Crew of the Coriolis
Devo La Main
A former member of the Benevolent Parish who recently un-cloistered himself and is trying to find a new life and purpose in Founder's Wake. A bard, played by Travis.
- The Baby of the Bunch: In a different manner than Zoox; he is only 23, meaning he was born in Founder's Wake, and has basically spent his entire life up to this point in a closed society of strict religious and magical instruction, meaning that outside of magic and his negotiating skills he is extremely naive and inexperienced.
- Bad Powers, Good People: His abilities from the College of Whispers give him these: Devo himself is a mild-mannered and caring young man who can drive you to paranoia just with his words and can assault your mind with psychic trauma.
- The Bard: His class is this, but he uses spoken word and affirmations for his spellcasting in place of an instrument. He does have a flute that he is fairly competent with playing, however.
- Berserk Button:
- The Parish and anything to do with them, given he split from them on bad terms.
- Unkindness to children, if his speech to Amber about why he is so focused on making sure that Beck and Skittles stay on their feet is anything to go by. Given his upbringing it's not hard to see why.
- Feeling contained or cut off from the world, likely due to being cloistered by the parish for much of his life.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Devo is a kind and giving young man, but he's capable of being downright terrifying when sufficiently pissed off.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": He is very firm on not wanting to be called by his deadname, Devotion.
- Healing Hands: He took Cure Wounds as one of his bard spells and functions as the party's main healer.
- Limited-Use Magical Device: His spell slots are represented in the story as vials of specially purified Prestige salt that he inhales to cast spells.
- Meaningful Name: His full first name is Devotion, in keeping with the naming conventions of the Parish, and combined with his last name (French for "the hand") implies that he was being raised to become the Hand of Devotion, a leadership position in the Parish, before he defected.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He really hates Urchin and wants to get rid of him as soon as possible, but refuses to leave him to die because he thinks he should get to be the one to dispatch him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: His usual politeness is replaced with outright hostility when confronted with the Parish.
- Silver Tongue: As a bard trained specifically in oratory skills, he has an exceptional way with words and negotiation. He managed to get the Curator to nearly double their compensation for the botched Gallery Job (in Griffin's words receiving a "king's bounty" of Lux) just through good conversation skills and pressing the right social buttons.
- That Man Is Dead: He treats his old identity Devotion like a transgender person would treat their deadname, and refuses to be associated with his former identity if he can help it.
- Trigger Phrase: His training with the Parish included his teachers implanting him with programmed responses to certain phrases to better control him. Orlean uses one to cause Devo to feel uncontrollable shame and helplessness.
Zoox
A recently-constructed and amalgamated Brinearr who is discovering the world with wide-eyes and a loaded crossbow. A ranger, played by Clint.
- Amnesiac Hero: He has no residual memories from his ainarr spirit components, which Tessellation credits to an anomaly in his binding process. It also seems to have an affect on his long-term memory in general, as he barely recalls the facility where he was formed. Episode 33 reveals that this is because he never had ainarr spirits inhabiting him in the first place.
- The Beastmaster: Zoox took the Swarmkeeper as his subclass, allowing him to command a small horde of tiny creatures to do his bidding. Being that he is an ecosystem unto himself as a being made of coral, he commands the creatures that live within him as his swarm. His spells are even represented by summoning and commanding a variety of sea creatures, such as creating a swarm of bioluminescent seahorses to cast Faerie Fire.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: As a Brinearr, Zoox is a golem constructed from clay, sea glass, and infused with magic coral that is inhabited by amalgamated spirits that form a single consciousness. He is amphibious, but requires regular infusions of Ethersea water to keep the polyps in his coral frame alive and kicking.
- Bizarre Alien Senses: Operating off of the adage of "there's a hole for that", Zoox has all five human specialized senses but seemingly none of the traditional organs that let those senses work. Hand Waved with the idea that he gets most of his visual, olfactory, and auditory information from the spirits that inhabit the coral, he filter feeds when he's in the water, and he speaks through a form of short-range telepathy.
- Blood Knight: He is very eager to hold people at crossbow-point to make them do things that he wants, and enjoys combat to an almost ludicrous degree, but Guthrie talks him into toning it down a bit. Comes back to bite Zoox in the ass when Guthrie almost kills him because Zoox let his guard down.
- Bows Versus Crossbows: Favors a crossbow as his primary weapon, and often tries to get people to cooperate by holding them at crossbow point.
- Haunted Technology: Like all Brinearr, Zoox is a collection of spirits forming a single consciousness that is inhabiting a golem constructed of clay, sea glass, and magically enriched coral for the spirits to bind to. Subverted with the reveal that he never had Ainarr spirits bind to him in the first place and his consciousness is the result of his coral polyps and swarm gaining sentience on their own.
- Hidden Depths: The infinite clam saw something in his mind that caused it to recoil and left it visibly shaken.
- Meaningful Name: Zoox derives from zooxanthellae
, one of any number of species of dinoflagellates that live in symbiosis with animals such a sponges, coral, jellyfish, and nudibranchs. - Mind Hive: His mind and personality is the result of his polyps and the creatures in his swarm amalgamating together to form a new being.
- Naïve Newcomer: He was only recently amalgamated, and as such doesn't have a lot in the way of experience with interacting with others.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: He has access to the Speak With Animals and Animal Friendship spells. Unlike the usual depiction in D&D, Zoox's ability to communicate with animals is explicitly described as a limited type of telepathy that sometimes allows creatures to hear his thoughts as well,
Amber Gris
A veteran of the fight against the Blink Sharks before the founding of Founder's Wake looking to make a quick Lux and relive some of her past glories. A monk, played by Justin.
- Astral Projection: All Monks of a certain level can project their spirits from their bodies, but Amber uncovered the ability to manifest her astral self a lot earlier through Ol' Uncle Joshy's training on the beach. Mechanically, she is a Way of the Astral Self monk and can manifest a pair of spiritual arms to help her in combat.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: She is a Monk by class, whose proficiencies according to Ravi Montrell are "punching and kicking". However, given that martial artist monastic orders don't exist in this setting, she thinks of herself as a warrior instead. Her ki is even rebranded as "vibe points".
- The Captain: She is named the captain unanimously by the crew, in part because she intimidates the hell out of her two partners.
- Deadly Force Field: She deactivates her vapor suit to allow a blink shark to bite down on her arm then reactivates the barrier just in time to sever the blink shark's teeth and severely damage its jaw.
- Famed In-Story: As one of the psychic warriors that drove away the Blink Sharks before the end of the surface world, Amber has some amount of fame in Founder's Wake. She's famous enough that Ravi Montrell knew who she was just by seeing her name on an application.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: While Amber has an intimidating and commanding personality, she has a -1 intimidation score, much to Justin's dismay when he tries to actually have her intimidate people.
- It's All About Me: Ultimately, while Amber does care about Zoox and Devo to a degree, she's mostly taking this job with the Bluespan Brokerage to earn cash for herself and is opposed to the idea of giving out charity without good reason.
- A Mother To Her Men: As one of the oldest of Joshy's disciples that still hangs around with the current generation of Finners in Joshy's Knuckle, she has taken it upon herself to keep them sharp in preparation for the inevitable return of the Blink Sharks. This mostly comes from sucker punching other Finners, but they like her regardless.
- Meaningful Name: Doubles with Punny Name, as ambergris is a byproduct of the digestive systems of certain whales that is flammable and can be used as the base for expensive perfumes. Given that she gained her powers from a notorious bullshit peddler, the name is quite appropriate for something valuable acquired from something loathsome.
- Psychic Powers: She is the only person to awaken legitimate psychic abilities through Joshy's psychic shark fighting training.
- To the Pain: After Guthrie's treachery is revealed, Amber breaks him into cooperating by describing how, if the three of them die, he's going to slowly bleach out tied to a chair because no one other than herself, Zoox, and Devo know where he is.
- Tranquil Fury: Travis commented during her introduction that Amber gives off "serial killer vibes". She has more than once gotten people to utterly crumble under her interrogation without raising her voice once.
Citizens of Founders' Wake
The Benevolent Parish
The Hand of Guidance
The leader of the Benevolent Parish, and a baluster of Founders' Wake. She used to be Devo's mentor before he left the Parish.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She plays the part of kindly mother figure pretty well, but the sugary sweet facade drops immediately when anyone questions her authority. Underneath she is a coldly calculating manipulator who is all about gaining power and influence for herself.
- Parental Substitute: So far as we can tell, she raised Devo.
- Parents as People: Her conversation with Devo in episode 13 implies that she does genuinely care for him on some level, but her complete unwillingness to admit to her part in his brainwashing and manipulation just keeps widening the rift between them.
- Passive Aggressive Combat: She acts motherly and caring towards Devo but constantly deadnames him and makes digs toward his lack of "gratitude".
Benefactor Orleen
A scientist who works for the Parish. The crew of the Coriolis is sent to find him after he goes missing.
- Break Them by Talking: His specialty as a highly-trained orator is manipulating people through words and magic. He can also exploit Devo's orator training by using certain trigger phrases to affect his emotions.
- Charm Person: He can make people do things, whether they want to or not. Amber and Devo both really hate this.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He manages to talk down the crew (particularly Devo) from attacking him without raising his voice.
Other Citizens
Brother Seldom
A former member of the Benevolent Parish, who, like Devo, left for reasons unknown. He is the narrator of the prologues, in the form of broadcasts he did to educate people on the founding of the city.
- Berserk Button:
- We don't know if he has a specific history with Joshy yet, but it's clear he hates the guy's guts for being a scam artist. The mere mention of him can set him off.
- The mere mention of Devo working with the Parish again causes him to drop an f-bomb.
- Nice Guy: So long as you don't press his Berserk Buttons, Seldom is a very kind and helpful figure.
Joshy
A local charlatan whose claim to fame is opening a school for psychic warriors to fight the Blink sharks.
- The Barnum: He's not particularly trustworthy and makes very little attempt to hide what an opportunist he is, but he's cheerful, outgoing, and weirdly charming in a slimy sort of way.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: To everyone outside of his immediate circle, he's seen as an annoyance at best and a criminal at worst. He's tolerated mainly because Joshy's Knuckle is a useful place to acquire jobs, contraband, and information. In the prologue, the community decides to let him deal with the blink sharks because they figure, either he'll actually manage to get rid of them... or, more likely, the sharks will get rid of him, and either way, the community comes out ahead.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He makes his accomplishments and psychic powers out to be way more impressive (and existent) than they really are.
The Curator
A somewhat mysterious man who collects art and other relics from the surface world.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's on the sketchy side, but he doesn't condone outright forgery, much less murder.
- Mysterious Employer: We know very little about him or his motivations, and he gives a distinct aura of "do not fuck with me," but he pays well and seems to be willing to play fair.
Others
Blink Sharks
One of many dangers of the Ethersea: teleporting sharks. Joshy put together a regiment to fight them, including Amber.
- The Dreaded: Even Amber's afraid of them.
- He's Back!: After not being seen in years, Amber encounters one in the Infinite Clam.
- It Can Think: One's encounter with Amber during the Infinite Clam arc confirms that they're at least smart enough to lure prey into a trap and ambush them.
- Slasher Smile: They show their teeth in a grin when they're hungry.
- Threatening Shark: Sharks that can teleport at will. It doesn't get much more threatening than that.
Urchin
A spiny stowaway on the Coriolis who the crew discovers on their second mission.
- Ambiguous Innocence: It's unclear how much of his destructiveness is malicious, and how much is him not understanding the consequences of his actions. He's implied to be his species' version of a kid, which hints at the latter, but he's a little too antagonistic to be considered truly innocent.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Speaks in a squeaky nasal voice and tends to shout interjections while the crew is having conversations.
- Imprinting: Seems to have imprinted on Devo as his father. The bard is not amused by this.
- The Load: He steals the crew's rations, distracts them during missions, and has a habit of defecating in the ship's walls. Worse, he has a talent for taking machinery apart, but has no idea how to put it back together again. Griffin outright states a set rule of the Ethersea, right up there with "everybody got a knife," is "Urchin is never where you need him to be."
- Mad Bomber: He likes explosives. Way too much. His very first line is, "Back off, or Urchin's gonna blow us all to hell!"
- Meaningful Name: On two levels. He looks like a sea urchin, and the fact that he's an orphan stealing from the crew makes him the Ethersea equivalent of a Street Urchin.
- Non-Human Sidekick: He's described as a mix between a hedgehog and a sea urchin that is capable of human speech, and the crew are stuck with him for the foreseeable future.
- Third-Person Person: Urchin only talks about Urchin in the third person.
