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The Primes
In General
The Primes in General
- Brain Uploading: Just like how the Flame holds the memories and consciousness of a Commander, the Primes use a similar technology and process to upload their consciousnesses into a new host body after their previous host dies, effectively rendering them immortal.
- Creepy Souvenir: They keep the skeletons of their previous hosts on display in a vault.
- A God Am I: The Primes are worshipped as gods. This is because they have manipulated the rest of their people into believing they were sacrificing themselves to gods, so that the Primes could live forever.
- Grand Theft Me: How they achieve their immortality, by uploading their minds into new bodies that possess nightblood.
- Immortals Fear Death: For all their talk about having abandoned violence, the Primes are quick to fall back on threats of murder and violence when their potential 'new hosts' refuse to go along with their plans, putting their own survival over their civilisation.
- It's All About Me: The Primes treat Clarke as basically disposable in the name of restoring Josephine, proclaiming it 'destiny' that the former Earth residents came to Sanctum as the 'darkblood' birth rate is dropping. Later on, when the Earth residents turn against them, Russell and Simone only react as though it's the fault of the new arrivals that they have to resort to these extreme measures, rather than acknowledge the horror of what they've become over the centuries.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Any relationship between a Prime and someone that is not one is basically this, because when the Prime dies, they'll be resurrected in a new host, while their lover will simply be gone forever.
- Really 700 Years Old: Thanks to their ability to upload their minds into new bodies all of the Primes are this.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After enacting the Adjustment Protocol, the remaining Primes planned to hijack the Elegius IV to start again on a new world, with the ship's mindwiped crew as their new devoted followers.
- Secretly Dying: Not quite dying, per se, but they have discovered that fewer and fewer viable hosts are being born among Sanctum's population, leading them to come to the conclusion that they will eventually die a final death.
- 13 Is Unlucky: There are twelve Primes in Sanctum, divided into four families; the Lightbournes, the Desais, the Masons and the Lees. Gabriel Santiago is the thirteenth Prime, who had a "moral awakening" and defected against his fellow Primes and began to work toward bringing their eventual downfall.
Russell Lightbourne
Russell VII Lightbourne
Played by: J.R. Bourne, Sean Maguire
- Awesome McCoolname: With a name like "Lightbourne", he and his family were all but destined to become either Knights In Shining Armor or villains with a god complex. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he and them chose the latter.
- Big Bad: Of Season 6, as the leader of Sanctum and one of the inventors of the Primes' Brain Uploading technology.
- Death by Irony: He's the leader of a group of body snatchers, and ultimately dies when Sheidheda steals his body.
- Grand Theft Me: He and Simone inflict this to Clarke after they discover she has nightblood, so they can bring their daughter back from the dead. Ironically, he becomes a victim of this himself after his mind is destroyed by Sheidheda, who then takes control of his body.
- Last of His Kind: Although Ryker and Priya Desai are technically still alive Note as of the Season 6 finale, Russell and Gabriel are the last living Primes after Clarke blew the rest of the out an airlock. Russell's consciousness is erased in the Season 7 premiere, leaving Gabriel the last active Prime.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Murdering Clarke to bring Josephine back, although he expressed remorse for doing so, and he was perfectly willing to transfer Josie's mind drive to another host after it's revealed that Clarke's mind is still alive.
- Madness Mantra: While going batshit insane and killing his family during the first eclipse: "Sanctum is mine!"
- My God, What Have I Done?: The first time he went through the eclipse-induced psychosis, he killed his wife and daughter. He then spent the next twenty-five years trying to bring them back from the dead until he finally succeeded by resurrecting Josephine.
- Really 700 Years Old: Russell looks like a man who is pushing fifty Note. Chronologically he is actually closer to three-hundred.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Gets his consciousnesses destroyed by Sheidheda at the end of the Season 7 premiere.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Despite his actions, Russell is shown to be a kind man who is sympathetic to what the people from Earth have gone through, and is willing to right some of the wrongs he did in the interest of peace. That goes right out the window after Simone is assassinated, and he becomes willing to burn people at the stake to get justice.
- Would Hurt a Child: One of the hosts Russell used to try and resurrect Josephine was a baby, and after Simone and the rest of the Primes are killed by Clarke he is willing to kill Madi in revenge.
Simone Lightbourne
Simone Lightbourne
Played by: Tattiawna Jones, Chelah Horsdal, Paige Turco
- Bluff the Imposter: "What's my father's name?" Simone's failure to answer that proves fatal.
- Dislikes the New Guy: Instantly distrusts the new arrivals from Earth and wanted them to leave the safety of the village. She changes her mind after it's discovered that some of them possessed nightblood.
- Race Lift: In-universe. Simone is a black woman that used to be a white redhead two-hundred years ago. She gets another race lift when she is placed in Abby's body.
- Really 700 Years Old: Simone looks like a woman who is pushing forty and later a woman in her fifties after she inhabits Abby's body. Chronologically she is actually closer to three-hundred.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Which is how she and most of the remaining Primes meet their final death.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In the flashbacks we get to see of Simone while still living in her original body she doesn't seem to be the complete sociopath she is during the events of Season 6.
Josephine Lightbourne
Josephine Ada Lightbourne
- Actually, I Am Him: After reading Josephine's book on Oblation, Abby concludes that she was a monster. She is completely unaware that said monster is actually in the same room as her, currently inhabiting her daughter's body.Josephine: (muttering to herself) "Or a visionary."
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Begins to understand Trigedasleng just after hearing a few sentences.
- Back from the Dead: Before being uploaded into Clarke's body, Josephine had been dead for around six years. And she would have stayed dead for years more if Clarke hadn't arrived to Sanctum aboard Eligius IV.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Josephine is the definition of this trope, casually describing the brains of the other people she'd inhabited (and subsequently murdered) as annoying and messy.Bellamy: "You really think we care about that traitor?"Josephine:(as she holds a knife to Murphy's throat): "Lord knows you shouldn't! But yeah, I do, which brings us to another episode of No Good Choices!"
- Destination Defenestration: How her seventh host was killed.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Pretty much her only redeeming quality is her love for her parents and former lover Gabriel, despite the latter abandoning Sanctum out of guilt decades ago. Her happiest memory is of the two having a romantic dance.
- Evil Is Petty: Given the choice of killing Clarke after she discovers her mind is still alive or waking up in a new, willing host made possible thanks to the blackblood serum and moving on in the interest of peace? She would rather kill Clarke and keep her body.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Was originally a biologist before she died the first time. She then eventually began to promote a eugenics program to purify the so-called "royal" bloodline and provide the Primes with a steady supply of viable hosts.
- Fantastic Racism: Seems to have a hatred toward "Nulls" Note, and even goes so far as to call them less than useless. And as shown in S06E07 Josephine's proposed eugenics program involved killing them off so that only those that were useful to her and the other Primes were left.
- Human Sacrifice: She calls her eugenics program "Oblation," a meaning of which is "the act of making an offering, especially to a deity." Naturally, the name and the fact Oblation involves taking Null babies out to be eaten by the trees so that the "royal" bloodline may be purified has religious connotations which Josephine, as a religious figure, takes full advantage of.
- Immortality Immorality: One of the first things she does after coming back from the dead? She kills her best friend, Kaylee, because Kaylee killed her last host for murdering someone else. It's implied that she had been pretty immoral for a while, given her philosophy concerning eugenics, in order to create more hosts.
- It's All About Me: Arguably the absolute most selfish person the show has seen thus far, seeing nothing wrong with killing innocent people and keeping control of Clarke's body even when she could have taken another host.
- Killed Off for Real: Clarke destroys her mind in order to regain control of her body.
- Omniglot: She can speak English, German, Mandarin and is even getting a handle on Trigedasleng after hearing a few sentences.
- Manipulative Bastard: In order to shake Clarke's resolve and find out how her mind is still alive, Josephine shows a fake memory of Bellamy agreeing to her Grand Theft Me, which works. Even after admitting it was a fake, she delivers such a brutal Break Them by Talking speech arguing that Clarke genuinely gives up fighting her.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Josephine doesn't do that great a job while she is impersonating Clarke, and plenty of Clarke's friends and family noticed the inconsistencies. Gaia questions the wisdom of letting Madi go to school despite the risk of being outed as a nightblood, Abby almost figures it out after noticing she was writing with her right hand, since Clarke is left-handed, and Bellamy and Murphy figured it out after one too many hints that Clarke was not Clarke anymore, Murphy only keeping the secret to pursue his own agenda. The deception only lasted as long as it did because most of them were still angry at Clarke over the events of the previous season, and weren't inclined to look at the oddities too closely.
- Really 700 Years Old: Josephine looks to be around twenty-four after being uploaded into Clarke's body but is really over two centuries (although she may not have been conscious for all of that).
- Villainous Crush: She certainly seems to have one on John Murphy, calling him cute before revealing herself to him and recruiting him to join her in immortality. She looks annoyed every time she sees Emori, and interrupts his proposal to Emori before walking between the couple and laying her head on his shoulder.
- Would Hurt a Child: Her Oblation program involves taking Null babies out to the woods to be eaten by the trees.
Kaylee Lee
Kaylee Lee
Played by: Sarah-Jane Redmond
- Dead Person Impersonation: Ends up being impersonated by Emori, as part of Murphy's deal with the Primes, after her mind drive is wiped for Emori's use. Suffice to say, neither Murphy or Emori do a very convincing job.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Although she has no problem with body snatching, she is against the Adjustment Protocol.
- Killed Off for Real: After Josephine pressured her mother into erasing Kaylee and the rest of her family from their mind drives.
- Race Lift: In universe: Kaylee's original body was that of a Chinese girl, but her current host is white.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kaylee and the rest of her family attempt (and fail) to hijack the Elegius IV to escape the red sun eclipse. It's also implied that they did so because Kaylee had murdered Josephine and wanted to escape before her eventual resurrection.
Daniel Lee
Daniel Lee
Played by: Unknown Actor
- Dead Person Impersonation: Ends up being impersonated by John Murphy, as part of his deal with the Primes, after his mind drive is wiped for Murphy's use. Suffice to say, neither Murphy or Emori do a very convincing job.
- Killed Off for Real: After Josephine pressured her mother into erasing Daniel and the rest of his family from their mind drives.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Daniel and the rest of his family attempt (and fail) to hijack the Elegius IV to escape the red sun eclipse. It's also implied that they did so because his sister Kaylee had murdered Josephine and wanted to escape before her eventual resurrection.
- Straight Gay: When Murphy pretends to be Daniel reborn, a man comes up and kisses him, revealing that he had a relationship with Daniel with his last host. Naturally, Murphy was completely unprepared for it.
Ryker Desai
Ryker IX Desai
Played by: Thomas Cocquerel
- Armor-Piercing Question: From Raven: "Is this your last body?" The fact that Ryker doesn't answer her says a lot about him. Turns out it is his last body, assuming Ryker isn't placed in another host.
- Creepy Souvenir: He keeps mementos of his previous hosts, as well as gifts from them such as a music box that his second host had made. Raven thinks it's profane.Ryker: "How do you do that? How do you make something beautiful seem so profane?"Raven: "News flash: keeping a gift from somebody whose body you stole is profane."
- Defector from Decadence: Slightly downplayed, in that he disagrees with what the Primes are doing and even tries to distance himself from them, choosing to live in a machine shop instead of the palace, but aside from helping Gabriel escape from Sanctum decades ago, Ryker doesn't actually do anything about it. Fully subverted when he stops Echo from killing Russell, then turns her in and nearly wipes her mind.
- The Engineer: He is the one who keeps all of Sanctum's technology running.
- Hypocrite: He doesn't agree with the Prime's practice of wiping hosts' minds and taking over their bodies as a form of immortality and he is quick to protest that he never asked to be resurrected, but such words run pretty hollow when one is over two-hundred years old and is already on his ninth host.
- Killed Off for Real: Averted. Ryker's host body is killed but his mind drive is still intact, leaving the possibility open that he will be resurrected again one day.
- Pet the Dog: Of all the Primes, Ryker is the only one who honours his hosts. He even used to visit his sixth host's mother every month to celebrate his life. However, Raven considers this disgusting and cowardly, since it lets him escape from the guilt without having to do anything about hosts being taken in the first place.
- Race Lift: In universe: Ryker's original body was that of an Indian boy, but his current host is white.
Priya Desai
Priya Desai
Played by: Ashleigh LaThorp
- Back from the Dead: Priya is the first Prime shown to be resurrected, in the body of Delilah Workman.
- Killed Off for Real: Averted. Priya's host body is killed but her mind drive is still intact, leaving the possibility open that she will be resurrected again one day.
- Race Lift: In universe: Priya's original body was that of an Indian woman, but her current host, Delilah Workman, is black.
Miranda Mason
Miranda Mason
Played by: Lucia Walters, Kat Ruston
- Dislikes the New Guy: Is distrustful of outsiders, presumably due to the troubles Sanctum has had with the Children of Gabriel.
- Lack of Empathy: Her reaction to the thought of committing genocide by turning those members of Wonkru who were still in stasis into mind wiped hosts? At least she doesn't have to know who her next hosts were before taking their bodies.
- Mama Bear: Is shown to have a strong maternal instinct, kind of, as she's shown to be overly protective of Rose when she pulls her away from the Earth group who landed on Sanctum. Of course, since viable hosts were in short supply and Rose was to be one for Miranda's daughter, she might just be making sure nothing happens to her daughter's future body.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Which is how she and most of the remaining Primes meet their final death.
Jasmine Mason
Jasmine Mason
Played by: Bethany Brown
- Killed Off for Real: Courtesy of Clarke.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Along with her parents and Simone Lightbourne.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: We don't get to see much of Jasmine's character as she is floated by Clarke along with the rest of her family shortly after her resurrection.
Caleb Mason
Caleb Mason
Played by: Ian Butcher
- Killed Off for Real: Courtesy of Clarke.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Along with his wife, his daughter, and Simone Lightbourne.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: We don't get to see much of Caleb as he is floated by Clarke along with the rest of his family shortly after his resurrection.
The Children of Gabriel
In General
- Battle Cry: Of sorts. "Death to Primes!"
- Broken Pedestal: Their faith in Gabriel is shattered when they find out he's inhabiting Xavier's body.]]
- Defector from Decadence: After Gabriel's "moral awakening," he left Sanctum to form the Children of Gabriel and fight the Primes.
"The Old Man"
Gabriel Santiago
Played by: Ian Pala, Chuku Modu
- Berserk Button: In a rage, Gabriel killed the man who resurrected him in Xavier's body against his wishes.
- Irony: He fully intended to die, but the moment a viable host was available he was brought back against his wishes in Xavier's body.The Old Man: I was trying to take down a system dedicated to the worship of false gods. I became a false god all over again.
- Last of His Kind: Although Ryker and Priya Desai are technically still alive Note, Russell and Gabriel are the last living Primes after Clarke blew the rest of the out an airlock.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When he helped Russell Lightbourne develop virtual immortality via the mind drives and open up a door to generations of innocent people living under the thumb of false gods and countless deaths in the name of said immortality, the Old Man had a "moral awakening" and founded the Children of Gabriel in order to fight the Primes.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Before he escaped Sanctum, Gabriel destroyed the Primes' nightblood embryos to stop them from taking new hosts. The only effect destroying the embryos had was leading Josephine to come up with a horrific eugenics program to purify what was left.
- Offing the Offspring: The adopted offspring, but still.
- Race Lift: In universe: Gabriel's original body was that of a hispanic man, however, his current host is black, and in Josephine's memories is shown that his first host was of asian ancestry.
- Really 700 Years Old: The Old Man is said to be over a hundred years old. As a former Prime, Gabriel is actually closer to three hundred.
- Satanic Archetype: For the people of Sanctum. As they see the Primes as gods they see Gabriel in the same light as the Devil.
- The Unseen: In universe. The Children of Gabriel hasn't seen the Old Man for quite some time, leading some to theorize that he has either died or abandoned them. It turns out he was Xavier all along.
- Unwanted Revival: Gabriel was so enraged upon waking up in Xavier's body that he killed Eduardo, his adoptive son, for resurrecting him.
Xavier
Xavier
Played by: Chuku Modu
- Actually, I Am Him: Whenever anyone speaks of the Old Man in Xavier's presence, completely unaware they are actually speaking about him.
- Combat Pragmatist: Instead of fighting Diyoza and Octavia fairly, Xavier uses the forest to incapacitate them both, rightfully calling it his weapon.
- Dead Person Impersonation: After Gabriel awoke in Xavier's body against his wishes, he decided to pose as him among the Children of Gabriel. In doing so, he allowed the Children to assume that either Gabriel had died or abandoned them. Until the coming of the Eligius IV, Gabriel had been posing as Xavier for ten years.
- Like a Son to Me: Xavier was said to have been like a son to the Old Man.
- Posthumous Character: Technically. His body is very much alive and well as Gabriel's host, but the original Xavier has been dead for ten years.
- The Reveal: After seeing the mind drive scar on the back of Xavier's neck, Diyoza realises that the man who had been escorting them to see the Old Man was Gabriel himself, in a new host.
Other Sanctum Citizens
Jade
Jade
Played by: Bethany Brown
- Alien Blood: Is turned into a nightblood to serve as a host to Jasmine Mason.
- Death by Irony: She fails in her duty to protect Rose, the future host of Jasmine Mason, and some episodes later Jade herself is turned into a nightblood in order to host Jasmine's mind.
- Death of Personality: When her body is taken over by Jasmine Mason.
- My Greatest Failure: Being unable to avoid Rose's death really shakes her.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: It's possible that Russell have thought that a guard that failed all the tasks she was given would be more useful as a host for a prime.
Delilah Workman
Delilah Workman
Played by: Ashleigh LaThrop
- Alien Blood: She was born with black blood, the reason why she is used as a host for Priya Desai.
- Death of Personality: When her body is taken over by Priya Desai.
- Mauve Shirt: We get to see some of her personality and she even briefly becomes Jordan's love interest before her mind is wiped to become Priya Desai.
- Raised as a Host: Since it was discovered that Delilah has black blood, she was raised to believe that it would be an honor to become a Prime's host after turning 21.
Jae and Blythe Ann Workman
Jae and Blythe Ann Workman
Played by: Dean Marshall and Karen Holness
- Offing the Offspring: However, Blythe Ann only kills Delilah's body, as her mind has already been wiped.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Both outlive their only daughter, Delilah.
Rose
Rose
Played by: Amélie Eve
- Alien Blood: She was born with black blood, and because of this, if it wasn't for her untimely death, she was supposed to become the future host of Jasmine Mason.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Dramatically averted, as Rose is killed by the children of Gabriel right before Octavia is able to get her to safety.
- Raised as a Host: Was being raised to become a host in her adulthood.
Gavin
Gavin
Played by: Greyston Holt
- Alien Blood: Is turned into a nightblood to serve as a host for Marcus Kane.
- Death of Personality: When his body is used as a host to Marcus Kane's mind.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: His mind is wiped shortly after he is introduced.
Sierra
Sierra
Played by: Kat Ruston
- Alien Blood: Is turned into a nightblood to serve as a host for Miranda Mason.
- Death of Personality: When her body is used as a host to Miranda's mind.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: We don't get to see much of her before Russell wipes her mind.
