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Areal's leadership

Valentin Lozinsky

Vice premier of Russia and second person in the state after president himself. The head of "Areal" corporation.

Big Bad: He's the main antagonist in the several final books, albeit Belov poses more direct danger than him.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: He is the one who made the "Areal" corporation into the corruption-driven eternal engine it's now. Still, he earns enough money to sustain himself, his subordinates and "Areal" itself, without breaking the public image of the "Areal" being completely incorruptible.
Corrupt Politician: He abuses his position as vice premier to dictate what political course Russia would take, with Vorobiev (and later Crabsky) being not the first president he works under.
Cruel and Unusual Death: With Kugelstein disappearing in the literally last moment, Lozinsky dies from Itch, with his brain literally rotting away, causing him extreme agony.
Greater-Scope Villain: He barely dedicates his attention to what's going on in Areal, as long as he makes money on oil, thus allowing Prokopenko to do whatever he wants. Even during moments when Corporation becomes a genuine threat, it's Belov who sets up everything. He becomes more proactive threat towards the end.
Greedy Jew: Has jewish heritage, and is extremely corrupt.
Karma Houdini Warranty: After avoiding any repercussions for his crimes for entire series, Lozinsky finally dies in the end of the last book, from Itch.
Karmic Death: What would be the most fitting death for someone related to "Disinfection", which made Areal into the hellhole it is? Dying from Itch, of course, which happens on the very last pages of the final book.
Villain with Good Publicity: Despite being one of the most crooked people out there, he managed to create a reputation of absolutely incorruptible cleanliness for both himself and the "Areal" corporation in general.

General Eduard Belov

Hunter's uncle. One of the member of "Areal's" board of executives. Represents FSB (Federal Security Service).

Cruel and Unusual Death: With Kugelstein disappearing in the literally last moment, Belov dies from Itch, with his brain literally rotting away, causing him extreme agony.
The Dragon: His role in Lozinsky's team is to send more men, and shut up people who talks too much. He is also the one with whom they even started this whole business, with everyone else joining later.
Dragon-in-Chief: With Lozinsky caring only about the money, it's Belov who causes all the problems to the heroes (whenever they are not caused by Merkulov), controlling both FSB and internal security forces.
Karma Houdini Warranty: After avoiding any repercussions of his crimes for entire series, Belov finally dies in the end of the last book, from Itch.
Karmic Death: What would be the most fitting death from someone related to "Disinfection", which made Areal into the hellhole it is? Dying from Itch, of course, which happened one the very last pages of the last book.
Nepotism: He exploits his position to ensure that his dumbass nephew, Hunter, can get away with all his antics, while receiving "experience" which would allow him into prestigious position later on.

Maxim Prokopenko

One of the member of "Areal's" board of executives, and is the one who deals with "Areal's" finances — position which he exploits for his own gains.

Big Bad Duumvirate: During the first two books, Prokopenko, alongside Merkulov, are the main antagonists, with Prokopenko being the one who sent Firz to sabotage the investigation.
Big Bad Wannabe: While it's him who set the plot in motion in original three books, he has little control over things after that. Firz is much smarter than him, and Merkulov is free to dictate his conditions for the deal since Prokopenko isn't exactly in position to refuse. Without them, he is nearly powerless; he can't even rely on other members of Lozinsky's team, since they may assassinate him the moment he becomes a liability. Things never improved for him afterwards, either.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: By his alliance with Merkulov, he already betrayed his boss (who isn't part of the scheme and from whom he steals resources he is entrusted with) and committed treason against his country. Then he decides to backstab Merkulov — but realises that his underling Firz can backstab him, and unites with Merkulov to backstab Firz instead. When Firz disappears in the Red zone, Prokopenko immediately switches attention to how he can backstab Merkulov without revealing himself.
Death by Irony: He dies just like the countless people who died due to his schemes — killed by someone who wants to hide their dirty secrets.
Dirty Coward: His greed can be matched only by his own cowardice. He, like paranoiac, suspects counterintelligence agents in everyone around him, and always suspects that anyone around him would try to assassinate him. Because of this, Merkulov considers him to be a bad ally — he is too neurotic to keep secrets, and may fail everything just by attracting attention to himself.
Evil Is Petty: He likes to cause as much fear and discomfort to other people as he can, especially since the Cataclysm, particularly those who dare to defy him.
Fat Bastard: He's described to be fat, and he's a massive jerk.
The Gambling Addict: He wastes money he steals from budget on poker, at which he isn't even that good.
Greed: His greed is the main driving force behind his actions during earlier books, with all these betrayals and death happening because Prokopenko was not satisfied with millions and millions he takes from his job and through corruption, and wanting more — which Merkulov promised him to provide.
Green-Eyed Monster: Since Cataclysm, Prokopenko always feels envy towards the "normal" people: he just can't stand the fact that some "poor subhumans" can live happy lives outside of Areal, and he, despite all his money, can't. He takes sadistic pleasure at horrifying them with consequences of the Poltergeist, because that's the sole thing he can do to ruin their day.
He Knows Too Much: He killed large amount of people to preserve his scheme with Merkulov in secret. Then, after his crimes gets revealed, he himself gets terminated by Belov, so he wouldn't spill anything about Belov or Lozinsky.
Jerkass: He enjoys when people fears him, and abuses his power to force them to do so. Besides that, he acts like a jerk towards literally everyone who has less money and power than him. He's particularly abusive towards women he forces to sleep with him.
Kicked Upstairs: While formally it was a promotion, his new position as the "Satellite's" administrator is actually a punishment: here, he can't steal any money from his boss, nor he can do anything stupid, being constantly watched upon.
Lazy Bum: Prokopenko always tries to spend as much time as possible away from work, mainly at various clubs or casinos. Post-Cataclysm, he's also too lazy to actually bother and continue hunting for his enemies, being perfectly okay with their status as the local boogeymen.
Pride: Prokopenko has absolutely overblown ego, always looking on the other people like they are merely dirt under his feet — while he is their king and god. This becomes even worse after the Cataclysm, because now he feels constant need to reinforce his self-esteem — by abusing other people. What he can't do in public, he does in private, thanks to his private slave harem.
Sexual Extortion: Standard procedure post-Cataclysm; he finds the girl he wants, and if she refuses his advances, he abducts her, smuggles her into the Areal, and gives a choice between becoming the bandits' sex slave, or becoming his personal sex slave in exchange for living in the Satellite. People generally choose the second option.
You Are in Command Now: After several members of the board of executives died, Lozinsky had no other choice than promote Prokopenko and put him in charge of "Satellite". This is not a reward, however; they can't afford killing him, but they surely wouldn't allow him to make anything stupid again, so not only he's under constant surveillance, but he's cut off from their dirty money, forcing him to survive on "just" his salary (which is still much more than most Russians would earn in years).

Veniamin Linder

One of the member of "Areal's" board of executives. Represents Russian Academy of Science.

Cruel and Unusual Death: Out of the three members of the board of executive to die between third and fourth books, he got it worst, dying from the Itch treatment horribly backfiring on him, essentially destroying his brain.
Evil Genius: He is the one who prepared operation "Disinfection", which involves nuking the place where no advanced technology can function.
Greedy Jew: Has jewish heritage, and is extremely corrupt.
Karmic Death: One of the people responsible for "Disinfection" dies from consequences of that decision.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He bears title of academic, but sole thing he cares about is how to earn more money from the oil mining, with anything else being secondary or dismissed completely. In fact, he's the one who chocks down the development of actual research, because it opposes his plans. He's also the one who ordered to sabotage the Nikolaeva's and Stepanov's researches.
Sacrificial Lamb: When it was required to demonstrate how dangerous Addiction can be, only least developed members of the board of executives were killed, including him.
Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: He dies between the third and fourth books, due to Itch treatment going wrong (you can't mix medicine with any anaesthetics more advanced than chloroform, or patient would die).

Roman Zilberman

One of the member of "Areal's" board of executives. Represents "GasProm", and deals with "Extra Oil" company, which the team uses for money laundry.

Flat Character: Has the least characterisation amongst members of the board of executives, being here just to fill the position.
Greedy Jew: Has jewish heritage (if his surname isn't an obvious clue), and is extremely corrupt.
Sacrificial Lamb: When it was required to demonstrate how dangerous Addiction can be, only least developed members of the board of executives were killed, including him.
Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: He dies between third and fourth books, due to Addiction-caused catastrophe which caused the train on which he was to crash.

Elena Shumelkina

One of the member of "Areal's" board of executives.

Corrupt Corporate Executive: Like all other members of the board of executives (save for Vorontsov), she is totally crooked.
The Face: She deals with "common" people, putting a facade of friendliness and compassion, but underneath that she couldn't care less — either about people, or about Areal in general, for that matter.
Head-in-the-Sand Management: She prefers to not paying attention to what’s going on in the Areal, as if its problems would miraculously solve themselves. That surprises even the others, who are just marginally better.
Sacrificial Lamb: When it was required to demonstrate how dangerous Addiction can be, only least developed members of the board of executives were killed, including her.
Smurfette Principle: Sole female in the board of executives.
Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Her helicopter exploded in the air shortly after "Satellite" was established, with no survivors, before fourth book even started.
Villain with Good Publicity: She is known as friendliest out of directors and the one to whom you may tell about your problems and being met with compassion. This is only a public image, however; underneath she is just as crooked as everyone else.

General Vorontsov

One of the member of "Areal's" board of executives. Represents Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Elite Zombie: His post-cataclysm fate; he mutated into some weird one-of-a-kind hybrid between Guard (elite zombie who relies on the brute force) and Professor (elite zombie who relies on the psionic abilities).
The Ghost: He is the only member of the board of executives who never appears in person.
Last-Name Basis: No one ever addresses him by his first name.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: The only actually decent man in the team of Corrupt Corporate Executives is also the only one who gets himself caught in the "Disinfection", becoming unique kind of zombie; all actual bastards survives (almost) intact.
Token Good Teammate: He is the only member of the board of executives who isn't part of Lozinsky's scheme; in fact, Lozinsky doesn't believe that it's even possible to recruit him. When he learns about crimes of the rest of the team, he tries to make them arrested, which, unfortunately, sets up the chain of events leading to his zombification.
Token Heroic Orc: Even post-zombification, he preserved some traces of his personality. Namely, he wouldn't attack clearly non-hostile and non-malicious people — in fact, he would protect them from the other, morally bankrupt locals.

Special Operations Team (SOT)

Original SOT

Mist

Captain Ivan "Mist" Beryozov

Former "Alpha"^note member, assigned to work in the Areal after a rescue operation going bad, resulting in Mist being injured.

Career-Ending Injury: His head trauma made him illegible for continuing serving in "Alpha", and all but ensured that he would end with "desk jokey" job in some low-level company. Then he was invited to work in "Areal", with nearly zero (negative) side effects, if not counting occasional headache.
Disability Superpower: His head trauma makes him illegible for continuing serving in "Alpha", and causes serious headache from time to time. It also renders him immune to zombification, or anomalies' Call, and allows him to go into the Red zone and Epicentre.
It's Personal with the Dragon: While he is aware that Firz isn't top-most player in the scheme with the secret lab, it's Firz who directly or indirectly caused deaths of several of his friends, nearly killed Mist himself and framed him for the death of another friend (and planned to frame Bolt as well), and later took Lavender as a hostage.
No-Sell: Mist can't be affected by the Call, or zombified, due to his brain trauma. Later it also turned out that he didn't become Addicted, showing that this effect is also related to the Areal's psi-field.
Sixth Ranger: When he returns in the penultimate book, he actually becomes the sixth member of the Bear's SOT. It doesn't last for long, because he gets sent on the mission alongside X-Ray, and in the meantime, the SOT gets wiped out almost entirely.

Firz

Colonel "Firz" Salmatsky

Commander of SOT — and Prokopenko's co-conspirator.

Asshole Victim: If anyone deserves becoming a zombie, it's him. Even when he was un-brainwashed to tell the truth about his superiors' crimes, he was leaved with fatal brain tumour (in addition to Itch) and wouldn't live for long. Epilogue to the final book reveals that he indeed died agonising death while in custody.
Benevolent Boss: Zigzagged. He is indeed benevolent to the people loyal to him, organising good salaries for them, vacations, etc. But people he has bad standings with (like Bear) receives most harsh conditions all the times. Bear's team always lacks people, yet they are always the last one to receive fresh recruits. And he is perfectly okay with putting his people in unnecessary danger (not jut Bear) when it serves his own interests (not corporation's, his).
Colonel Badass: While he certainly isn't a good man, it's undeniable that he still goes into expeditions with his people, putting his own life at risk. This is one of the reasons why everyone (well, almost everyone) respect him so much.
The Dragon: He is Prokopenko's right-hand man within Areal.
Dragon-in-Chief: Prokopenko has money, but that's all; it's Firz who makes all the thinking, and then sets plan in motion. When Firz gets MIA, Prokopenko becomes significantly less dangerous.
He Knows Too Much: Quite ironically for someone who set a killing record by terminating witnesses of his and Prokopenko's scheme, he himself becomes the dangerous witness much later, with it being clear that he would be put down long before his brain tumour kills him.
Last-Name Basis: Unlike the other Corporation's personnel who either have no names revealed at all, or have only first names revealed, we pretty quickly learn his last name... and nothing else.
Meaningful Name: He took his callsign from the firz, a chess piece; "Firz" is Arabic word which means "vizier", but also commonly used to call the queen piece in chess; Russians use it interchangeably with "the queen", as the masculine counterpart. While he obviously didn't intend it, it perfectly summarises his relationship with Prokopenko: while Prokopenko is nominally in charge ("the King"), he's weak, while his subordinate ("the Firz") Salmatsky is way more dangerous and skilled.
Mole in Charge: He intentionally sabotages operations against bandits, because their boss, Merkulov, is Firz's and Prokopenko's partner-in-crime.

Lemur

Alexander "Lemur"

One of the group leaders within SOT.

Co-Dragons: He and another group leader, Ducat, are Firz's closest underlings and partners in crime.
Et Tu, Brute?: Subverted. He pretends to be shocked and heavily hurt by Wind's betrayal... but then it turns out that it's Lemur who is the real traitor, and he without hesitation kills his "best friend" on the Firz's orders.
Evil All Along: It was him, not Wind, who worked with Firz. He reveals this when he backstabs Wind.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: After so much setup that there would be vengeance for killing Wind, Lemur gets caught in the blast of the Firz's bomb and abruptly dies offscreen.

Wind

Vitaly "Wind"

One of the former "Alpha" members and Mist's old friend.

Et Tu, Brute?: He was very shaken by Mist's alleged betrayal. Then, just before his death, he learned that the real betrayer was his best friend, Lemur.
Good All Along: Soon after it was set up that he was in league with Firz (whose crookedness was revealed right from the start in the first book), we learn that he was actually innocent... when actual traitor kills him.
In the Back: He gets shot in the back multiple times. Then, just to be sure, he gets shot several times more, this time in the head.
Not Enough to Bury: His body was so damaged during emission, it was buried in closed coffin.
Red Herring: He was set up as Firz's coconspirator, whom he entrusts with many covert operations... and then it turns out that all of this was blatant lie to bait Mist (who's new here) into the trap.
We Hardly Knew Ye: We learn very little about him before he gets killed by Lemur in the second book.

Ducat

One of the group leaders within SOT.

Bulletproof Human Shield: Mist tries to shoot Firz, only to hit Ducat instead (thus allowing Firz to escape).
Co-Dragons: He and another group leader, Lemur, are Firz's closest underlings and partners in crime.
Flat Character: He received zero characterisation before being killed off. In fact, he has no "on-screen" appearance at all.
Gadgeteer Genius: In the Firz's team, he was responsible for various gadgets and other gear.
The Ghost: He gets only off-screen mentions right until his death.
Killed Offscreen: His death was revealed only after the fact, since Mist was knocked out by the blast of the Firz's bomb.
Multiple Gunshot Death: After being wounded by Mist, he was finished off by Lemur, to ensure that he wouldn't be interrogated. After his corpse was examined, it was revealed that most bullets in it belongs to Lemur.

SOT remnants

In general

Hero with Bad Publicity: While they were already wanted for the crimes the Corporation falsely attributes to them, their reputation soon received the heavy blow when rumours started that they are actually murderous, cannibalistic psychos, or even outright zombies. Fortunately, not everyone believes in them, but it still makes trading difficult.
Last Stand: With the sole exception, they all perished fighting the hopeless battle against joint Satellite/Mercs/Townsfolk army in penultimate book.
The Remnant: Post-Cataclysm, what's left from the Special Operation Team was disbanded and not recreated, making Bear's team the last SOT members still active (not counting MIA Mist, and traitor Firz).

Bear

Major Nikolai "Bear" Pletnyov

Before "Disinfection", Bear was one of SOT commanders (alongside Lemur and Ducat). After "Disinfection", his entire squad went rogue. Machine gunner.

Animal Motifs: Bears, obviously. He's largest and toughest one in the team, eats like a bear, and has reputation so scary, he can rival actual Areal bears.
Baritone of Strength: Described as having very low voice, which further adds to his threatening "big scary bear" image.
Beyond Redemption: They are at war. Their enemies are bandits. If to survive they must wipe them out to the man, so be it; it was their choice, and they feel no remorse for abusing other people, so why Bear should feel remorse for killing them? These views were amongst the reasons why he received such bad reputation even prior to Cataclysm (though some particularly bad rumours were intentionally started by Firz to defame him even more), and made it even worse than for the rest of the SOT after it.
Bear: Gleb Zheglov once said, "the thief should be jailed". He was wrong; the thief should be buried. If someone gives themselves the right to rob the other people, then I give myself the right to send them to hell.
BFG: Always armed with his favourite "Pecheneg" heavy machine gun. He’s the sole person in entire Areal to have one, and people instantly recognises him by that gun alone.
Big Eater: Aybolit regularly complains that Bear alone eats most of their food supplies.
Black Comedy: He's resident jokester, but most of his jokes are rather grim.
Hero with Bad Publicity: He had the (false) reputation of a psycho even before the whole story started. And even now, post-Cataclysm, he has it worse than everyone else, having reputation of a ruthless maniac who gruesomely kills people just for fun.
Large and in Charge: The team's leader is also the physically toughest and strongest one.
The Leader: He is the commander of the remnants of SOT after "Disinfection".
Majorly Awesome: Top-ranking officer amongst remnants of SOT is also the strongest and most experienced fighter, who always fights on the frontline alongside his subordinates.
Reassigned to Antarctica:
- In his backstory, his completely incompetent commander caused Bear's regiment being surrounded and nearly wiped out. Bear's reaction was breaking the moron's jaw. Instead of imprisonment and dishonourable discharge, he was assigned to work at the Areal.
- His new superiors had plans to reassign him out of the Areal, from where he would be finally discharged, thus getting rid of him. This never happened due to the events surrounding Firz's schemes and, of course, the "Disinfection".
Running Gag: Whenever Areal bears gets mentioned up (almost always in the negative context), expect that someone would point that they don't mean him.
Troll: He just can't resist temptation to make fun at other people, be it his teammates, his enemies, or just random people, sometimes in not very pleasant manner. His favourite topic is the Mist's relationship with Lavender, to the point that Mist chooses words within Bear's earshot very carefully.
Weapon Specialization: He prefers to wield heavy machine gun into any battle; due to how rare that particular model is, everyone learned to associate it with him.

Aybolit

Vitaly "Aybolit"

Member of the Bear's team. Medic and team's cook.

Berserk Button: According to Bear, he really hates when people waste his efforts by letting food to get cold.
Combat Medic: He is the SOT's medic, but no less skilled in combat than anyone else. Still, he dislikes unneeded violence and, especially, cruelty.
The Fettered: Yes, they are at war. Yes, their enemies are bandits. But he's the medic, even if the military one, and he can't just leave injured people to die, if he can help them, since this would mean betraying everything he stands for. This sometimes causes conflicts with Bear, who sees bandits as being Beyond Redemption.
Genius Bruiser: Besides being Combat Medic, he's also greatly educated, enough to join Nikolaeva and Stepanov in their researches; if they are physicists, he's a biologist.
The Lancer: Bear's old friend and most trusted and reliable subordinate, to whom he may confess and entrust his secrets. He also acts as moral compass of sorts, reminding Bear that even during war, they should stay people and not steep on the level of their enemies.
Shout-Out: He received his callsign from Doctor Aybolit, popular character created by Soviet children novelist and poet Korney Chukovsky, who was very kind-hearted veterinary. To add similarity, he even looks like Aybolit from one of the more popular movie adaptations (which was likely how he got the callsign in the first place).
Sole Survivor:
- Out of the people who was on the SOT's base during "Disinfection", he is the only one to not being killed off or zombified.
- He managed to survive the last battle — but just barely, requiring serious medical attention.

Rustle

Member of the Bear's team. Sniper.

Friendly Sniper: Friendliest person in the entire team.
Handicapped Badass: He managed to continue fighting during Last Stand, despite all the injures he suffered before (including losing half of his palm, head traumas, spine trauma and injured legs). Unfortunately, these traumas still affected his performance, because his death was explicitly caused by his inability to change position in time.
It's Raining Men: Before being assigned to the Areal, he served in airborne infantry.
Sweet Tooth: He likes his chocolate a little too much. He often hides some in not exactly appropriate places, like grenade bag, and Bear never misses opportunity to mock him for it.
There's No Kill like Overkill: How he gets killed? By being shot by two heavy machine guns at once.

Baykal

Member of the Bear's team. Sniper.

Berserk Button: One of the few things which can provoke strong (negative) reaction from him is someone incompetent misusing sniper rifles or keeping them in terrible condition. He would go out of his way to finish off those morons.
Cold Sniper: Not exactly talkative and emotional, especially if comparing him to Rustle.
Handicapped Badass: During Last Stand, due to his wounds, only one arm remains functional, but he still manages to put down some more enemies before being overwhelmed.
The Quiet One: He is notoriously calm and non-emotional, to the point that when something surprises him enough to provoke the strong reaction, be it good or bad, it's treated as the big deal.
Suicide Mission: His last act during Last Stand was going outside of the base to attack enemy from behind, allowing him to wipe out several officers who used Sixth Sense to coordinate attack, which bought more time for the rest of the team. But it was obvious one-way ticket, with Baykal soon falling in coma due to all injures he accumulated.
Target Spotter: Baykal also doubles as the team's designated spotter, picking position from where he can easily see enemy targets (usually trees). This is very important, since outside of pathfinders (Ras and Vodyanoy), the only one without either heavy weapon (Bear and Basalt are machine gunners, Mantrap is a grenadier) or another sniper rifle (Rustle) is Aybolit, who often stays at base.

Mantrap and Basalt

Members of the Bear's team. Mantrap is a grenadier/demolition expert while Basalt is a machine gunner.

BFG: Similarly to Bear, Basalt is armed with machine gun, though of a different model. And Mantrap is armed with a grenade launcher.
Demolitions Expert: Besides being a designated grenadier, Mantrap is also a designated explosive expert, who sets up all kinds of mines, booby traps, remote charges, etc.
Flat Character: Their personality gets barely developed.
Senseless Sacrifice: Subverted for Mantrap. His last act during Last Stand was covering for escaping civilians, which also distracted the enemy for long enough to allow escapees to run away (and resulted in his position being blown up by bombardment)... only for them to being ambushed soon afterwards. However, the next book revealed that while scientists were indeed killed, Lavender managed to survive.
Weapon Specialization: Pretty much the only thing we ever learn about them is their preferred weapons; Basalt is the second machine gunner (albeit his gun is smaller than Bear's), and Mantrap is always armed with grenade launcher.

Areal rangers

Bolt

Valery "Bolt"

Famous ranger, known for his total immunity to the Call and zombification.

Catchphrase: "If you feel that something is wrong, something is wrong". This phrase is so well-known by pretty much everyone within Areal, it was nicknamed "the Bolt's rule"; in reality, though, it was Thirteenth who told him that.
First-Name Basis: Even after defecting to the SOT, he still only gets addressed as either Valery or "Bolt"; his last name never gets revealed.
Fragile Speedster: His refusal to use "Membrane" gives him a lot more mobility, but also leaves him without protection it provides. It's another lesson he learned from Thirteenth, and later passed to Mist.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: He believes that his bolt he keeps as a talisman (given by his grandmother Polina, local witch doctor in the village of his origin, who didn't make it out of the Epicentre, unlike him) protects him from the dangers of Areal, including zombification. Lavender thinks that the real reason behind this is his lack of fear towards Areal, which results in Areal not taking him as a threat and not trying to zombify him. Who of them is right is not entirely clear: on the one hand, all attempts to examine the bolt showed nothing (nor it worked on anyone but him), on the other, Bolt somehow detects various dangers of Areal specifically by feeling that bolt "acts weirdly"; and one time Bolt actually tried to walk in the zone without the bolt, to see how good he would be on his own (still good, by the way), he didn't risk going anywhere near Red zone or water, knowing that the price of mistake would be too high.
No-Sell: He is completely immune to the Call, zombification, or Itch. No one is sure why, but Bolt believes that it's his grandmother's protective magic, even if it failed to protect herself or anyone else beside Bolt.

Ras

Dmitriy "Ras" Nikitin

Areal's ranger, known for his strange ability to find the mets where no one can.

And Then John Was a Zombie: The last book ends with him becoming a zombie himself, just like his father.
Awesomeness by Analysis: He isn't a scientist, but he still managed to research the metamorphites' spawn pattern (it's somehow related to specific anomalies spawning close to each other, in specific way) and analyse where are the best spots to search for them after every emission; the only thing his theory lacks is the pattern when they spawn, since the spawn isn't guaranteed, but he's working on it.
Disappeared Dad: His father fell victim of the Call after coming in contact with the Areal's water. His last act as a human, before becoming a zombie, was to visit his family and gift his son the Spring (met so rare, it's considered to me a myth by most people; it can give its wielder non-ending stream of water just by being worn, which is very useful while in Areal). Ever since then, Ras takes personally any, no matter how small, chance to cure zombification — if he can save his father, he would.
Fire-Forged Friends: Thanks to what they survived together during the Cataclysm and afterwards, Ras and Vodyanoy became the best friends, always sticking together during subsequent adventures at the Areal.
Heroic Sacrifice: His last act as a sane and free human was going near water and bringing Vodyanoy another Source met (giving him an unlimited supply of water). Then, just like his father, he was zombified.
Kid Hero: He became stalker at the very young age (his first visit to the Areal was at the age of ten) in order to support his family after disappearance of his dad — a "profession" so lethal, rare adults can survive for so long as he did; and Ras managed to became not just successful, but one of the best stalkers. He's in his early twenties by the start of the series, however (which is still ten years younger than the rest of the cast).
Master of Illusion: He knows how to simulate certain anomalies (namely, Solenoid, Jelly and Cobweb), which tricks people into believing that certain places should be avoided — and thus creating great disguise for his friends.
Reformed Criminal: After he was caught in the zones all the way back when he still was a stalker (he started at the very young age), he reformed and now serves as a ranger.
Simple, yet Awesome: He come up with the idea to set up fake anomalies (specifically Cobweb, Jelly and Solenoid) for disguise purposes, which are so easy to set up, they can use them whenever they want, like blown-up stumps in case of the last one; and in the case of need, said stump can be used to provoke actual Solenoid to spawn during emission.
The Sneaky Guy: He knows many ways to stealthy breach Perimeter. In fact, he visits Areal ever since his childhood, and was caught only once. He's also one of the best (if not the best) amongst rangers when it comes to finding mets, having almost supernatural ability to sense them.
Trauma Button: Just don't joke about Areal water near him, it's very personal issue for him.

Scientists

Lavender

Maria "Lavender" Sergeeva

A biologist working in the Green zone.

Friend to All Living Things: She loves all animals (to the point that she has joined Greenpeace), even violently aggressive Areal fauna, and believes that there's always a way to deal with them non-lethally; people just don't bother to find it. Considering that Areal's psi-field makes local fauna essentially empaths, she's often right.
Insufferable Genius: She has very low opinion on "barbarians" from the local security team, and makes very little to hide it, even when instructing them. She changed for the better later, though.
Took a Level in Kindness: She was very hostile to everyone but other scientists when originally introduced in the first book, thinking that all soldiers are barbarians who shoot first and then look what they just killed, but after Mist showed her that first impression may be misleading, she started acting way nicer to everyone around her.
Zombie Advocate: She insists that even though the local fauna was horribly mutated, they still don't deserve being treated with such cruelty and being killed on sight — especially since their hostility is directly related to humans' hostility to them. She isn't portrayed as being wrong: each time when someone actually bothers with approaching animals peacefully, it indeed works.

Professor Morozov

Lavender's boss and director of the Prime Research Centre.

Benevolent Boss: Unlike professor Linder, yet another Corrupt Corporate Executive, Morozov actually cares about his people and their research, and tries to assist them.
Last-Name Basis: We never learn his first name.
Uncertain Doom: It was never revealed wether he survived the cataclysm, but considering that everything above the ground was destroyed almost completely, and he wasn't mentioned since then, it's highly likely that he didn't.

Ludmila Nikolaeva and Nikita Stepanov

Two scientists who work on possible way to counter Areal.

Butt-Monkey: Nikita just keeps injuring his arm; the same one, in fact. Bear, being Bear, lampshades this in the fourth book.
- First time was during the third book, when he was injured during cataclysm.
- Happens twice during the fourth book. First time was when he was injured by bandits, the second — due to equipment malfunction during experiment.
- Fourth and last time happened during the penultimate book's Last Stand, when he was injured offscreen.
Killed Off for Real: Either due to them being irretrievable (they were thrown into an anomaly), or due to them "dying honourably" (they always cared about advancing the science, and never compromised with their conscience), aliens never bothered to resurrect them (resurrection is explicitly stated as the last chance for atonement), making them the only major good characters to not being brought back.
Non-Action Guy: Nikita is completely helpless and vulnerable when outside of the safe laboratory; all four times he goes into any danger, he ends up breaking an arm (the same one, no less). Even Lavender is better at field survival.
Not Enough to Bury: After being killed, they were thrown into the anomaly, leaving no bodies to bury.
Platonic Life-Partners: They never appears separately, always working together, either as teachers, or as scientists.
Science Hero: They managed to actually make progress in fighting back Areal trough their researches. Too bad, humanity has no use for it.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Their quest to demutate Areal ultimately ends with them being killed and results of their experiments being destroyed.
The Smart Guy: Their role in the SOT isn't combat (they have no combat skills); instead, they help them with their inventions, which, without Firz's meddling, actually started working. They created the great regenerative medicine from X-Type oil (called "essence"), made electronics working (albeit still worse than normally) in the Yellow zone, thus allowing to use detectors, and, most importantly, managed to locally suppress Areal, which allowed the SOT to produce fresh water — all within one book.

Dr. Kugelstein

German scientist responsible for creation of Itch-treating medicine.

It's Personal: He has personal reasons to seek treatment for Addiction: his own nephew fell victim of it, and eventually offed himself when pain became insufferable.
Last-Name Basis: We never learn his first name.
Science Hero: Despite repeatable accusations of withholding the cure for his own gain, he actually seeks the way to find a way to make it available to everyone, and does nothing to prevent the others from creating their own version — conversely, he gladly offers his help to whomever tries; unfortunately, they can't produce anything even remotely similar, at best coming with something two times worse in both duration and withdrawal. It just so happens that even he doesn't know for sure how he makes his medicine, making it almost intuitively. He also makes no profit out of it, with the price just covering the cost of producing everything.

Dr. Volkonskiy

Head researcher at what replaced the Prime Research Center post-cataclysm (if whatever they do here can even be called "researching").

Ambiguously Evil: Was he sincerely wanted to work on the new technologies, even if they comes from the unknown sources? Or he willingly cooperated with security to backstab Nail? Exact details are unknown, and both are possible, given the setting.
He Knows Too Much: He was terminated at some point after the events of the story, as he knew too much about the SOT and their technologies to be left alive.
Last-Name Basis: We never learn his first name.

Other "Areal" personnel

Instructor

An instructor who teachers newcomers about the dangers of Areal.

An Arm and a Leg: He had lost a leg during Emission, as the Jelly has formed right under his feet when he was caught in the Step. He uses that situation as example why people should be very careful while in the Step.
Deadpan Snarker: He constantly makes sarcastic comments, particularly when Hunter says something stupid.
Mr. Exposition: His entire role in the plot amounts to explaining how things works in the Areal.
Uncertain Doom: His fate after the "Disinfection" remains unknown. His survival pretty much entirely depends on wether he was on vacation at the moment, or not, and it's known that those who were, chose to not return afterwards.

Hunter

Lieutenant (later Major) Levin

Animal Motifs: Birds.
- It was repeatedly stated that, ever since he shaved bald, his head strongly resembles a sparrow skull.
- His In-Series Nickname originates from Darkwing Duck, specifically eponymous character (who's, you guess it, a duck).
Atrocious Alias: While "Hunter" would usually be considered cool, it's not the case here: taking pretentious and "cool" callsigns is frowned upon, marking you as immature, badass wannabe or just plain dumbass; Levin is all three.
Ensign Newbie: Despite total lack of skills, experience or even brains, he already has a rang of lieutenant by the time of his introduction.
Establishing Character Moment: Soon after his debut appearance (in the first scene, he sits quietly, being too scared of the instructor), he demonstrates his utter lack of discipline, disrespect to anyone but himself and absolutely poisonous personality, by antagonising firstly Ras, and then Lavender, both at the cost of sabotaging safety briefing.
Hated by All: Hunter is completely insufferable, completely incompetent, and just plain dumb. No one in the Corporation can stand him, not even his uncle (who only tolerates him on Hunter's mother's request).
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Not Hunter himself, not by a long shot, but his right-hand man (usually referred to by the other characters as "that one who replaces Hunter's brain"), who gently leads him to correct decisions without ever breaking subordination.
In-Series Nickname: While officially he remains "Hunter", everyone ignores his self-chosen callsign and just calls him "Darkwing", as a reference to the "Darkwing Duck". It's not a compliment.
Insufferable Imbecile: He has overblown ego, but no skills to back it up, and extremely toxic personality.
Last-Name Basis: "Levin" is his surname; his given name never gets revealed.
Lazy Bum: He spends most of his working time playing video games and arguing with people on the internet forums, from his working computer, no less.
The Load: He only ended up in the Areal due to nepotism. Otherwise, he is completely incompetent at any position he gets himself installed into, wasting his time on video games, which he plays right on the working computers. He becomes even worse after his promotion, since whenever it's him who takes the lead, instead of his Hypercompetent Sidekick, it results in disasters.
Nepotism: How this moron even made it into the Areal, let alone at lieutenant rank? Because he's a son of security service's colonel, and Belov's nephew. It should be noted that even his uncle despises him, and only tolerates him on his sister's request.
Punch-Clock Villain: Judging from his overly patriotic (yet totally stupid) approach to his duty, he's too stupid to realise that he works for the actual villains, instead believing that he fights for the greater good of his country. Not that it makes him any better as a person.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He can get away with a lot due to his uncle being one of the corporation's top executives and high-ranking Federal Security Service's officer. Amongst the other things, he blatantly disregards the rule prohibiting to use real last names, like when he calls Ras "Nikitin".
Straw Character: He pretty much exists just to accumulate all the qualities the author despises in the modern youngsters within one character, playing little role in the plot most of the time. It includes internet slang common at the time, obsession with video games and internet forums (both of which he accesses right from his working computer), and total lack of any useful skills.

Counterintelligence special group

X-Ray

Colonel "X-Ray" Volkhov

Commander of counterintelligence team sent to investigate what's going on in Areal.

Big Good: All hope to reveal Lozinsky's and his allies' crimes to the world lies in X-Ray, his knowledge and will to go to the end.
Family Honor: His family served their homeland for generations, protecting it from the enemies, both external and internal. That's why he follows their steps.
Married to the Job: He dedicated so much of his time to his job over his family, his actual wife eventually divorced him. They had no time to make children either.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He is willing to sidestep rules as long as this makes the job done, and trust someone who's officially criminal now, as long as they provide sufficient evidences for their version of events to worth investigating in. He wouldn't risk his men, and would go himself, so if hist trust gets betrayed, his mistake would cost only his life.
Secret Identity: Due to the nature of his work, he never reveals his real name to anyone. We eventually learn his surname when he gets framed.

Quartz

Sole surviving member of X-Ray's counterintelligence team.

Conspiracy Theorist: While suspecting everyone and everything until proven otherwise is his job (and he often turns out to be right), some of his suspicions and precautions are just plain absurd, getting him weird look from the rest of the team.
Inferred Survival: He is the firm believer that X-Ray is still alive (despite all Bear's insistences that he had no chance), since, firstly, they never confirmed his death, and secondly, X-Ray clearly showed that he has a plan how to survive "Disinfection"; several novels later, he turns out to be completely right.
Master of Disguise: He's the one who prepares disguise for Vodyanoy whenever he visits the Satellite to take back his wife, and it always works. He regularly goes on the recon missions himself, with nobody ever suspecting anything.
Non-Action Guy: Downplayed; he can shoot, but he's not as experienced with actual combat as the rest of the team, and acts more as the spy than combatant. Even Vodyanoy is better when it comes to actual action.
Properly Paranoid: He sometimes goes a little overboard with his paranoia, seeing unnecessary risks and Merkulov's schemes everywhere. However, the one of his more insane theories turns out to be right, and several of his advices indeed were proven right — after being ignored. Unfortunately, he turns out to be not paranoid enough to see the true scheme before it was too late...
Secret Identity: Due to the nature of his job, he never reveals his real name to anyone.
The Smart Guy: His role in the Bear's team is analysing any info they obtain, and suggesting plans of action. In actual combat he isn't as effective as the rest of the team, however.
Sole Survivor: With X-Ray being MIA, and everyone else perishing during "Disinfection", Quartz is now the only surviving member of counterintelligence team sent to investigate what's going on in the Areal.
Taking Up the Mantle: He, essentially, continues what X-Ray started. However, he lacks his experience and knowledge, and he's aware of this, hoping that one day his boss would return and lead them to victory — the hope which essentially prevents him from descending into despair. Bear can't force himself to break this hope.
You Can't Go Home Again: Quartz has (or, likely, had, due to tendency of "normal" people to divorce "addicted" ones) family at home. It makes it particularly painful for him to being trapped here, in the Areal. He also took addiction and the Itch worse than everyone else, at first regularly trying to exit the Areal to see wether Itch would miraculously go away, only to be hit by reality every single time.

Criminals

"The Master" Merkulov

The (likely American) spy who was sent to steal Areal's secrets for his country — but got stuck in the Areal after events following his infiltration, forcing him to become the one of the local criminal bosses in order to survive.

Always Chaotic Evil: His post-"Disinfection" gang, the Townsfolk, is in opposition to absolutely everyone in Areal, and never bothers to play by local rules, negotiate or trade. Even Rasp's "Obshyak" is not as rabid.
Big Bad: He's the main antagonist for books 4-5, with Corporation barely paying attention to the SOT, being perfectly fine with their status as a local boogeymen.
Big Bad Duumvirate: In the first three books, he and Prokopenko are the ones who started the whole mess with the secret lab and bandit raids. In fact, he is the reason why bandits are so powerful in the first place.
The Chessmaster: Merkulov is great at pulling the strings to make his enemies destroy each other with infighting.
Faux Affably Evil: He always remains calm, gentle and polite, wether he talks to Prokopenko, or to the local gangsters, calling them his friends and colleagues, and always maintains the friendly smile, but deep underneath he feels nothing but disdain to everyone around him, and sees them only as the tools to exploit and discard.
Last-Name Basis: He's either referred to by last name or as "the Master".
The Mafiya:
- Prior to "Disinfection", he was the real power behind criminal boss Rasp; without Merkulov, Rasp and his gang are just mindless thugs.
- Ever since "Disinfection", he leads the "Townsfolk ", one of the two strongest gangs in Areal.
The Man Behind the Man: He is the mastermind behind the local bandits and their sudden raise to power.
Politically Incorrect Villain: When talking with Prokopenko, he doesn't even try to hide his utter contempt for Russians, whom he considers to be brainless barbarians. Since Prokopenko plans to migrate from Russia anyway, he doesn't care.
Stuff Blowing Up: Post-"Disinfection", in his paranoia, Merkulov started setting up landmines all around his office. One guy who tried to eavesdrop through the door was torn apart by detonation.
Two Aliases, One Character: Ever since the Cataclysm, Merkulov hides as "the Master", mysterious leader of the Townsfolk, but it remains the secret for basically everyone but himself (and the readers). Halfway into the series Quarts realises that "the Master" is in fact Merkulov who "went missing" during "Disinfection", and by the last book so does Fixa.
The Unfettered: He's repeatedly shown to disregard any and all moral standards, even when his subordinates rather wouldn't. Every man and woman is merely a tool to use and discard, no crime is too heinous (including those which not even gangsters would commit), and no price is too big.
The Un-Smile: When Merkulov becomes particularly upset by things going south for him, his smile becomes just creepily fake and unnatural. Fixa outright compares it to the plastic mask.
We Have Reserves: Pretty much any his scheme ends with massive casualties on his side, but he's perfectly fine with it, since he always manages to recruit more. He somehow keeps convincing the gangsters (who, unlike him, are not okay with that) that it was the best possible outcome.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
- After "Disinfection", his bosses decided that Merkulov is a lost cause, and stopped trying to recover him, or at least aid him, meaning that he's now on his own. Everything he does afterwards is to convince them that that he may still be useful.
- Fixa continued to serve Merkulov long after becoming able to usurp the gang, because he was too useful as an ally, but the moment reward outweighed the profit, he backstabbed him.
Your Head A-Splode: In the last novel, Fixa tricked him to go near Solenoid, which beheaded him via strong discharge. Fixa brought whatever remained of his head to Belov as a proof to receive the reward.

Semyon "Rasp"

Leader of the local bandits. Post-"Disinfection", he leads a gang known as "Obschyak" (the term from criminal slang, means gang's collective money supply).

Human Traffickers: Post-Disinfection, his gang deals in abducting and smuggling women into Areal, with the purpose of making them into Sex Slaves.
Karma Houdini: He managed to survive the entire series, never facing any repercussions for his crimes, including women trafficking, and likely continues to do so even after the events of the series.
The Mafiya:
- Prior to "Disinfection", he was the leader of the strongest local gang.
- Ever since "Disinfection", he leads "Obschyak", one of the two strongest gangs in Areal.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: He was pathetic pawn of Merkulov before "Disinfection", who was very close to outlive his usefulness. He proves himself to be genuinely capable of maintaining his power even without Merkulov by his side (though he's still no match for his former ally), and now runs human trafficking in Areal.
Puppet King: He is the leader of the strongest local gang... who has neither real power, nor brains to obtain it. Everything he has, he received with Merkulov's help. He somehow survived without him even a year after "Disinfection", though, becoming his main rival.
Took a Level in Badass: From Merkulov's pawn to a genuine gang leader.

Anatoly "Nanai"

Rasp's right-hand man before the "Disinfection".

The Dragon: He is Rasp's right-hand man.
Fall Guy: Merkulov and Fixa set him up as a scapegoat for failing operation to assassinate Firz. He was executed by Fixa soon afterwards.
The Mafiya: He's the member of the strong local gang.
Token Minority: His nickname came from his ethnicity, very likely because he is the only Nanai around here.

Fixa

Member of Rasp's gang.

The Dragon: Merkulov's actual right-hand man, both prior to and after gang split-up.
Dragon with an Agenda: Fixa only continues to serve Merkulov, despite being fully capable to usurp the gang, because he sees value in Merkulov's schemer skills; it's Merkulov who needs him, not the other way around.
Karma Houdini: Alongside Rasp, he survived throughout the entire series and even managed to usurp the leadership over his former Master's gang.
The Mafiya: He's the member (and ultimately the new leader) of the strong local gang.
Named After the Injury: His nickname originates from a slang term for tooth crown (he has lots of them).
Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is unknown; most bandits at least have their first names revealed.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Fixa has low opinion on the Asians, calling them nothing but racial slur.
The Starscream: After Belov put sufficiently high reward for Merkulov's head, Fixa swiftly betrayed him and brought said head to Belov (literally).

Mute

Fixa's close supporter. Like him, he joined Merkulov's new gang.

The Brute: He is Fixa's bodyguard and assassin, and the one who gets send when someone needs to be killed. He's by no means stupid, however, and, amongst the other things, he's a skilled stalker.
The Mafiya: He's the member of the strong local gang.
Named After the Injury: He got his nickname due to his throat trauma, which made it hard for him to talk.
Only Known by Their Nickname: He's only ever addressed as "Mute"
The Quiet One: Due to his throat trauma (scars from the old battle which he barely survived), he feels pain whenever he talks, so he prefers to not talk at all unless necessary (hence the nickname). When he does talk, he does so noticeably quietly.

Hulk

Member of Rasp's gang.

Ironic Nickname: The guy nicknamed Hulk is actually rather lean.
The Mafiya: He's the member of the strong local gang.
Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is unknown.
Sacrificial Lamb: He pretty much exists to demonstrate how lethal the Vet can be.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He dies in his second appearance, being amongst the first casualties of Veteran's attack.

Grishka

Stalker who deals with the bandits.

Ludicrous Gibs: He dies by being gruesomely torn apart by anomaly.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Every single of his problems can be traced to his inability to think before saying.
- He gets involved in the plot after he vouched for a friend before bandits without thinking that if something goes wrong, he would be responsible — which is exactly what happened, as said friend got himself arrested before paying up large debt (he's known gambler).
- Some time ago, he bragged about possessing a rare met, thus making him eligible for the dangerous operation in the Zone. It was a lie to impress chicks in the bar, which bandits learned only after forcibly recruiting him to make him pay for another screwup. They were not amused.
- When, during the operation, bandits gives him a new detector, he brags that with it, he may loot even in the Epicentre. One of the bandits actually calls him a moron for inability to learn on his mistakes, and threats that at this point, they may as well force him to do exactly that.
Sacrificial Lamb: He exists to demonstrate how anomalies can Call their victims to their demise.
See the Invisible: He somehow can see the Cobweb at any light, without any tools.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He dies very shortly after his introduction, when the Call tricks him into walking right into anomaly.

Crunch

Low-level bandit from Merkulov's gang.

The Ditz: He's certainly not the brightest bulb in the lamp, even by bandits' standards. The sole time Fixa takes him with himself to investigate Vodyanoy's activities, he almost botches everything when he starts complaining about prices, and threatening Vodyanoy, forcing Fixa to defuse the situation by himself.
The Mafiya: He's the member of the strong local gang.
The Millstone: Whenever he tagalongs, he botches or nearly botches everything, putting entire operation at risk. The last time we see him, he leads another group (separate from Fixa), only to engage the Mercs, whom everyone else successfully avoided. As result, his squad presumably perishes. It was made clear that basically anyone would do it better than him.
Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name never gets revealed.
Recurring Extra: He shows up frequently, despite never being that important to the plot.
Uncertain Doom: Last novel makes it unclear wether he survived or perished; however, even if he did survive, he wouldn't be welcomed back.

Civilians

Bear's allies

Vodyanoy

Vladislav "Vodyanoy" Petrov

A lawyer who volunteered to help Nikolaeva and Stepanov to lift their charges, only to get caught in the "Disinfection" and become stuck in the Areal. Ever since, he acts as the SOT dedicated trader, and, thanks to his more unnatural abilities, pathfinder.

Achievement In Ignorance: His ability to sense where you shouldn't step to avoid death saved him and his friends countless times, but he has no idea what anomalies even are or how they work whatsoever.
Big Eater: While he needs normal amount of food, he requires enormous amount of water (20 litres per day) to survive (which frequently gets lampshaded by the other characters, and is the source of his nickname), because it somehow suppresses his brain's destruction due to botched zombification.
Blessed with Suck: How he manages to sense anomalies like zombies? Because he was supposed to be zombified during "Disinfection"; he somehow survived that, but process never stopped, and now just slowly destroys his brain instead. The effect becomes more destructive when he becomes severely injured.
Crusading Lawyer: He took non-payed vacancy to go into Ukhta and try to clear the name of his friends, scientists Nikolaeva and Stepanov, no matter what. This is what caused him to being caught in the "Disinfection" right on arrival.
The Face: For the SOT ever since "Disinfection"; he represents them every time they go selling their stuff, with the others acting like a stealth backup. As additional bonus, his experience as a lawyer makes it hard to deceive him.
Fire-Forged Friends: After what they survived during the Cataclysm and afterwards, Vodyanoy and Ras became best friends, always sticking together during their adventures at the Areal.
Foreshadowing: His unnatural ability to walk between anomalies without even bothering to use shells or detectors repeatedly gets compared to zombies. Later turns out that it's not a coincidence.
In-Series Nickname: He is best known as "Vodyanoy" (Slavic water spirit). This is very fitting, since not only our Vodyanoy is highly anomalous himself, but he requires ridiculous amounts of water to survive.
Living Lie Detector: It's nearly impossible to deceive him, thanks to his experience as a lawyer. This is one of the reasons why he was chosen as a dedicated trader.
Sole Survivor: Every single person on his plane was killed or zombified. Only Vlad survived, due to zombification "breaking" on him... but as later turns out, not entirely.
Universal Driver's License: Thanks to his Crazy-Prepared father (a veteran of Afghan war, where he was a pilot), Vlad can drive pretty much anything. This includes, at least, trucks and helicopters.
You Can't Go Home Again: While everyone who ever crossed the Areal's border since the Cataclysm, can't return home ever again, it's especially painful for Vlad, since he and his wife have a daughter at home (they are with grandparents now). Their attempts to protect their family from possibly being used for blackmail is a recurring plot point.

Nail

Katerina "Nail" Petrova

Vlad's wife, who became Addicted after visiting him in the hospital after "Disinfection". Due to having official job in the "Satellite" and still being "clear", she's frequently used to obtain intelligence.

In-Series Nickname: Like everyone on the base, she received her own "callsign". She was called "Nail" for being both very short and very slim. She isn't a big fun of it.
The Mole: Since officially she's clear, she may work at Satellite and obtain intelligence. She was eventually revealed, and interrogated via drugs, and although she was saved later, the information Corporation has obtained from her was enough to assault the SOT base.
Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Downplayed; she isn't that tyrannical, but when it comes to maintaining cleanliness on the base, no one can object to her, not even Bear.
You Can't Go Home Again: While everyone who ever crossed the border of Areal since cataclysm, can't return home ever again, it's especially painful for Katia, since she and her husband have a daughter at home (she's with grandparents now). Their attempts to protect their family from possibly being used for blackmail is a recurring plot point.

Tatiana Volodina

Tatiana "Bambi" Volodina

Former gymnast, now human rights activist. After Prokopenko smuggled her into Areal in attempt to "persuade" her to become his concubine, she'd joined the SOT and fell in love with Bear.

Audience Surrogate: Just like Mist in the first book, she, as newbie to Areal, gets used to explain to readers how things works in the post-"Disinfection" Areal.
Career-Ending Injury: She used to be a gymnast (in fact, the best one in Russia) until she injured her back, putting an end to any sport life.
He Knows Too Much: The reason why Prokopenko still hunts for her is the fact that she knows too much about him personally. Otherwise, girl less, girl more...
In-Series Nickname: Due to Quartz constantly comparing her to Bambi (for her "innocent deer" gaze), it soon sticked as her nickname, and later, "callsign", as she was accepted into the team.
Last Stand: She chose to perish alongside Bear during assault on the SOT's base, helping him to continue fighting until very end.

Stalkers

Moneybag

One of the old-days stalkers/traders, who often deals with Bear and his team.

The Friend Nobody Likes: He's a valuable ally for Bear, but he's a shameless merchant who only cares about money, which is exactly the type of people Bear hates. No one ever disagrees with him.
Grail in the Garbage: He had the bad luck to accumulate huge amount of meteorite shards just when they stopped being valuable (in fact, they became actually harmful for anyone outside of Areal), and only reason why he didn't throw them away is the weak hope that their price would rise again one day. Unknowingly to him, they are extremely valuable, due to ability to suppress Areal's electricity-blocking effects.
Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is unknown.
Recurring Extra: He was originally introduced just as excuse for the SOT to find the large amount of shards at once, but he remained their regular dealer in the Neutral zone.
What Happened to the Mouse?: We never learn his fate after Bear cut all ties with him. Considering that at some point between the events of the last book and the epilogue, people started snitching on anyone even suspected of being tied to the SOT, it's possible that he got in trouble.

The Piece

Veniamin "The Piece"

A reseller whom Anna and Tatiana used as a cover for their business.

Henpecked Husband: He is completely under Anna's heel in every sphere. She thinks that the guys like him actually likes it that way.
Marriage of Convenience: Anna's nominally his wife, but it's pretty obvious that they feel nothing towards each other; it's just a cover: harassing one's wife is not the same as harassing "free" woman.
Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is unknown.
Puppet King: He is only nominally the boss in their business; it's pretty obvious for anyone who looks for long enough who's really in control here, and deal with Anna directly.
What Happened to the Mouse?: We never learn what happened to him after Anna run away from him.

Anna

Woman from one of the Free settles, turned merchant alongside Piece. Has particularly hostile relationship with Grey.

Ambiguously Evil: While there's no ambiguity at the time of her death, it's unclear wether she turned on Tatiana when offered the better future for her daughter, or was in league with Grey all along, and it was just a long, complex scheme. Anna claims to always hating Tatiana, but she isn't exactly sane when saying this.
Asshole Victim: By the time of her death, she loses any sympathy she had left, due to betraying the SOT, brutally beating up Tatiana (whom she claims to hate right from the start) and trying to stub already injured Rustle just because she can. While her motivation (to save her daughter) is understandable, the sheer hate she shows to everyone out of nowhere isn't; and there's a high probability that whatever positive past moments were completely fake anyway.
Death of a Child: In her backstory, her daughter run away into the Areal, with any attempts to find her soon being dropped when it became obvious that she can't be saved. However, much later it turns out that "runaway daughter" was alive all this time, presumably kept captive by bandits (the only evidence of this are her own words, when she was interrogated by Bear.
Does Not Like Men: She has very low opinion on males, thinking that they are "Stay in the Kitchen" dumb perverts at best, and outright rapists and murderers at worst. At least within Areal, it's not that far from being true, but she often goes overboard and acts very aggressive and rude to any males she interacts with.
The Friend Nobody Likes: The sole person who can tolerate her is Tatiana, due to everything they survived together, but even she eventually starts believing that her toxic behaviour towards everyone isn't called for. She has particularly hateful relationship with Grey, which at several points nearly provokes the violent conflict right during missions.
Half the Man He Used to Be: She was killed by Veteran's Dog during the last battle; Dog simply cut her in half with one bite.
Killed Offscreen: Anna was killed by the Veteran's Dog at unknown point during the SOT's Last Stand; it gets revealed in beginning of the final book.
The Man Behind the Man: It's so obvious that she's the Piece's true brain that other people don't even bother to talk to him during deals.
Marriage of Convenience: The Piece is nominally her husband, but it's pretty obvious that they feel nothing towards each other; it's just a cover: harassing one's wife is not the same as harassing "free" woman.

Grey

Male stalker who hired Tatiana for one dangerous job due to her acrobatic skills.

Ambiguously Evil: While he later does act villainous, it's unclear wether he was Evil All Along, or has become evil after the Corporation has put enough price on Tatiana's head; the only source of information is highly unstable and then dies outright.
Can't Spit It Out: One of the reasons why he sends Tatiana to talk with Vodyanoy is the fact that he needs the cure... for prostate cancer. He would rather not reveal this to anyone outside of the small circle of people he can trust (Tatiana is amongst them), because it would ruin his reputation.
Chivalrous Pervert: While it's fairly obvious that he lusts for Tatiana (to be fair, so are the most males in the Areal), he at least tries to not be overly blatant with it. He also repeatedly shows concerns about her wellbeing after he learned about her trauma, and offers his help when she shows troubles with walking; when he learns that they can afford only one dosage of the special medicine from Vodyanoy, he suggests Tatiana to take it, with him waiting until the next time; he's only slightly less in need of it, due to having a prostate cancer, which, in Areal, would kill him. He drops this completely when he shows up later (after being presumably killed) and sends Anna to bring Tatiana to him.
Only Known by Their Nickname: He's known only as "Grey", which actually means just it, word "grey". His real name never gets revealed.
Riddle for the Ages: We would never learn wether bandits who attacked his group during his operation were indeed hired by him, or not. On the one hand, it's Anna who tells this theory, and she's highly biased. On the other hand, him managing to fake his death by exploiting the well-placed Vortex shows that he's cunning enough to set up something like this and make it work.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Everything he had done to reach Vodyanoy and cure his cancer was in vain, since soon after meeting they were attacked by bandits, with Grey being one of the first casualties. Except, he wasn't actually killed (the only evidence of his death was a blood trail, not even an actual body), and shows up much later again, though it's unknown wether he managed to cure his cancer — or even had it to begin with.

Mercenaries

Colonel Liman

One of the founding members of Mercenaries.

Formerly Fat: He used to be extremely obese. But, Areal being Areal, it was "adapt or die" situation for him, and now he's just as fit as everyone else.
Only Sane Man:
- While he's not the only person amongst mercenaries to understand that, with total lack of efforts from the government, they must set up their own research program to at least somewhat counter the Areal becoming more and more deadly, there are still not enough support from the other leaders to actually do it. He also believes that they should disregard the Corporation's agitation about SOT allegedly being murderous, cannibalistic zombies.
- He's one of the few to understand that currently available Itch treatment (which the Corporation offered to the Mercenaries' leaders to motivate them for cooperation) is too unreliable to even bother, having short span, long cooldown, not even working properly, and, worst of all, each new dosage working less and less effectively, giving potential risk that one day it would just fail to work at all — potentially right when something better would be found, only for you to no longer being fitting for it. Because of that, he doesn't rush to use it.
Private Military Contractors: He's the very first mercenary leader in the Areal, and one of the founding members of the Mercenaries as a group.
Token Good Teammate: Deconstructed. As old saying goes, "tell me who's your friend, I would tell who you are"; being the least evil amongst the bad guys wouldn't make you a good guy. When it becomes clear that the Mercs would support the Corporation against the SOT, he's the only one who opposes the decision, but, instead of actually fighting against injustice, he chose the "neutrality" — warning Bear about upcoming attack and then just avoiding taking any further actions, on either side. Bear calls him and his men cowards, and no one argues with him. And once the battle ends, Liman sends his men to looting any valuables just as everyone else.
You Can't Go Home Again: He was amongst the first to become Addicted, when he crossed the barrier, separating the Green zone from the "big earth", not yet knowing what it would cost him. Just like many, many others, he'd lost his family (who rejected him), and was forced to return to Areal. Not willing to accept the terms of living in the Satellite, which he compared to the slavery, he decided to create a new team and start surviving on his own in the wild.

Rubin

One of the mercenary leaders and Liman's former partner.

Posthumous Character: He's already dead by the time of his introduction (killed by Unk), with the remnants of his people joining the Liman's regiment.
Private Military Contractors: He was one of the mercenary commanders prior to his death.
The Smart Guy: He's the one who came up with the whole plan how to produce Blue for sell without massive casualties, solving many problems this would normally induce: the Blue stubbornly refuses to reproduce in captivity, so he organised the open-field plantation; anything more than 50 kilograms of Blue would provoke attacks when gathered together, so he started using special containers and only putting all Blue together just before sending the well-armed caravan; etc. It remains mostly the same even long after his death, and remains one of the main sources of profit for the mercenaries.

Other characters

Abramov

Humans rights activists, owner of the "We Care" foundation and Tatiana's boss (before she was smuggled into Areal).

Big Good: Subverted. Volodina believes that if she may smuggle her letter to Abramov, he would help her to arrest Prokopenko (putting an end to entire women trafficking business), and rehabilitate her. Then it turns out that he's completely corrupt, and gladly joined Prokopenko at the first request.
Fake Ultimate Hero: He sets up himself as the main Areal victims' rights activist, philanthropist and just good guy. He is neither; he never helped anyone within entire series, his foundation is actually used to supply Corporation's allies with the Itch treatment (as the way to keep them on leash), and the last part completely shatters when he sells out Volodina to Prokopenko the moment she asks for help.
Karma Houdini: He never faces any repercussions for his deeds.

Lord Brindelberg

Lozinsky's and Belov's ally from unspecified Western country, who often aids them in obtaining valuable cadres (like Dr. Kugelstein), and helps them with selling out their oil to the West.

Greater-Scope Villain: He represents the force which backs up Lozinsky and Belov, which can either give them even greater power, or utterly destroy them.
Karma Houdini: He gets away scot-free.
Villain of Another Story: The true scope of his own crimes never gets shown, but he's way more powerful than Lozinsky and Belov.

Areal (warning: massive spoilers)

The Veteran

Makar

One of the first people to come in contact with the aliens, and one of the very few to survive that. A veteran of the Second World War in the past, now he fights different enemies of his homeland.

Antiquated Linguistics: He speaks in rather outdated manner, resembling pre-Revolution Russian.
Canine Companion: Always accompanied by his dog, Chernysh ("Blacky"), who's just as big and lethal as every other Epicentre dog.
December–December Romance: Played With. While he's in a relationship with Polina after they both were consumed by the Areal, by this point they were both greatly rejuvenated; it's unknown wether it was the case prior to this, but it is known that they were very close friends.
The Dreaded: The Veteran is amongst most feared inhabitants of the Areal. He can't be scared, bribed or persuaded to leave you alone; if he wants you to die, you would die.
Fountain of Youth: Due to the Areal's influence, he was restored to his youth.
In-Series Nickname: He was called "the Veteran" due to always wearing World War II era military uniform and carrying the same era weapon.
Invincible Hero: Absolutely nothing at humans' disposal can harm him. But shooting at him sure as hell would anger him.
Like a Son to Me: He had kinda grandfather-grandson relationship with Bolt prior to creation of the Areal, despite not being related by blood.
Not Quite Dead: Despite what presumably happened in prologue of the first book, Areal didn't kill him, nor it zombified him. His current condition was caused by the Areal, but he isn't its slave.
No-Sell: For whatever reason, he's completely immune to zombification. This actually scares Fragment so much, it refuses to talk about it.
One-Hit Kill: He always kills his target in one shot, no matter what.
One-Man Army: Nothing seems to indicated that he is something more than some weirdo in the World War II era military uniform (hence the name)... except for the fact that hopelessly outdated gun he uses, PPSh-41, can reliably hit on the sniper rifle range, and always results in the target dropping dead.
True Sight: He can see people for who they really are. And if he sees you as a bastard who deserves to die, well...

Polina

Bolt's grandmother, who turns out to be pretty much alive. She was the local witch doctor at their village.

December–December Romance: Played With. While she's in a relationship with Makar after they both were consumed by Areal, by this point they were both greatly rejuvenated; it's unknown wether it was the case prior to this, but it is known that they were very close friends.
Fountain of Youth: Due to Areal's influence, she was restored to her youth.
Not Quite Dead: Areal didn't kill her, nor it zombified her. Her current condition was caused by Areal, but she isn't its slave.
No-Sell: For whatever reason, she's completely immune to zombification. This actually scares Fragment so much, it refuses to talk about it.

Professor Saveliev

The first scientist who started researching the Areal.

Greater-Scope Paragon: Many, many things currently known about the Areal can be traced back to his initial researches. Unfortunately, he leaved to research the Epicentre and never made it back.
Ignored Expert: Many of his prognoses and theories turned out to be right. But he was completely ignored; in fact, it took until much later for humans to even start exploring the Areal at all long after his disappearance.
Mouth of Sauron: The Fragment can't talk with people directly, so it uses Saveliev to do it for it.
Posthumous Character: The third book confirms that he didn't make it to the Epicentre, killed not even by the Areal, but by petty thugs, but Fragment decided to raise him and use as the source of information and communication tool.
Soulless Shell: When Fragment leaves Earth, it abandons Saveliev's now empty body behind. Saveliev remained alive, but became little more than empty puppet, just staring in front of himself with unseeing eyes.

The Fragment

A fragment of the artificial intelligence in charge of crushed alien spacecraft. It controls the Areal in its entirety, including every zombie.

Aliens Are Bastards: In its creators' eyes, humans are not sapient. We are merely "half-sapient animals of medium level of organisation" (yes, you read this right: there are "sapient" races, "highly-organised animals" and only then humans and the likes). Because we are half-animals, the Fragment has no qualms of zombifying us (though, to be fair, this process occurs automatically and can't be turned off without shutting down the whole system, including life support), or use Hostile Terraforming to create the living conditions for its creators. In fact, it only spared our planet and self-destructed its spacecraft (which was ten kilometres wide, meaning that all life on the planet would be doomed if it drops in whole) due to destroying the planets with life-sustaining capabilities being illegal (but not their inhabitants, it seems).
Anti-Villain: While its actions are certainly anything but friendly, the Fragment has no personal reasons to wish us death (at least, until "Disinfection", when it goes full-out Pay Evil unto Evil); it just wants to protect the passengers of its spacecraft (little children by standards of their race; if equaling to human years, they would be three years-old), at all costs, until it may get out of the planet, and is perfectly willing to restore everything back (save for zombies, they are beyond saving, and were "collateral damage" to begin with — humans can't survive contact with the psi-field without consequences) the moment it receive a beacon to contact the other survivors. It only starts actively trying to wipe us out after humans tried to nuke the Epicentre, because Lozinsky and his men wanted to save their own skins over humanity's wellbeing.
Homeworld Evacuation: The spacecraft, the remnants of which crushed in what is now known as Epicentre, was one of the few surviving ones from some distant galaxy which was wiped out by unknown cataclysm, which can't even be described by physics known to us (saying that it destroyed space-time continuum in localised territory would be oversimplification). Unfortunately, they are stuck on Earth with no means to contact the other survivors (if they really exists), and the Fragment is overly zealous at trying to protect them.
Humans Are Insects: It claims that its race is "superior" to humans, and compares the difference between humans and aliens to difference between ants and humans (so often, that Mist soon started finishing sentences for it). It always talks about "sacred sapient life", but in its eyes humans are not "sapient", and thus, it doesn't matter what would happen to them.
Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Aliens crashing on Earth was merely a coincidence, due to them evacuating their dying galaxy in haste. If not for the fact that life-supporting planets are extremely rare, it would have simply killed us by dropping its spacecraft at Moscow, at full speed, but AI has changed its mind after analysing data. Still, even after that, it has no interest in Earth at all and is only interested in survival of its passengers and evacuation — above all else, including our entire species.
Insistent Terminology: The Fragment keeps repeating that "sapient life is sacred" — and keeps insisting that the term "sapient life" does not apply to humans.
Insufferable Genius: The Fragment just can't shut up about things like "half-sapient animals of medium level of organisation", "sacred sapient life" or comparisons between humans and ants, etc. It just has to rub into Mist's face how more advanced its creators are.
Knight Templar: The Fragment has one goal — protect survivors of its creators' race (small children by their standards), and it would do everything for it, down to and including genocide of aborigine species — humans. it wouldn't feel much guilt over it; even less than humans feel over destroying an anthill.
Walking Spoiler: It's very hard to talk about it without revealing details about the Areal and its true nature.
What Happened to the Mouse?: It took until penultimate book to confirm wether evacuation was successful or not, with strong implications that the Fragment and children under its protection have perished. Turns out that they've survived, and managed to evacuate; it's the second Fragment which maintains the Areal's growth, because it was unable to evacuate.

Wrapper

Mutated rabbit, who was adopted as SOT's new pet.

Heart Is an Awesome Power: His sole contribution to the team is his ability to sense emissions (shared by any Areal creature, but is much stronger), whole thirty minutes ahead. Considering that they are lethal and rather random, this is extremely useful.
Team Pet: Since he is both friendly and very useful, the SOT keeps him on the base; they even affectionately call him "Wrapper (as is "candy wrapper"). Only Bear complains about him being creepy, due to Wrapper's habit of staring at him, for quite a long time (his personal record is twenty three minutes of non-ending staring, and Bear once threatened to kick him out if he ever beats it).
Token Heroic Orc: He's the sole Areal creature which doesn't try to kill all humans on sight, especially after Cataclysm. It's speculated in-universe that it may be related to him mutating from domestic animal, but since cats and dogs are just as hostile as everyone else, it may be a coincidence. It event protects his friends from other mutants in the last book.

Ifarshe

The alien race which created the Fragment.

Dying Race: Judging from what is known about the catastrophe from the Fragment, it's highly likely that not many of them have survived.
The Ghost: They never actually appears, with only information we learn coming from either the Fragment (Ifarshe-made AI), or X-Ray (who learned it from the Fragment). Even their name was only revealed in the penultimate book.
Homeworld Evacuation: The few survivors of the their home galaxy's destruction were forced to escape into the other galaxies, including ours.
Master Race: If even their AI shows such arrogance near the "lesser beings", it's not hard to imagine the attitude of the actual aliens and their pride.
Put on a Bus: Those survivors under protection of the Fragment successfully evacuated, to never being seen again. Just like the Fragment said, neither it nor Ifarshe have any interest in us.

Characters / The Areal

Areal's leadership

Special Operations Team (SOT)

Original SOT

Captain Ivan "Mist" Beryozov

Colonel "Firz" Salmatsky

Alexander "Lemur"

Vitaly "Wind"

SOT remnants

Major Nikolai "Bear" Pletnyov

Vitaly "Aybolit"

Areal rangers

Valery "Bolt"

Dmitriy "Ras" Nikitin

Scientists

Maria "Lavender" Sergeeva

Other "Areal" personnel

Lieutenant (later Major) Levin

Counterintelligence special group

Colonel "X-Ray" Volkhov

Criminals

Civilians

Bear's allies

Vladislav "Vodyanoy" Petrov

Katerina "Nail" Petrova

Tatiana "Bambi" Volodina

Stalkers

Veniamin "The Piece"

Mercenaries

Other characters

Areal (warning: massive spoilers)

Makar

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Characters / The Areal

Edit Locked

Areal's leadership

Special Operations Team (SOT)

Original SOT

Captain Ivan "Mist" Beryozov

Colonel "Firz" Salmatsky

Alexander "Lemur"

Vitaly "Wind"

SOT remnants

Major Nikolai "Bear" Pletnyov

Vitaly "Aybolit"

Areal rangers

Valery "Bolt"

Dmitriy "Ras" Nikitin

Scientists

Maria "Lavender" Sergeeva

Other "Areal" personnel

Lieutenant (later Major) Levin

Counterintelligence special group

Colonel "X-Ray" Volkhov

Criminals

Civilians

Bear's allies

Vladislav "Vodyanoy" Petrov

Katerina "Nail" Petrova

Tatiana "Bambi" Volodina

Stalkers

Veniamin "The Piece"

Mercenaries

Other characters

Areal (warning: massive spoilers)

Makar

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Index

Next