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The Main Characters

    Kate Walker 

Katherine "Kate" Walker

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kate_walker.jpg
Voiced by: Françoise Cadol (French), Sharon Mann (English)

The series' protagonist. She's a promising lawyer from New York, who is sent to the French village of Valadilène to finalize the sale of the Voralberg manifacture to a large US toy company. Once there, she discovers that the owner of the factory has just passed away, so she boards a clockwork train to track down the heir and make him sign the contract. The ensuing journey will change her life forever.


  • Bag of Holding: Everything Kate picks up, she tucks into her jacket.
  • Brainy Brunette: She has brown hair and is a brilliant lawyer, not to mention the countless puzzles she solves during her adventures.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Kate frequently is this when dealing with all the bizarre puzzles she comes across as well as the eccentric people she meets.
  • Full-Name Basis: Several characters, most notably Oscar, always refer to her as "Kate Walker", as if it were a single word.
  • Generation Xerox: She's the spitting image of Dana Roze, her biological grandmother.
  • Meaningful Name: Of course, the heroine of the Road Trip Plot is named Kate Walker.
  • Odd Couple: Kate (a human lawyer) and Oscar (an automaton train conductor).
  • Platonic Life-Partners: Oscar eventually becomes her closest friend, to the point that she's in tears when he gives up his "life" for Hans.
  • Pretty in Mink: Kate wears a fur-lined jacket when it's colder than usual.
  • Super Cell Reception: Kate's conversations with her colleagues and friends back in US are the biggest source of her characterization in the game, so they can happen anytime and anyplace the writers felt appropriate. They also serve to underline the contrast between the dull, mundane modern life and the impossibly beautiful worlds Kate travels through.
  • Supporting Protagonist: Her arc more or less concludes in Syberia. While she remains the playable character, Syberia II is focused on the last legs of Hans' journey. The World Before brings her back in the spotlight, however.
  • Traumatic Haircut: At the beginning of The World Before her hair has been cut short and dyed blue, as part of the code of conduct for inmates. Her usual long, brunette hair is back after the time skip, though.

    Oscar 

Oscar

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oscar_4.jpg
Oscar in Syberia - The World Before 
Voiced by: Hubert Drac (French), James Shuman (English, Syberia II), Kevin T Collins (English, Syberia 3)

A Voralberg automaton (model XZ2000) specially made by Hans to drive the train from Valadilène to Syberia. He becomes Kate's sidekick in her journey across Europe and Siberia.


  • Ascended Extra: In the first game he's essentially set dressing, always keeping to the train and finding excuses not to leave his post. His first big moment is when he sacrifices himself for Hans at the end of Syberia II. He actively aids Kate in Syberia 3 once he's reactivated in a different body, and he even stars in his own DLC chapter.
  • Back from the Dead:
    • He is resurrected about halfway through the third game, by way of Kate placing his clockwork heart in a new body. The reason for such a momentous act? There's a car Kate can't operate herself.
    • Happens once again in The World Before, only this time he's reactivated in a mechanical armadillo body.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Ending a conversation with Oscar frequently ends with a common call-and-response phrase completely flying over his head, even though he comes this close to the correct response.
    Kate: See you later, alligator.
    Oscar: In a while, Kate Walker.
  • Heart Drive: His "heart" is his central computer, containing his AI. Kate is able to revive him in Syberia 3 and The World Before by installing the heart inside compatible bodies.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of Syberia II, he fulfills his last function as an exoskeleton/life-support system for Hans. He has to cease operating to do so, and he sounds clearly distraught.
    • A more humorous example happens in the third game, where he finds himself locked in a room due to a mechanical problem and implores Kate to leave him behind and go on without him. If you've explored the area thoroughly before this point, you can solve the puzzle trapping him in less than a minute.
  • Lawful Stupid: Despite having self-awareness Oscar is insufferably obsessed with following proper procedure, refusing to leave the station until Kate has all the proper paperwork. The only time he abandons procedure is when the two of them are in a life-threatening situation and need to flee as soon as possible, and even then Kate has to yell at him to get him to do it.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: Kate's automaton companion and the one in charge of the Cool Train.
  • Not Using the "Z" Word: Oscar is especially persistent about being called "automaton" instead of "robot". Possibly justified, since the game is set in the right area for people to be aware that "robot" is Czech for "slave".
  • Odd Couple: Kate and him.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: He becomes Kate's closest friend during the course of her journey.
  • Promoted to Playable: He's the main character in the DLC chapter for Syberia 3, An Automaton with a Plan.
  • Ridiculously Human Robots: All Voralberg automatons have this trait, but Oscar may be the most humanlike of them all. He, at the very least, is able to hold lengthy conversations about subjects unrelated to his function even if he doesn't like it.
  • Robot Buddy: Subverted, he just has one specific task (or two, as revealed at the end of Syberia II) and he refuses to leave his post in almost any circumstance. And, of course, he's not a robot, but an automaton.
  • Spock Speak: Especially in the first game.
  • Tin Man: Frequently asserts he has no concept of humor or beauty and cannot experience personal growth, but Kate is not convinced.
  • You Are Number 6: His model number is XZ2000. Installing his heart in a body of the same model allows him to be "revived".

    Hans Voralberg 

Hans Voralberg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hans_97.jpg

Anna Voralberg's younger brother and her heir. An accident in his youth left him with the mind of a child, but with a prodigious talent for creating automatons. His life dream is reaching the mythical island of Syberia where mammoths are said to still be alive.


  • Cool Old Guy: He's an 82-year-old man who has never lost his childhood dream and is an incredible Gadgeteer Genius.
  • Ditzy Genius: Hans is capable of building sentient Clock Punk robots and prefers the company of toys to people.
  • Eccentric Mentor: He definitely qualifies.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: His accident left him with a particular knack for creating automatons. All of the places he visited in his lifetime feature one or more of his contraptions, for every use imaginable.
  • Idiot Savant: Hans ends up with a mental disability due to an accident, but at the same time becomes an incredibly gifted engineer.
  • Meaningful Name: The Voralberg family are named after the western Austrian region of Vorarlberg, a mountainous paradise known for its alpine scenery.
  • Miniature Senior Citizens: Hans is really short, especially compared to the flashbacks and visions of his sister and father.

    Dana Roze 

Dana Roze

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dana_8.jpg

A young pianist living in the city of Vaghen, central Europe, in 1937. She's the other playable character in Syberia: The World Before.


  • Elegant Classical Musician: She's the best student of the Vaghen Academy of Music and dreams of attending the Paris Conservatory.
  • Identical Stranger: Katyusha notes that she looks identical to Kate when they find her portrait in the ruined train in 2004 (Kate, for her part, doesn't see it). It's actually a case of Generation Xerox.
  • Long-Lost Relative: She's Kate's biological grandmother.
  • Victorian Novel Disease: She suffers from some unspecified respiratory ailment and accepts a serving job in an alpine lodge in the hope of profiting from the mountain air.

Other Characters

    New York 

Nic Cantin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nic.jpg

A PI hired by Kate's law firm to track her down and bring her back to the US.


  • Ascended Extra: During the second game he's heard over the phone, retracing Kate's steps and giving context to her employers overseas. In Syberia 3 he appears in-person and is an active antagonist.
  • Big Bad: Of the DLC for Syberia 3, An Automaton With a Plan.
  • Hero Antagonist: Unlike his employers, he's not portrayed in any negative light, other than being dedicated to bringing Kate back to the U.S. even if it's against her will.

Mr. Marson

Kate's boss at the law firm.


  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Kate’s employers, Mr. Marson and his associates are depicted in silhouettes during cutscenes in the second.

Sarah Walker / Anna Roze

Kate's mother. A divorced socialite, who calls her daughter from time to time and becomes increasingly worried when her journey brings her more and more distant from her old life.


  • Doting Parent / My Beloved Smother: Kate’s mother, Sarah, is half and half. She helps Kate with info on Helena Romanski, but on the other hand she can be pretty meddlesome with little to no understanding of Kate’s mission.
  • In the Blood: She's a lover of music and opera, just like her biological mother Dana, an accomplished pianist.
  • No Name Given: Throughout the first two games she's only referred to as "mom" by Kate and as "Mrs. Walker" by Mr. Marston. Only the letter at the beginning of The World Before reveals her full name.
  • Posthumous Character: She passes away before the start of The World Before, but her identity as Dana's secret daughter is a key reveal in the story.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: At the start of the fourth game, Kate receives news of her mother's passing.

Dan Foster

Kate's fiancé.


  • All Take and No Give: Kate's relationship with Dan is exposed to be this as it turns out he doesn't care about her job, responsibilities, or her but wanted her only as a Trophy Wife.
  • Disposable Fiancée: Dan.
  • Jerkass: Dan plays this role in his relationship with Kate as he's not only shocked she's not going to be able to make a dinner party but might be gone an entire week. He also is cheating on her with her best friend, Olivia. Kate, rightfully, tells him to take a hike at the end.

Olivia Parker

Kate's best friend back in New York.


  • The Bus Came Back: Of a sort. After being last heard in the first game, she's the sender of the letter Kate receives in The World Before and she reads it to the audience via voiceover.
  • Meaningful Rename: Her name on the letter at the start of the fourth game is given as "Olivia Foster", meaning that her and Dan are now married.

    Valadilène 

Anna Voralberg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anna_68.jpg

The owner of the Voralberg manifacture and Hans' older sister. Kate was supposed to meet her in Valadilène and finalize the sale of the manifacture, but she died shortly before her arrival.


  • It Always Rains at Funerals: It does at Anna's.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: Were she still alive, Kate would have made her sign the sale contract before going back to New York. Since she's recently dead, Kate has to track down her heir across Europe.
  • Posthumous Character: Though dead at the start of the story, she's crucial to the games' and Hans' story. Kate reads her letters, hears her recordings and meets her in Hans' dream at the end of Syberia II.
  • Starts with Their Funeral: While Anna is not the protagonist, the game starts with her funeral and she turns out to be an important Posthumous Character.

Rodolphe Voralberg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fathers_hans.jpg

Anna and Hans' father and the previous owner of the manifacture.


  • Abusive Parents: After Hans' accident, he becomes a genius, yet he remains emotionally underdeveloped. His father repeatedly locks him in the attic for days as a punishment.
  • I Have No Son!: To the point of faking Hans' funeral and interment when he decides to leave Valadilène for good.
  • Posthumous Character: He's only seen in Hans' dream of past events towards the end of Syberia 2.

Momo

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/momo_0.png

A kid from Valadilène that befriends Kate and helps her briefly at the start of the first game. He appears to be somewhat developmentally stunted.


Valadilene's Hotel Manager

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Maitre Alfolter

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alfolter.png

    Barrockstadt 

Professor Cornelius Pons

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/proffesor.png

Head professor of Paleontology at Barrockstadt University and an old friend of Hans.


  • Absent-Minded Professor: He can be a bit spacey, but he's one of the most polite and good-willing characters you meet in the course of all games.
  • Meaningful Name: Professor Pons, one of the smarter characters Kate meets, has the same name as a region of the brain.
  • Mr. Exposition: He gives Kate a lecture on the Youkols and the legend of Syberia. Justified since it's an university lecture.

The Rectors

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Captain Malatesta

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/captain_5.jpg

The aging soldier overseeing the massive gate leading out of Barrockstadt.


Barrockstadt Station Master

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barrockstadt_station_master.jpg

Barge Couple

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    Komkolzgrad 

Sergueï Borodine

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sergey.jpg

The foreman of the now-abandoned Komkolzgrad plant.


  • Big Bad: He ends up serving as this for the final half of the first game. After Helena sings for him, he imprisons her. Helping her escape is the climax of the game.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: When Helena Romanski finally comes to Komkolzgrad to give one final performance, he detains her in a massive cage. Fortunately, Kate manages to free her.
  • Large Ham: During your second visit to Komkolzgrad.
  • Loners Are Freaks: He's lonely and mildly insane.
  • Stalker Shrine: Borodine has one to Helena Romanski. Made particularly creepy by how some of the dummies posed in copies of her on-stage dresses are missing one or more limbs.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Serguei Borodine is apparently Helena Romanski's biggest Fan Boy.

Boris Tcharov

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boris_54.jpg

A former cosmonaut residing in the abandoned and neglected Komkolzgrad cosmodrome.


  • The Alcoholic: Kate finds his empty glass bottles in his cabin. He considerably brightens up when you help him fulfill his dream of becoming more than a mere former test pilot. He takes off into low Earth orbit in a pretty cool Space Plane... launched by a clockwork-powered catapult designed by Hans, no less!
  • Big Damn Heroes: Boris saves Kate from the Bourgoffs by flying over them in his plane, albeit inadvertently.
  • The Bus Came Back: Or rather, the Space Plane came back. When Kate is almost killed by the Bourgoff brothers in the middle of Siberia, Boris suddenly arrives on the scene by crashing his plane and causing a distraction.

    Aralbad 

Helena Romanski

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/helena_9.png

Once a celebrated Soviet opera singer, she now resides in permanent retirement at the Kronski Hotel in Aralbad.


  • Cool Old Lady: Helena Romanski, a former Russian opera singer, from the first game. Kate's mother absolutely adores her.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: She passes away between the two games. Kate can read of her death in a newspaper in Romansbourg.

James

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/james_35.jpg

Helena Romanski's caretaker, a Voralberg nurse automaton.

Felix Smetana

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/felix_smetana.png

    Romansbourg and the Monastery 

Colonel Emeliov

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emeliov.jpg

The overseer of the Romansbourg station and the owner of its general store.


  • Affectionate Nickname: He calls Kate "Katyusha", the affectionate form of the name Katherine in Russian.
  • Commissar Cap: He wears one.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is initially gruff and prejudiced against the other inhabitants of Romansburg, but he warms up to Kate quickly and is genuinely helpful to her.
  • Large Ham: Emeliov fits this like a glove.

Malka

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/malka.png

A little girl who helps Kate in Romansbourg.


  • Adorably Precocious Child: She's a young and kind girl who lives alone in Romansbourg after her mother passed away. She's also tasked with the very important duty of managing the shrouds used by the Patriarch to diagnose illnesses.
  • Nice Girl: She takes an immediate liking to Kate and helps her around the town.
  • Sweet Tooth: She gives Kate the key to the lower part of town in exchange for some candy from Emeliov's store.

Cirkos

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cirkos.jpg

The owner of the village tavern. He proposes shows with mechanical horses that Hans designed. Cirkos stores a huge reserve of alcohol drinks for the long cold nights of Romansburg, but he does not tolerate drunk or vulgar behavior in his tavern.


  • Meaningful Name: "Cirkos" sounds like "circus", and he proposes a mechanical horse circus show in his tavern.
  • Nice Guy: Next to Malka, he's probably the nicest character Kate meets in Romansbourg.
  • Parental Substitute: He has taken care of Malka since her mom died.

Ivan and Igor Bourgoff

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ivan_and_igor.jpg

Two criminal brothers living in Romansbourg.


  • Bad People Abuse Animals: They keep a Youki inside a crate and Ivan threatens to hit him if he escapes again.
  • Big Bad: Of the second game. More specifically, Ivan is this and Igor is his Dragon.
  • Big Guy, Little Guy: Igor and Ivan, respectively.
  • Disney Death: After Kate and Ivan fall through the ice hill, Ivan disappears and the Youkol chief says he was "taken by the spirits". Sure enough, he stows aboard the Youkol ark and reappears for a final confrontation on the penguin island.
  • Dumb Muscle: Igor. He's very imposing but he seems to have the intelligence of a child.
  • Evil Duo: Ivan and Igor. They're the main antagonists of the second game.
  • Evil Poacher: The second game has Ivan who, after hearing about the mammoths, decides to steal the train and get the ivory for himself. His brother, Igor, accompanies him, but he is not evil, he just follows Ivan blindly and leaves when things start getting frightening.
  • Final Boss: Ivan is the last obstacle barring Kate and Hans from reaching Syberia.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Igor leaves from the Youkol village because he is afraid of the spirits.
  • Undignified Death: Ivan from the second game is apparently pecked to death by penguins. Penguins that aren't even in the right hemisphere, at that.

The Patriarch

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/patriarch.jpg

The abbot of the Monastery above Romansbourg, said to be able to diagnose people's illnesses by looking at their face imprints on a shroud.


  • Exact Words: He says that Hans will only be able to leave the Monastery in a coffin. He's proven right - Kate and Hans escape the Monastery by using an empty coffin as a makeshift sled.
  • Large Ham: Is he ever.
  • Milking the Giant Cow: When he meets Kate in the chapel, he gesticulates frenetically.

Alexeï Toukianov

A monk at the Monastery, he studied the Youkols. He passed away some years before the events of the game.


  • Bilingual Bonus: His name on the grave is written in Greek letters, and there's also a Latin phrase that works as a clue for resolving a puzzle.
  • Token Good Teammate: The monks are portrayed as dogmatic zealots, but Toukianov was a properly competent man of knowledge. The thorn used to cure Hans is said to grow only on good people's graves, and yes, it grows on his.
  • Posthumous Character: Kate finds his grave in the Monastery graveyard.

    The Youkol tribe 

The Youkols in general

Ayawaska

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ayawaska.png

The Youkol's tribe shaman. She first appears towards the end of the second game before undertaking the snow ostrich migration in Syberia 3.


  • No Name Given: In Syberia II she's just known as "the shaman". Averted in Syberia 3 where her given name is known.

Kurk

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kurk.jpg

The Youkols' young spiritual guide in the third game.

The Youki

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/youki.jpg

A member of a species of domesticated animals used by the Youkols for various tasks, described as a sort of cross between a polar bear and a seal. He tags along Kate during the second half of Syberia II.


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