's selfless ruler and military leader. During the war, Riesen was a key figure who led humanity to victory; on the brink of extermination, humankind rallied and able-bodied survivors were organized under Riesen's leadership. After almost two decades of war, Riesen was responsible for destroying the angel army and ended Gabriel's ability to wage large-scale war.
Afterwards, Riesen and his closest advisers founded the fortified city of Vega. Inspired by his training at West Point, General Riesen worked with the Senate to devise and create the V-System, a rigid occupation-based social ordering which ensures the vital work of building and running Vega is accomplished. However, he claims it was only a temporary measure; Riesen shares his daughter's opposition to the system, as he wishes to step down and help Vega transition into a republic, and when Claire inherits his seat, she will need an arranged marriage to William Whele to defend herself from his father, David.
- Big Good: For humanity and Vega, although he has dark secrets of his own.
- Cool Old Guy: He's a badass Reasonable Authority Figure, of course he's cool.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Season 2 reveals that he's not really Riesen, he just took over a dead officer's identity the day the angels came so he could take command.
- Four-Star Badass: Riesen is the General who led all of humanity to victory.
- Good Is Not Soft: While he's certainly of higher character than Whele, he's not above morally ambiguous actions if he believes they're for the good of the city.
- He Knows Too Much: The reason he kills Councilor Frost.
- Interspecies Romance: He has a secret relationship with a lesser angel who hangs out at the Luxor Las Vegas. Her host body is that of his wife.
- Papa Wolf: To his daughter, Claire.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Though he helped set up Vega's class system, he views it as a necessity that the city has since grown past and seeks to abolish it. His daughter, however, isn't convinced he could abdicate without Whele seizing power.
- Secretly Dying: He has congestive heart failure, but keeps it a secret, not wanting to worry Claire. In season 2, he merges with a higher angel to become a dyad, healing his heart.
David Whele
David Whele
- Portrayed by: Anthony Head
The head of House Whele and William's father, David is one of Vega's senators, who is the Secretary of Commerce, Vega's chief administrator and the bureaucrat who keeps every government department running. David is a ruthless and cunning political operator who maintains a dynamic and unpredictable relationship with Riesen, the one man in the city more powerful than he. He is planning with his son to depose Riesen by making William the Lord Of The City through his marriage to Claire.
A former televangelist, before the war, he truly believed in God, but now sees that everything he previously believed in was wrong, although he narcissistically uses the psychology of faith he previously embraced to advance himself and his son's positions. He is vehemently against Saviorism, and considers Alex to be his greatest threat to his plans to seize control of Vega, and him being the Chosen One could bring ruin to their society.
- Bullying a Dragon: Whele does this to Michael with some regularity.
- Bread and Circuses: The idea behind the Jubilee, which backfires in a pretty spectacular way.
- Break the Haughty: he goes through in season 2.
- Corrupt Politician: He announces the wedding of his son and Claire without informing the latter as a means to gain more control over Vega, since Claire is next in line to rule. He also treats Alex as a threat to himself, even though Alex is the hope for all humanity.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- In "Beware Those Closest to You," when he gets to burn the Black Acolytes alive in their place of worship.
- Subverted with William, who instead gets a Pet the Dog moment from him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite his psychologically abusive treatment of William he does genuinely love his son and spares him after destroying the other Black Cultists.
- Evil Is Petty: In season 2, he burns down the first three floors of Wynn Towers just to stop Claire from allowing the V1s to live there.
- Heroic BSoD: He's pretty badly broken when William forces him to kill his pet lion, which William sees as symbolic of his father's greed and desire for control.
- It's All About Me: He'll do anything to stay in power, even at the expense of the city. You honestly get the impression he'd sooner burn Vega to the ground than give up his position. He practically does as much when he activates a fail-safe which splits Vega in half, isolating the ritzier areas from the poor areas where the rebels are holed up.
- Jerkass: Gabriel almost comes across as likable compared to him.
- Nay-Theist: Whele openly mocks the idea of The Chosen One, even going so far as to insinuate that Michael would fake it for his own benefit. It takes quite a pair to openly accuse an Archangel of being a liar. Before the war, he was a televangelist, and the reveal that the angels wanted to wipe out humanity destroyed his faith.
- Pet the Dog:
- He manages to combine this with one of his worst Kick the Dog moments. When he kills Bixby, he does it himself rather than have his men throw her to his lion. He kills her quietly in her sleep, holding her hand and promising that it won't hurt.
- "Something Borrowed:"
- William asks if he's planning to say anything at the engagement party. For once, he actually gives genuinely heartfelt fatherly advice.David: We're survivors. We're not immortal. Treasure the time that you have together.
- He gives Claire his wife's necklace as her "something borrowed."
- When Claire is rooting around his office looking for blackmail, she finds something in a desk drawer: An old hand-made letter from his children, kept as close as possible.
- William asks if he's planning to say anything at the engagement party. For once, he actually gives genuinely heartfelt fatherly advice.
- "Beware Those Closest to You"
- After killing off the Black Acolytes, it looks like he's going to do the same with William, only instead of killing him with the same gun he had been forced to use on Sampson, he instead opts to give William the gun, along with a sack full of supplies, point him towards the nearest hope of survival, and tell him that despite everything William had done and that he had said, he is still his son, and he still loves him.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He's usually seen in a nifty suit.
- Smug Snake: He's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is, considering he's outsmarted by two different people in the same season.
- We Have Become Complacent: He believes this about Vega, hence his attempt at arranging Gladiator Games.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: It's a very thin line with him. By necessity, he must protect his people, but at the same time, he isn't about to let them have any means of deposing him.
- Would Hurt a Child: He kills Bixby since she knows Alex is the Chosen One.
William Whele
William Whele
- Portrayed by: Luke Allen Gale
David's son and a true believer of the Chosen One. William is the kind-hearted and religious leader of the Church of the Savior. He is betrothed to marry Claire, whom he grew up with and loves very much. While he apparently worships Alex as the Chosen One, he is secretly a Black Acolyte, who worships Gabriel as a god.
- All Love Is Unrequited: William is genuinely in love with Claire. Claire's father has to make a deal with her to get her to marry him.
- The Chosen Wannabe
- Dark Is Evil: His outfit as a Black Acolyte is...well, black.
- Hopeless Suitor: He loves Claire, but that's very much one-sided.
- Killed Off for Real
- Messianic Archetype: When he comes back in season 2, he proclaims himself to be chosen by God, showing off some scars as his "markings". When exposed to the Amphora of Darkness, his hallucinations make it clear he's only convinced himself of divine meaning behind mundane coincidence.
- Mole in Charge: He's the leader of the Church of the Savior, but he's actually a member of the Black Acolytes, a sect loyal to Gabriel.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He tries to be one, not that his father is swayed by it.
- Sinister Minister: William is the leader of opposing religions; his true allegiance is to the Black Acolytes.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: David and William's relationship is very strained: William believes he never got approval from his harsh father, David blames William for getting the rest of their family killed. It's further damaged when David discovers William's true allegiance. In the season 1 finale, he finally gets something back.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
- You Can't Go Home Again: In "Beware Those Closest to You", though he does come back next season.
Becca Thorn
Becca Thorn
- Portrayed by: Rosalind Halstead
The head of House Thorn, Becca is one of Vega's senators, who is in charge of the city's scientific and medical personnel and who oversees all their efforts in Vega. Becca is Riesen's confidant regarding his terminal condition, David's rival in the Senate, a close friend of Claire, and Michael's lover.
- Character Death: Michael kills her after he discovers she's been torturing and killing angels.
- Harem Seeker: She doesn't mind Michael sleeping with other girls and encourages him to do so.
- Interspecies Romance: With Michael. She is a human while he is an Archangel.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She cares deeply for the people's safety and security.
- Secret-Keeper: She is General Reisen's main confidant, and knows he is Secretly Dying.
Arika
Arika
- Portrayed by: Shivani Ghai
The beautiful and wily wife of Queen Evelyn of Helena, a distant and mysterious fortified city. Arika arrives in Vega as part of a negotiating party. A stranger in a strange land, she shares a clandestine relationship with David Whele.
- Ambiguously Bi / Lipstick Lesbian: clearly prefers and enjoys other women ( Uriel and Daria) but apparently can tolerate men when necessary to further her goals.
- Ambiguously Brown
- Can't Bathe Without a Weapon: She carries a gun with her to the bath.
- Frame-Up: After an angel infiltrates her entourage to enter Vega, she and her entourage are arrested despite their protests that they didn't know.
- Interspecies Romance: With Uriel.
- King Incognito: She is Evelyn's wife to the public, but is actually Evelyn for real.
- Manipulative Bitch: She's good at getting what she wants, whether through sex or other methods.
- Shameful Strip: She and her entourage are stripped of their burkas and left in their undergarments when they are arrested, a great cultural offense.
- The Vamp: Perfectly willing to use sex to get her way and, if Whele is right, to kill afterwards. Also willing to get her entourage to commit suicide.
Noma Banks
Sgt. Noma Banks
Played By: Kim Engelbrecht
An ex-girlfriend of Alex's, she's another member of the Archangel Corps.
- Amicable Exes / Sex with the Ex: With Alex, more or less.
- An Arm and a Leg: In season 2, she loses her wings.
- Battle Couple: With Alex in season 2.
- God Was My Copilot: She's actually an angel assigned by Michael to watch over Alex.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: in "Day of Wrath" it's revealed that she was willing to kill Alex when he was still a baby on Gabriel's orders, but stops when she senses that Alex is The Chosen One and becomes his guardian at Michael's behest...but at the end of "Sine Deo Nihil" she reveals that she cut a deal with Lucifer to get back the wings she tore off to save Alex and probably would have fought Alex if the series hadn't been canceled.
- Interspecies Romance: With Alex, not that he knew it at first.
- Undying Loyalty: Will seemingly do anything for Alex, including ripping off her wings.
- Working with the Ex: She works directly with Alex.
Ethan Mack
Ethan Mack
Played By: Jonathan Howard
Another soldier of the Archangel Corp, with a cheery demeanor.
- Like Brother and Sister: He's surprised by the implication that he's attracted to Alex, who he considers a brother.
- Plucky Comic Relief: He's always quick with a joke while everyone else is being all broody.
- Sticky Fingers: He frequently swipes luxury items from the upper Vs (booze, cosmetics, perfume, etc.) and sells them to the people in his unit.
- Straight Gay: There's nothing stereotypical or effeminate about Ethan. Arika is able to see it because he shows no reaction to her, and he confirms that he's gay.
- Manly Gay: He's a soldier and a member of Michael's elite corps at that and unlike Alex and Noma he had to have earned his way in.
Bixby
Bixby
Played By: Betsy Wilke
An orphan of the underclass functionally adopted by Alex and Clare
- Expy: The physical resemblance both in costume and physical features between her and the young Cosette is too uncanny to be a coincidence.
- She Knows Too Much: Knew that Alex was the Savior which is why Whele killed her.
- Street Urchin: Is a V1, the lowest class of citizen and probably would have died if not for the kindness of Alex and later Claire
- Sacrificial Lamb: is killed by Whele
Angels
Michael
Archangel Michael
- Portrayed by: Tom Wisdom
The only angel who sided with humanity during the war, Michael lives in Vega, where he serves in an advisory role to the humans. He is calm and aloof at all times, even in combat, which gives him a vaguely inhuman demeanor.
- Aloof Older Brother: To Gabriel.
- The Atoner: His actions as The Flood are basically why he's on humanity's side this time.
- Big Good: The only angel on the side of the humans and thus the most knowledgeable about them.
- Badass Longcoat: He's almost always seen wearing a pretty neat one.
- Berserk Button: Hurting innocent angels is a really sore point with him. When he catches Becca experimenting on one, he completely loses it, killing her and several guards before fighting Alex. It's only when Alex draws blood does he calm down and realize just how far off the deep end he went.
- The Chooser of the One: Gabriel accuses him of this, saying that God chose Michael to hold the markings, and then Michael chose to pass them on to Jeep, knowing they'd end up with Alex.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was once a dutiful servant of his father, killing mankind on orders and enjoying his work. Time has apparently softened him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Yes, he gets moments to be snarky.
- Good Is Not Soft: He has no problem giving Alex a few lashes for sneaking out of the city against orders.
- The Great Flood: The flood? That was him. A natural disaster was a lot easier for humans to swallow than a mass-murdering angel.
- Guardian Angel: To Alex, though Alex doesn't know it until he learns that he's The Chosen One.
- Interspecies Romance: With Becca in season 1 before he killed her. And Laurel in season 2.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He has a moment of this after Alex manages to wound him following a mad rampage in response to Louis being experimented on.
- Not So Stoic: He actually cries when relating the tale of how he saved Alex as a baby, though he keeps his level tone in spite of it. He's also extremely pissed when the neutral angels in Vega are murdered. Finally, seeing Louis tortured for medical information causes him to go on a killing spree until Alex calms him down.
- Our Angels Are Different: As an angel living amongst humans Michael hands out "Monster fun facts".
- Papa Wolf: Alex is his surrogate son so far as he's concerned, and he doesn't play around when it comes to his safety.I will do anything I must to protect you.
- Parental Substitute: He views Alex as a son, but Alex seems to regard him as more of a friend than a father, mostly because Michael does a pretty bad job of being there for him in a truly paternal way.
- Retired Monster: This savior of humanity was once its greatest scourge.
- The Stoic: Maintains a constant level tone, and it takes a lot to break it.
- Thicker Than Water: Despite the fact that Gabriel is waging a genocidal war against humanity, Michael isn't willing to kill him because they're brothers, it is revealed to be a lot more literal, Michael and Gabriel are the angelic equivilent of twins, all angels are born in pairs, except Lucifer.
- Undying Loyalty: Nothing will make him leave or betray Alex, he would sooner die for him. He tells Alex as much after Alex traps and uses him as bait for Gabriel, seriously wounding him in the process.
- Unwanted Harem: Of a somewhat more literal sort. He has a massive harem and it's implied he indulges himself somewhat regularly, but it's his lover Becca who organizes them and he doesn't feel the risk of potential offspring is worth it. She even lightly teases him about not being more into it.
Gabriel
Archangel Gabriel
- Portrayed by: Carl Beukes
When God disappeared, Gabriel blamed humanity and called on all the hosts of Heaven to make war against them. Most of the mid- and higher-tier angels decided to remain neutral, but the vast majority of the lesser angels took his side and followed his orders.
Gabriel himself is a smug, powerful man who has always hated humans. His whereabouts were unknown for years before the start of the series, and there was even a vain hope that he might have died. In truth, he was building a fortress in the mountains, as well as stepping up his recruitment efforts with the angels. This eventually bore fruit, as the Powers joined his cause.
- Adaptational Villainy: While Legion's Gabriel was hardly a saint, he was also acting on orders. This Gabriel is killing humanity because he merely thinks that's what God wants, and clearly enjoys it far more than he did in the film.
- Bad Boss: Though he cares for the higher angels, he seems to have no problem killing off a lesser one to make a point to a subordinate that wounded his brother.
- Big Bad: Gabriel is the leader of the angel attack on humans.
- The Dreaded: Humanity had hoped him dead when they bombed the angels in a last-ditch effort to win the war. They're naturally quite worried when it turns out he survived that.
- Driven by Envy: He hates the humans for having been favored by God over him despite being inferior and ruining the planet.
- Fallen Hero: Just as "Oroboros" reveals that Michael was The Great Flood that once slaughtered humanity, it also reveals that Gabriel defied God to protect humanity from Michael. They would have actually come to blows if Uriel hadn't stopped them. Several thousand years of watching humanity ruin Earth has changed his mind, however. And killing his son David (yes, that one), when he was mortal probably didn't do humanity any favours either
- A Father to His Men: He doesn't begrudge one of his angels for failing to kill Alex, instead merely being pleased that she confirmed his status as The Chosen One.
- Faux Affably Evil: Gabriel can sit down and make small talk with William about pudding before subsequently slaughtering a diner full of people in needlessly painful ways.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: He comes pretty close to working with Michael in season 2, only to be tortured with the plague of darkness and have his love for his brother corrupted, making him even more evil.
- Humans Are Bastards: He believes this very much though he helped Michael escape so he could save his Chosen One.
- Kill All Humans: His goal.
- The Leader: Of the villainous angels.
- Light Is Not Good: A divine creature hell-bent on the eradication of humanity.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He is pissed when one of the higher angels tries and nearly succeeds at killing Michael.
- Our Angels Are Different: In Gabriel's case, they are absolute bastards.
- Sweet Tooth: Seems to be very fond of pudding, especially if it's homemade.
- Villain Override: He's able to control lesser angels. He later upgrades to higher angels, though seems unlikely he can possess the senior angels like the Powers or the other Archangels.
Uriel
Archangel Uriel
- Portrayed by: Katrine De Candole
Michael and Gabriel's older sister. When God disappeared and Gabriel started his war on humanity, she remained neutral, but when The Chosen One is revealed, she starts to take a more active role in events.
- Angelic Beauty: Yes, Uriel is quite attractive.
- Big Sister Instinct: She's extremely pissed when Michael is hurt.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Michael tells Uriel that Gabriel can remotely possess the lesser angels, she says it's "disgusting." Given that Gabriel was in the room at the time, she was probably being genuine.
- Expy: Possibly coincidental, but she resembles Uriel from Darksiders, who is another angel with the same name, depicted as female and bearing some physical similarities.
- Gender Flip: In this version, the Archangel Uriel takes a female form.
- Humans Are Special: Uriel is obsessed with all forms of art and artistic expression and thinks that creativity is humanity's greatest asset.
- I Gave My Word: Michael says that the only thing stronger than her memory is her word.
- Manipulative Bitch: While her goals are still a mystery, she's shown to be playing both sides of the angel conflict, using the exact same words to convince Michael and Gabriel that she's on his side, and capitalizing on the brotherly love they both feel towards her.
- Neutral No Longer: The Chosen One being revealed prompts her to abandon her neutrality in the conflict. We just don't know which side she's really on.
- Photographic Memory: With just a few minutes of examining Alex's tattoos, she's able to perfectly reproduce them. That said, Michael notes that the tattoos change on a whim, so she basically has a still photograph instead of a real copy. It doesn't dissuade her, though.
- Playing Both Sides: Uriel tells both Michael and Gabriel individually that she'll fight for their side in the coming war.
- Standing Between the Enemies: In flashback from "Oroboros" during The Great Flood, when Michael and Gabriel were about to draw swords on each other, Uriel descended from Heaven and literally stood between the two.
Clementine
Clementine
Played By: Amy Bailey (season 1), Sabine Palfi (season 2)
A lesser angel Riesen keeps outside of Vega.
- Interspecies Romance: With Riesen.
- Killed Off for Real
- Missing Mom: To Claire.
- The Nth Doctor: Returns in season 2 with a new body.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Clementine has a horrible time of it: she's stranded between two sides who will both kill her, she's in love with someone who's using her because she's inhabiting the body of his dead wife, and she's eventually forced to go on the run. She's physically powerful and capable of killing on a whim, but she's still a fragile, tormented soul.
Julian
Julian
- Portrayed by: Simon Merrells
The leader of New Delphi.
- Big Bad: Of Season 2, effectively supplanting Gabriel.
- Create Your Own Villain: A former Higher Angel named Lyrae who Michael killed way back in Old Testament times. He's been carrying a bit of a grudge about that.
- Karma Houdini
- Sharing a Body: He's a Dyad, the result of a dead Higher Angel named Lyrae possessing a human body without kicking out the human's soul like eight-ball angels do.
The Prophet
The Prophet
- Portrayed by: Hakeem Kae-Kazim
The man behind the creation of Mallory, Alabama. It's not entirely clear who or what he is.
- The Dragon: To Lucifer.
- Playing with Fire: He can cause eight-balls to spontaneously burst into flame. What if any restrictions this power has have yet to be revealed.
- Scary Black Man
- Slasher Smile
- We Have Reserves: Invokes this for himself when Michael threatens to kill him. He boasts that Lucifer has many like him and would not be inconvenienced by his death.
Lucifer
Lucifer
The Son of Morning and first of the Archangels.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: Thanks to the damage done to him when Michael and Gabriel tried to kill him, he needs to feed on faith, especially human sacrifice, to regain his strength. He wants Alex because Alex's pure heart would allow him to return to full strength.
- Playing with Fire: His powers seem to draw heavily on fire, whether it's burning eight-balls alive or for healing.
- Reality Warper: He was gifted with the power of creation, like God Himself. It's probably not quite as expansive as God's own power, and certainly limited by his current state, but nevertheless he is considerably more powerful than any angel.
