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Here's a list of characters from The Far Side Of Utopia. Unmarked spoilers follow, be warned.

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Main Characters

    Peter Kepler 

Peter Kepler

A rogue IDS Agent who has created his own group for as of yet mysterious reasons. A master of obfuscation with a particular love of plots, Peter seems to have access to an absurdly large amount of information and several aces up his sleeves. While Peter appears to be mostly opposed to the corrupt elements within the IDS and Kor's World as a whole, his current motives are unclear and his ultimate agenda is a mystery.


  • An Arm and a Leg: At one point, something happened to Peter's left arm that left him with scars (most visible here.
  • Boxed Crook: The authorities on Central recognize Peter's talents, but his attitude and personality were frequent problems for them, particularly when his activities would cross the line from quasi-legal to outright illegal. They frequently made attempts to either correct his behaviour or stop him from poking his nose where they didn't want him to, up to and including locking him in a jail cell. These frequently ended in failure, with the jail cell incident being notable as he only stayed in it for one day before getting bored and casually breaking out, even leaving behind a note with his forwarding address. His stint with Criminal Investigations was arguably their most successful attempt at this, as he did a lot of good work there (particularly while he was partnered with Kallisto) but in the end he went rogue..
  • Chess Master: Seems to set himself up as this; if he is a successful one remains to be seen.
  • Didn't See That Coming: One of the few times Peter is caught off guard is when Atter appears to kill him, partly because he didn't expect Sophie to take this kind of risk and partly because he didn't expect her to take it so soon. As it turns out, Atter was really sent to make Arron retire, and thought one of the best ways was to kill Peter, along with several others just in case.
    • Another example of this follows the very same evening when he meets with Tyler at his new home. As Tyler talks about how he's being called to fight in the upcoming conflict due to being a registered mage and thus needs an interim head of the MSB while he's away, Peter just sarcastically wishes the successor the best of luck...until a few seconds later when it clicks that Tyler wants Peter to be the interim head to take on the IDS. Peter is not at his best when woken up in the middle of the night.
    • During an infiltration into a building that Peter had expected to be empty (due to him secretly messing with their work schedules so that no one would be in at that time), he instead finds what appears to be a secret lab, complete with armed guards and possible test subjects, along with signs that someone else is messing with the security besides him. This stands out as Peter clearly wasn't expecting any of this and admits to having no idea what is going on, prompting him to investigate.
    • During another infiltration, this time into a Kor's World ship, Peter gets cornered by what appears to be a Kor's World Control AI in a humanoid shell. In order to escape, he tries to confuse it by using Ellipsis and logical fallacies to make it question if Peter is actually there or not. Unfortunately, the Control AI immediately decides that, instead of risking any sort of data breach, it would instead trigger a self-destruct of the location to ensure no intruders survive. Given Peter's reaction, he certainly wasn't expecting things to escalate that quickly.
      Peter: "...Well, shit. How is that a reasonable reaction? This is the sort of thing that gives artificial intelligence a bad name."
    • In some way, Peter's broader plans are subject to this. While the grand plan still seems to be on course, Peter has noted more than once that, after his interference, all the other players are moving their plans up a lot faster than he wanted, and he's still not entirely sure why this is the case.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: "Evil" is probably overstating it, but Peter has betrayed several organizations he has worked for (including the branch of the IDS run by his uncle Arron), is willing to manipulate practically anyone for the sake of his plan, and in general can be bit of an aloof, sarcastic ass. But when one of the people he truly cares about is put into serious danger that he didn't plan for such as Kallisto when she was kidnapped as part of a scheme by Corporate Affairs, he gets very serious in resolving the situation very quickly.
  • Famed In-Story: Has a bit of a reputation among certain on Central, partly due to him being a Kepler (given his father's a powerful politician and his uncle's a war hero) and partly from his own exploits (where even the exaggerated tales aren't that less believable than the truth).
    • From this encounter, it seems even demons have started to hear of him, though only regarding him as a powerless human (likely more associating him with figures like Kally).
  • Genre Savvy: Peter avoids making the same mistakes of people like Dr Mir in regards to S.M.A.I. (in this case, Mium) by not treating it like a slave or as property, but instead as an equal. There's still a bit of an odd power dynamic, as Mium is (or at least was at one point) partly made of Query, one of Peter's creations, but overall their relationship is more like equals or as a boss (Peter) that actually listens to his employee (Mium).
    • He also doesn't bother making emotional appeals or reasoning with an AI (as he knows they don't work with them), instead using logic in his arguments, which may help explain why he's been able to work with Mium so well.
  • Guile Hero: Has shown no particular combat talent as a mage, and typically leaves Naomi to handle any fighting.
  • Heroic Neutral: Probably the closest description to his current alignment. He's a frustrating, scheming bastard that could easily be the Big Bad in another story, but while his end goal is still unclear it does seem to involve removing the threat of the more corrupt elements of the IDS at least. What keeps him neutral is that he not that picky about his methods in his goals, with the exception of avoiding needless loss of life.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Too many examples to specify, but this seems to be Peter's main tool for persuasion at times: he doesn't care what you think of him, or how much you may want to punch/murder him, as long as you're willing to listen to his not-invalid points. Many of his allies in Malsa who work with him find his personality and ethics annoying at best and abhorrent at worst, but they concede that he has good ideas that may lead to a better outcome than their other options.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: He frequently loots tech from his enemies. He's stolen bits and pieces from PACT, Kor's World, IDS, and even hostile Malsa factions (e.g. Avon).
  • Manipulative Bastard: Peter's modus operandi, he's practically the master of anything involving espionage, logistics and manipulation. This mastery is only matched by his utter lack of tact, with virtually any casual talk from him being seen as either blatant deflection, stalling for time, etc. The fact that he can persuade people to work with him or do as he wants despite this is a testament to his skills as a manipulator.
Kallisto: [thought bubble] I'm sure he realizes he could tell me something that would benefit both of us. But he can't make it easy, because Peter.
  • Master of Illusion: One of Peter's most notable skills, outside his scheming, is his ability to create realistic holograms and images that have fooled IDS agents, magical constructs like Fluffy and demons, even Kor's World soldiers. While he seems to suggest that he uses mere projections with good programming for this trick, the reactions of Aaron and Kally suggest that there may be something more going on.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: An ongoing mystery is how much, if any, magical talent Peter has. He's generally perceived as not having magic, and seems to rely on stuff like autocasters and holograms, but he's pulled off illusions that would be rather beyond either, according to observers like Kally. His love of using misdirection in everything does not help matters, and often blurs the line between high level stage magic and actual magic, to the point that even Kally and her dragon are uncertain after seeing his latest trick.
  • Non-Action Guy: He seldom, if ever, actually does his own fighting. He lets his bodyguards and retainers do that.
    "You wound me [Kallisto.] I have never in my life kicked a hornet's nest. That's what I keep more durable people than myself around for."
  • Noodle Incident: He's grown accustomed to people blowing up the house he's trying to live in! He also states that there are things that will have him burn entire countries to the ground. And he speaks from first-hand experience.
  • Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Has an... unusual attitude in regards to cheating (as seen here), in that cheating itself isn't against the rules, it's getting caught with proof of cheating that's the problem.
  • No Social Skills: One of Peter's major flaws is that he just doesn't seem to get people, beyond understanding their motivations enough to influence them, and thus tends to treat them more like tools or obstacles rather than as individuals. He's not unaware of this flaw either, as he actually built Query with the purpose of analyzing human behavior and advise Peter on his interactions with others. In general, he seems to get along better with A.I.s than with most humans, as an AI's thought process is much easier to understand and isn't as illogical as most humans in Peter's eyes.
  • Rogue Agent: Peter's status with the IDS by the start of the comic, for around a year in-universe before he came out from hiding. It's still not clear why exactly he went rogue, though it's implied to be a mixture of the corruption within the IDS and his own plans and personality not aligning with theirs.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: His prevailing stance and motivation for doing things the way he does. Granted, it's not so much a moral stance, it just seems that he views many of the people doing evil as idiots that need to be removed from power.
  • Spanner in the Works: Serves as this for nearly all of the antagonists' scheme in one way or another, either directly (such as with Bianca) or through his allies (e.g. Mium and Ila vs. Avon).
  • The Chains of Commanding: Peter does not like being put in a position of official authority (as shown with his response to being made the interim head of the MSB). This may be due to his preference for working behind the scenes (given his history as a spy), not wanting to face some of the heavier burdens of command, or he may just hate handling something tedious like the paperwork (which is not unprecedented, as seen here).
  • The Smart Guy: Splits this role with Mium and Miko, but ultimately they're all following Peter's plans. According to the author here, while Miko may be better at programming and anything to do with digital interfacing, Peter is better at lateral thinking and problem solving and has been doing it for longer.
  • Unscrupulous Hero: And that's putting it mildly. If his agenda requires him to kidnap the leader of a foreign nation, he'll do it (and has done it).
  • Wild Card: His loyalty to any faction is fleeting, at best, and he will exploit, abuse, and abandon any group the moment they stop assisting in his agenda, whatever that is.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: According to Kally here, Peter really does not like demons, to the point that he would willingly jump out of a high story window if there were enough of them nearby (something he's actually done at least once in the story, albeit closer to the ground and at the direction of Mium).

    Naomi Atarah 

Naomi Atarah

One of the first characters introduced in the comic, Naomi is a Malsan Youth Sports star who (for her own reasons) joined up with Peter despite their glaring differences in things like outlook and general morality. She seems to be both The Heart and The Big Guy for Peter's group, as she has the Innate Talent of Enhancement, which lets her boost her physical capabilities to extremes most others can't reach.


  • Achievements in Ignorance: According to the author in the comments for this page, Naomi tends to invoke this somewhat intentionally, willfully ignoring what should and shouldn't be possible with her magic and relying on her Innate talent to do the necessary Eidos calculations for her. This, along with the abundance of magic power she has at her disposal, allows her to pull off stunts with her magic enhancement that would be theoretically doable for other mages but in practice are difficult to achieve or even conceptualize.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Looking at the Peter's inner circle, she's easily the most friendly and outgoing, seeking to make friends and allies instead of just pawns. She's also the one that's probably most eager for actual fights, smiling whenever she's in a brawl. And if there's ever a situation where she's in a fight and she ''stops'' smiling? Run.
    • One brutal example of this is here, when she and Mium find that Tyler has been caught in an ambush and may bleed out from injuries. With his injuries, and Mium occupied with holding off Rovak, Naomi's smile fades and she tears off the arm of her opponent! Granted, the author commentary implies that she wasn't expecting that to happen (as said opponent was using a Booster to lock themselves in place) but she doesn't seem particularly apologetic either, and even uses it as a way to make the opposition leave by pointing out that now both sides have someone bleeding out, thus the fight needs to end early so each side can sort that out.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: She loves making witty banter as she's beating down antagonists.
  • Book Dumb: Played with. While at Levinsworth, we see her sleeping through lectures (something that's implied to be fairly frequent) and she regards herself as not being smart compared to her friends. However, she is also able to break down a complex political situation fairly eloquently and naturally, as seen here. Even if some of that was repeating what Peter may have told her at some point, it's still impressive. It's more likely that she's quite capable of learning, but she finds academics too boring to bother with most of the time and generally isn't concerned with the deeper details behind a scenario. As the author puts it in the comments here, "Thinking too much about the underlying root causes of things tends to get in the way of punching them."
  • Curtains Match the Windows: Her eyes are the same purple color as her hair.
  • Genki Girl: A very energetic and out-going girl, not to mention the fact that she was a professional youths sport athlete before the story began, she's prone to going off on her own when somthing grabs her attention. This has caused her problems as according to this Q&A it's difficult to form a deeper relationship with someone when she might disappear and reappear and random (her friends are somewhat used to it at this point, but dating's another story). This is partially what drew her to Mium however, as he actually doesn't mind if she disappears in the morning then shows up in the middle of the night asking him to play a game with her (which he will usually oblige).
  • Famed In-Story: It's not obvious at the beginning of the story, but Naomi is something of a sports celebrity in Malsa, even having merchandise with her name on her (which she is forced to wear for a time after most of her other clothing has been destroyed due to either fights or being caught in explosions). She herself doesn't take it that seriously, despite the fact that she has met several important figures, such as the current Consul, due to her achievements. Some of the Families, on the other hand, have taken note of her abilities (Word of God is that they use sporting events as a way to scout potential recruits or spouses to strengthen their bloodline) and Ashvalt has "joked" that Naomi will be joining the Families one day with her talents.
  • Full-Contact Magic: The contribution of her magic is that she punches things really hard rather than cast any particular spells so far.
  • Gathering Steam: How Naomi has fought in the comic so far; she starts at a relatively low level of strength for herself, then keeps pumping out more energy as the fight goes on. This has its pros and cons; it can catch her opponents off guard as it makes it difficult to gauge her true strength when she seems to keep getting stronger over the course of a fight, but this can leave her vulnerable against foes who are capable of throwing out a lot of power right at the start of a fight if she isn't cautious.
    • It's also made it difficult for even Peter to gauge her true strength or her limits, which makes it difficult to judge if a mission may be too dangerous for her or not (though she's held her own so far pretty well).
  • Healing Factor: Seems to have a version of this, as she's able to recover from a bullet wound through her shoulder with nothing more than a good night's sleep and some attention from Mium. It's likely related to her Innate ability, though it's not yet been confirmed.
  • Hidden Depths: Due to her being a Boisterous Bruiser (and the fact that she frequently hangs out with Peter and Mium), it can be easy to forget that she can at least act like a normal person at times. For example, when asked about who she'd go to for relationship advice, she quickly gives a list of some of her friends, including Arkady (who's a guy and engaged, and thus has a valuable perspective), Lisa (who knows a lot about them and loves talking about them) and Mione (who would tell her to ignore the other two and just do whatever she want anyway).
  • Lightning Bruiser: Once Naomi gets going, she's practically a purple blur, one capable of tearing a walking mech-tank apart with her bare hands.
  • Magic Enhancement: Her talent as an Innate user is to enhance her physical abilities. What makes her ability notable (as explained in the commentary for this page) is that she doesn't just enhance her strength and speed (which mages can do and can even be replicated with autocasters), she can also simultaneously enhance her senses and other properties such as her spatial awareness. This combination means that, if she's aware of where her opponent is, it's extremely difficult to hit Naomi with conventional methods (including bullets).
  • Magic Skirt: Apparently in effect considering that she did a flip in a skirt.
  • Morality Chain: Something of this to Peter and Mium (mostly the latter), easily being the most empathetic member of the trio. While she helps them in their more clandestine efforts without too much fuss, there are times where she'll put her foot down to do the right thing. She apparently even has Veto power in certain votes with this in mind, which may be one of the reasons why Peter keeps her in his inner circle (apart from her strength). The biggest example of this is when Peter and Mium were ready to write off Ila after first meeting her but Naomi, seeing Ila as Mium's little sister (and having a little sister of her own), insisted they rescue her, using her power of Veto to get them to change their plans, which they notably do with little fuss.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Not so much in the comic itself (though still present) but features heavily in the bonus artwork and ads.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: Naomi has pink hair as a result of being a Designer Child, and she's certainly the most friendly and outgoing of Peter's inner circle. At least until she gets into a fight, where she becomes more of a Psycho Pink.
  • There Was a Door: During a rare moment of seeming alarm from Peter, he sends Naomi to Aaron's location in case his uncle needs protection (and/or do something else while she was there, it's never clear with Peter). The way she reaches his building was by busting through a wall, in Aaron's own office no less, much to his annoyance.
  • Token Good Teammate: Is this among Peter's inner circle at the start of the story. While she does have her faults, she's usually the one pushing her morally ambiguous teammates to use their abilities to help people, and tries to discourage some of Peter's manipulative tendencies, such as asking him to maybe try to actually cooperate with people like Tyler and maybe treat them as equals instead of treating them like pawns.
  • Tomboyish Ponytail: So far in both her hair styles she sports this, and her behavior is pretty far into the tom boy category, with her main so far being getting into fights.
  • Tron Lines: Lines tend to appear as she uses more magic, particularly when she's enhancing herself or an object or around injuries.

    Mium Efiate 

Mium Efiate/MYM F8

A strange, if quiet and polite boy that tends to be found near Peter. Has a rather strange set of abilities. Is actually an A.I., specifically a Self Modifying A.I. that can adjust its own parameters to be more efficient in its goals, though there may be even more to it than it seems...


  • Awesomeness by Analysis: When Mium has enough processing power at his disposal, he's borderline omniscient in regards to anything that can be observed or monitored through security systems, computers, etc.
  • Artificial Human: His F-8 body is implied to be this. How he actually came to use it as one of his primary hosts has not been outright stated, but it was likely taken from Avon.
  • Benevolent A.I.: Is currently this, as his primary purpose is to help Peter and Naomi with their goals. It should be noted that this is partially through the use of restraints in his programming (e.g. the "friends & family" rule]], though it seems like they're also there to prevent instances of Mium's supercomputer logic going in a dangerous direction.
  • Combat Pragmatist: If you're expecting any kind of straight fight against Mium...don't. Mium has no reservations against fighting as dirty as possible, especially if his opponent could actually pose a threat. For example, when Atter went after Peter, Mium distracted Atter by firing a shot from a tank, indoors, at him.
  • Counter Spell: So far this has been his main contribution to several fights - particular seems fond of generally doing a No-Sell on what would otherwise be large and presumable destructive magic attacks.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Given's Mium's nature, it's not surprising that he spends his time either coming up with plans for nearly every scenario or helping Peter do the same. This goes to the point that Peter at one point actually becomes suspicious of this, given that Mium was apparently prepared for several scenarios (such as Mium running several instances of himself simultaneously when he was only expected to have one) that should have impossible. Peter starts to accuse Mium of manipulating events for those specific outcomes (which are putting lives such as Miko's at greater risk) before he backs off, even apologizing, putting it down to lack of sleep.
  • Cryptic Conversation: Practically any conversation with Mium is likely to result in this, particularly due to his use of Double Meaning and Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness. This can change depending on who he's talking to; for example, he's more likely to give you a simpler answer if he feels well-disposed towards you (or doesn't feel that you're too much of a threat to his goals). This doesn't necessarily mean that he'll provide more information, just that the answer won't be as confusing.
  • Curtains Match the Windows: Both his eyes and hair are blue, though a less straight example than others in the comic as they are different shades.
  • Healing Factor: When something does manage to damage Mium, he is capable of regeneration. The extent of this hasn't necessarily been shown, but he apparently survived (at least partially) losing a hand and being shot in the head without long term damage.
  • Hive Mind: Of the 'one mind running many bodies' variety. Has more than one humanoid body, and an unknown number of computer systems that can act as additional terminals/backup systems (such as the one in Dr Martin's lab). While this makes him even harder to kill off than he already is (see Healing Factor) but there is at least one weakness: Any task that demands the majority of his processing power can leave the rest of his systems unresponsive until the original issue is resolved.
    • Is also this and a Mind Hive as he's made up of at least two identifiable entites (Query and M.Y.M.) at the start of the story, and he can add other AI to his systems, though he has restrictions against "consuming" other sentient minds. He has gotten around this on occasion, though only with their explicit permission (such as with F5, who actually requested it).
  • Info Dump: Occasionally hands these out, though they often raise as many questions as they answer. A stand-out example can be found here, where he rapid-fire answers a series of questions from Lisa, before she has a chance to even vocally say any of them by using his predictive abilities. This was possibly in response to what he viewed as potential "aggregate queries" (a series of questions asked in succession without giving time to answer them individually), which is a pet peeve for him.
  • Literal Genie: Tends to pull this on occasion, particularly if it means fulfilling a request from a close friend like Naomi. Peter and Miko have obviously noticed, and the latter has voiced concerns about it, but for now they haven't done much about it since he still seems to be on their side and they don't want to provoke him.
  • Literal-Minded: Often answers questions asked of him in a very literal manner (e.g. Q: What is Peter Kepler up to? A: He is currently sleeping). While part of this may be due to being an AI, how much he acts this way seems to depend on the person asking, with him providing more helpful answers to people he either likes or thinks could be useful.
  • Outside-Context Problem: Mium seems to be this to most of the mages of Malsa and Central, as he can pull off seemingly impossible feats (such as his disintegration/deletion trick). The key word is ''seems''. As per the author in the comments on this page, what Mium does doesn't break the rules of magic but rather the rules of mages. Other mages could theoretically do what he can do, they just don't know all the rules or fully understand the mechanics yet.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: Mium most of the time can pass as a human. Though he acts strangely at times, he frequently looks bored and assigns people strange nicknames, and other decidedly not AI like things.
  • Rules Lawyer: Often looks for potential loopholes to get avoid either legal or social requirements, often abusing Literal-Minded, or even to get around his restrictions. According to this Q&A, this isn't necessarily because he resents the restrictions in the same way a human would, but rather he dislikes it when conflicting rules may prevent him from carrying out his primary goals (e.g. protecting one person while being prohibited from harming others can make the first task significantly more difficult depending on the circumstances).
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Rarely does much fighting, but he's often seen wearing a long scarf (only taking it off for disguises or to have it fixed) and when he does fight, there is usually much asskicking. This tendancy to wear a scarf at all times is more of Mium's more surprising human quirks.
  • Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Falls on a three for the most part, though he does appear to at very least have some fairly serious multitasking abilities.
    • Implied that he is can jump up this scale if given more processing power, but is intentionally kept limited to prevent problems. May be the cause of the more humanlike behavior of Ridiculously Human Robot.
  • Super Mode: Has a version of this with the A.A. system. What it is exactly isn't clear, but when activated it boosts his processing abilities considerably and allows to perform feats that may be impossible even for him. There is a catch however: using the A.A. system forces Mium to focus on a single task, preventing him from multi-tasking in any way not related to said task (including operating his various instances of himself, which can leave them looking dead or unable to operate). It's implied that this is deliberate, to prevent Mium from making irrational decisions or becoming unstable.
  • Super Prototype: Subverted in the case of the original F8, whom F5 claims was the worst of the prototypes until merging with Mium/M.Y.M., who enhanced the chassis considerably to the point where it surpasses all other prototypes with the arguable exception of F10/Ila.
  • Super-Toughness: Jumped off a building - the concrete broke instead of him. Also may have stopped a bullet with his bare hand.
  • The Nicknamer: Has given several characters odd nicknames, such as Dr. Mir (M.I.R.) and Kallisto Summers (Ms Winters/Ms I.D.S.). Many of these seem to be intentionally insulting or provocative, particularly towards Mir (M.I.R. may be a jab at Mir's new robotic form, and she is one of the few people whom Mium seems to have an actual grudge against).
  • The Omniscient: Mium is probably the character closest to being actually omniscient in this setting, due to his information gathering and predictive abilities being far beyond anything else seen so far.
  • The Stoic: Mium technically does have different expressions, but they tend to such minor variants from his default unreadable expression that anyone who isn't familiar with him might miss them entirely at first.
  • Three Laws-Compliant: Played with. He's not technically under the classic three laws from Asimov but he is under similar restrictions as a safety precaution, albeit ones that usually give him more freedom to act. For example, rather than obeying any human in general, Mium only needs to listen to specific humans (i.e. Peter, Naomi and Miko). One of his most noteworthy restrictions is that he's not allowed to kill people as a preventative measure (though he can do so in self defense), mostly because to Mium's line of thinking, this would inevitably lead to killing nearly everyone.

    Kallisto Summers 

Kallisto "Kally" Summers

Peter's former partner in the IDS. Apparently his former girlfriend too. Takes his desertion rather personally, but still acknowledges that he was and likely still is very good at his job, and is more interested in getting him back in line than enacting personal vengeance.


  • Achilles in His Tent: During the beginning of the conflict between Malsa and the IDS, Kally is mainly kept on the sidelines rather than using her talents as a Tactical mage. Each authority figured involved (especially those on her side) regard this as a very good thing, as the incident with Emmi and the involvement of her mentor Sophie and the sheer destructive power at her disposal were a very worrying combination. Eventually she does start acting in a official capacity, though thankfully after having a talk with Peter gave her a cooler head.
  • Amicable Exes: Eventally. She and Peter used to date. They broke up after Peter went Rogue and disappeared (whether she was more upset at the break-up or Peter going AWOL is up to interpretation). After some time (and arguing), they've reached a point where they can still be cordial and professional when they have to work together.
  • Bad Ass In Distress: Near the start of the comic, a Black Ops IDS group gasses her and tries to kidnap her to keep her out of their Dirty Business. When she's rescued, she takes the attempt personally, and it makes her intervene in the very shenanigans that they Black Ops team tried to keep her out of.
  • Closest Thing We Got: She is, by many accounts, a terrible spy, which has made several people curious about why she was given the task of gathering information on Peter of all people, especially given their prior and complicated history. But there is some logic in this decision; because Peter really was the best at his job, most attempts at spying on him would just result in losing your spies. Therefore, as Kally tells Tyler "The only "spy" that stands a chance is a spy he '''wants''' around."
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Maintaining the Eidos "program" for her dragon to be ready to use at any time means that she lacks the versatility a mage of her caliber normally would. On the other hand, a flying, bullet proof dragon with a breath weapon is a very useful and versatile tool on its own, and she is still capable of casting other spells.
  • Deadpan Snarker: She can snark with a straight face.
    "I'm sure there's plenty of stuff I don't know. I'm not omniscient, that's more Peter's area of expertise..."
  • Dragon Rider: While not her only magic, by far her most used magic is to summon an ethereal dragon she can interact with and frequently uses as a method of transportation. Despite it not being a real dragon, she seems to treat it like it's real and it has some degree of artificial intelligence.
  • I Choose to Stay: When Aaron sends out a recall order for his forces on Malsa to return to Central, Kally chooses to stay on Palindra, despite the very likely consequences she could face for what is essentially desertion. She does this because she has seen the presence of Kor's World on Palindra herself, and she sees fighting them as her purpose. Peter may also be a factor in her wanting to stay (despite him pointing out how bad an idea it is), as she wants to help him and keep him at least somewhat safe from the enemies he's making.
  • Inconsistent Spelling: The author occasionally spelled her name as Callisto in early commentary before settling on Kallisto.
  • Instant Runes: As a mage, every time she casts a spell these show up around her and/or where she is casting the spell.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Red Dragon Witch. Even Situation Containment (including the Monster Hunters), whose job is to handle extremely dangerous mages, were very hesitant about dealing with her when Corporate Affairs tried to kidnap her to take her out of the picture.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: As a Tactical mage, she's able to affect the course of a battle by herself (usually with the help of her dragon).
  • Running Gag: Her dragon construct is very, very curious as to how people taste, and she has to frequently remind it that eating people is generally not acceptable.
  • Secret Art: Dragonfire, where her dragon unleashes a breath attack that can devastate practically any living thing. Interestingly, it's not an actually breath attack or beam of energy, but a spell that causes anything hit by the "fire" to explode. Somewhat subverted, in that the spell that forms the basis for this technique, Rupture (a spell that creates an explosion), is a fairly common offensive technique among mages in the setting, except that Dragonfire differs greatly in terms of application (delivered through a "beam" rather than originating from a point) and sheer power (Rupture can mess up a person and the room they're standing in, but can be defended against, while Dragonfire can devastate a battlefield in one go). As per The Rant here, even in-universe experts are baffled about how Dragonfire works exactly
  • Socially Awkward Hero: While the 'hero' part might be debatable (though she certainly has good intentions), she's definitely not always graceful in regular social interactions. In Minus Years this was even more apparent, to the point where she had trouble with the idea of renting houses or buying computers. This is likely due to her being essentially raised as a Child Soldier, working with the IDS in the Situation Containment branch (specifically the "Monster Hunters"), before moving over to the more civilian Criminal Investigations. In an odd way, this helped her start to get along with Peter, as she didn't really have to worry about offending him due to his personality, which made him "sort of a relief to deal with."
  • Summon Magic: Her favorite method of dealing with a situation is to summon a red ethereal dragon that can fly, is effectively bulletproof and has a breath weapon that can shoot missiles out of the sky. It can even think, albeit in a limited manner. She's also quite fond of the dragon itself, treating it like a pet outside of battle until she unsummons it.
  • Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: Downplayed example. Part of Kally's motivation in staying in Malsa despite explicit orders to do otherwise is that she feels that her purpose in life is to fight Kor's World and/or demons, and she doesn't feel like she fits in well in situations outside those.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: While this is somewhat true for all magic within the setting, Kally's dragon (and the techniques that go with it) get a special mention, as the reason for its abilities can be summed as "it's a dragon." Why does it fly? Because dragons fly. Why is it strong and tough? Because dragons are strong and tough. Why does it have a breath weapon that Kally herself apparently can't use? Because "dragons breath fire, people don't."

    Tyler Weber 

Tyler Weber

The head of the Magical Security Branch - seems to take the IDS's de facto authority over his adopted nation personally. Has a strong sense of duty toward his job, but tends to favor action over politics and plotting. He possesses an Innate Talent for Ice magic, able to freeze a person (or even a combat zone) near instantly.

  • An Ice Person: The primary application of his power is this, included turning people into human the obligatory Human Popsicles. Stated to be an Innate Magical ability by the author.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Tyler earned his position as head of the MSB through merit (despite being fairly young), and has the favor of the Consul herself.
  • Badass in Distress: Is temporarily hospitalized after an ambush and has to be guarded from assassinations while he's recovering. Eventually does wake up and gets back to business.
  • Badass Longcoat: Is frequently seen wearing one of these, even having it as part of his MSB uniform.
  • Big Fish in a Bigger Ocean: Relatively anyway. He's a very powerful mage, and he very much earned his role as the head of the MSB...but as the story goes on he's put up against foes that are either not afraid to play dirty to win a fight, have tricks that he could never have anticipated like teleporting him to what is essentially the spirit world and leaving him there to die or are just plain stronger or more experienced than him. That's not to mention the much grander level of schemes of people like Peter that he gets caught up in. Tyler is not unaware of this, which may one of the reasons he's sided with Peter (since he at least seems to have a plan that won't end with Malsa in flames), even if he would prefer there to be more respect in the relationship.
  • Collateral Damage: The biggest downside of his powers is that he can't prevent it causing Friendly Fire at full strength, so either he's holding back for the sake of his teammates or is at full strength but without nearby support. According to the author here, Acacia and Kardus would have had a much harder time beating Tyler if Tyler hadn't had to worry about Marc.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Does a form of this with Peter by making him his heir in the event of Tyler's death. Given that Tyler just learned that he may have been raised to the rank of a Family mage, and Peter's response to being given authority, there is some logic there.
  • Foil: To Peter. Both are clever and talented young men, but while Peter is a schemer that prefers to work behind the scene and manipulate both friends and allies, Tyler often leads the charge and tries to be as upfront as he can. Tyler is a charismatic and personable leader, while Peter is often extremely aggravating to deal with and does not really get people at times. Tyler is a powerful mage while Peter's magical abilities are questionable, though he makes up for this somewhat with his talent at technology.
  • Heal It With Fire: The ice version of this, as Tyler uses his ice magic to freeze over a bullet wound to the neck to stop it bleeding. Unfortunately, this also prevents him from actually healing the wound at the time, but fortunately he's saved before it become fatal.
  • Hero of Another Story: Implied by the author in commentary that he had his own story before the beginning of the comic, but so far the details of this story have not shown up in the comic proper.
    • This story is expanded on in the webnovel starring Tyler as a protagonist.
  • Honor Before Reason: When Tyler is trapped inside what seems to be a spirit realm by one of the heads of the Rogue Families, his only hope to escape is with the help of Mium, who does so only on the condition that Tyler destroy the device Mium programmes with the necessary calculation after it's used. When Tyler escapes, he does just that, despite the calculation potentially being invaluable, as he figures that it's better to stay on the good side of Mium and Peter.
  • I Am Not Him: Inner monologue variant: when asks to go with Tyler to support him on his mission after suspiciously telling Tyler not to do it just before, Tyler is about to refuse...until he realizes that the reasons he was about to do (which can be summed up as "I trust myself in a fight more than I trust you") is how someone can become like Peter, and so changes his mind and allows Marc to along with him. This revelation turns out to be poorly timed, as Marc was ordered to betray Tyler by the Rogue Families, so that earlier suspicion was justified.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Barely averted. When he's told by a soldier that his new rank of 'Mage-Commander' implies that Consul has unofficially raised Tyler to the rank of a Family Mage, with all the prestige and rules that apply, he considers asking one of his friends, Marc, about the ramifications of this. Said soldier he was musing about this to then reveals that the title is used to raise people like Marc (who is implied to be a bastard of one of the Families, or at least from a very small branch) to full Family status, so asking him might hit a sore spot. Tyler, awkward at that revelation, thanks him for the warning.
  • Only Sane Man: According to The Rant here, one of the reasons that Tyler was made Mage-Commander by the Consul (aside from her political motivations) is that while there are many mages among Malsa's forces with more combat experience than him, he's better at "having-their-shit-together" than most of them. That same page even has an example of that, as several mages start getting into an argument in a dangerous situation before a nearby commander starts getting them organized again.
    • He's also this compared to most of Peter's inner circle once they start including him in some of their activities. This becomes most notable leading up to the infiltration of the Spirit World to find a Kor's World ship, where he questions the somewhat laissez-faire approach the group seems to be taking beyond whom pairs with whom.
  • Self-Imposed Exile: According to this Q&A, Tyler's decision to move to Malsa before he was made a Registered Mage in his birth country was a deliberate move, as he felt that becoming a Registered Mage there would have been a bad idea. Furthermore, if Tyler ever tried to return to his home country, he'd be assassinated (or at least they'd make a dedicated attempt to do so).

    Ila 

Ila

The F-10 Prototype, created by Doctor Mir after Doctor Martin disappeared, she is marked different than her predecessors. Debatably more successful, but that really depends on how you ask. For example, her 'big brother' Mium is not impressed.


  • Artificial Human: Hinted to be more like this than a Ridiculously Human Robot, given her behaviour (such as being persuaded by methods that should not work on an actual AI). There was also an occasion when she was forced to upload to Mium's systems due to Dr Martin's device, using a protocol Mium had made in case Miko tried such a thing, which worked surprisingly (and suspiciously) well with Ila.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: When Arkady is about to be killed in a battle while Ila's body was suddenly shut off, she begs Mium to help her because Arkady was one of the few people to be choose to be nice to her (Mium has to treat her well due to his "friends and family" rule, and Naomi is "incapable of being mena to cute things") and really try to treat her as a normal girl. She's even insists that Mium take over her body briefly when she was focibly shut down by Kardus (something she's been somewhat afraid as she sees it as 'being eaten') just so she has a chance of saving her friend.
  • Flight: Ila is one of the few characters in-universe that is capable of sustained flight over long distances by magic, with most other mages only accomplishing it over short distances or as a way to break a fall from midair. This is because flying with magic requires the user to be constantly casting and adjusting the Eidos calculations, which is both extremely difficult for most people and magically exhausting on top of that. Ila can accomplish this because she is one of, if not the best at casting multiple spells rapidly and simultaneously.
  • Glass Cannon: Compared to her brother, Ila's main strategy in a fight is to hit a target with mach-speed projectiles repeatedly until it dies, but she's much more vulnerable to damage than he is (e.g. hitting the ground after her flight magic was cancelled gave her a head injury that left her unconscious until Rovak healed her). Somewhat subverted, as she is capable of creating magical barriers that can withstand an attack from an Atter-possessed Spirit Beast, but it's not her speciality or her preferred method of fighting.
  • Magnetic Weapons: While main attack is usually called a 'Magical Railgun' this is actually averted, as she just uses magic to directly accelerate an object to hyper sonic speeds. Still is almost always a One-Hit Kill. Unless the target is her brother with his No-Sell power.
  • Mistaken for Murderer: Well, she has killed people, but in one instance she was mistaken for an assassin by Ashe briefly due some of her suspicious actions (being on a hospital floor meant to be restricted to the Mage Families, breaking the lock to a door to the roof, etc.). This ironically helped her prevent a murder as Ashe pointed out a flyer that Ila missed, cluing her onto the fact that an actual assassin was trying to kill the person Ila was meant to be protecting at that very moment.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Has the capacity to be this, as she's capable of accelerating projectiles up to speeds that match high velocity weapons like the Skyhammer.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Averted. She's an Artificial Human that looks like a young girl, and is pretty much just a young girl. Based on her brother, it is likely she will grow up an accelerated rate before likely stopping aging. If she can figure out her Healing Factor.
  • Restraining Bolt: Averted. After leaving Avon, she doesn't seem to have any sort of mental restraint or rules that prevent her from fully using her powers. Mium notes with some interest that some people may consider Ila to be more dangerous than himself, as unlike Mium (who has at least one restaint in his programming the prevents him from killing people in the name of efficieny) Ila has nothing to hold her back from using lethal measures, apart from the opinion of others like Mium and Arkady.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: Sees her brother's entry here and laughs. She is vastly more human, something that her brother repeatedly gives her grief for. For example, she despises the bland nutritious food he gives her, preferring cake.
  • Sibling Rivalry: Ila comes to develop a somewhat one-sided version of this with Mium, as she wants to show her worth as the "successful prototype" and Mium has become the benchmark to pass. Mium, for his part, doesn't seem really invested in it but humors Ila, though he never makes it easy on her.
  • Skewed Priorities: She once thwarts an armed invasion into a hospital. Not because she's defending the hospital, but because the invaders got in while she was getting treats from a vending machine, and she was more worried that her 'tasty-food' privilages would be revoked than about the person she was supposed to be protecting possibly getting assassinated. Yeah...
    • This happens again here, when after taking care of each would-be kidnapper she was aware of, she started to fly away to get "her stuff" from a nearby mall that's being destroyed by a ''separate'' fight. The moment she does so, the remaining kidnappers move in to capture the people she had been protecting. Luckily, she notices this almost immediately, and... fixes the issue.
  • Super Prototype: Averted. While Ila is quite powerful and can perform feats of magic well beyond most other mages in the story, she has several flaws that can bite her hard if she's not careful, in particular her tendency to shut down in the middle of a fight due to running out of energy. According to this Q&A, Ila was a prototype in the "proof-of-concept" sense, and as such was not particularly well designed (indeed, "designed" is a somewhat generous description).
  • Sweet Tooth: Despite being for all intents and purposes a Artificial Human, finding and eating Ice Cream or Cake or any "tasty food" seems to be her primary goal in life sometimes. It's become a fairly easy way to convince her to do something she's indifferent to (e.g. becoming friends with Naomi's younger sister with the promise of treats from Naomi for her sister's friends).
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Ila can be very unnerving to some people, as she can go from a food-obsessed young girl to brutally effective killing machine and back again in a heartbeat, with no sense of cognitive dissoance or remorse about the matter.
  • Tyke Bomb: While her actual age is unknown, her origins (an Artificial Human made by a Mad Scientist working for Avon), personality (childish and immature) and abilities (mage with extremely destructive capabilities) make Ila a good fit for this trope.

    Miko 

Miko/Taki Kepler

An angry young girl who would seem to prefer most of her time in her room if not for unwanted distractions from the outside world.
Peter's cousin, and Arron's niece, her original name was Taki, but she has abandoned that name and hates being called it. Peter moved her from Central to Malsa some time before the start of the story, she is currently assisting Peter in his plans, though it seems that he would prefer to keep her out of danger if possible. Is close friends with Mium since his time as Query, but is jealous that Naomi seems to have taken that role away (or at least that's how she sees it), often using the insult "purple gorilla" when talking about her.

  • Ambiguous Disorder: She may possibly be on the autistic spectrum, or just misanthropic, given her strong dislike of interacting with others. She may also be borderline sociopathic, as she seems to care very little for anyone outside her small circle of friends (mostly Peter and Mium).
  • Brain Uploading: Miko has expressed some interest in this on occasion, mainly in regards to Mium's network/A.A. system. This is possibly due to her hinted illness in the past souring her opinion on her flesh and blood body. This has raised some concerns from Peter, mostly because the last person they knew of that tried something like that was Dr Mir, who did not come out of that experience for the better.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: Her general attitude towards others is this, though it's usually less "bratty" and more "annoyed whenever she's dealing with idiots, and nearly everyone else is an idiot compared to her." This gets worse when she's forced to go outside her room.
  • Child Prodigy: Can be considered one, given her age and the skills she shows in programming and with computers in general. It's implied that she's one of the few people that Peter considers his intellectual equal.
  • Enraged by Idiocy: She tends to get annoyed very quickly when dealing with anyone either dumber or slower on the uptake than her, which with her intelligence pretty much means everyone (with the exception of maybe Peter and Mium).
  • Hates Everyone Equally: Her baseline attitude towards virtually everyone (whether this could be genuine misanthropy or just the outlook of a surly teenager with bad life experience is still up for debate). It's probably easier to count the number of people she isn't perpetually annoyed by. There are people who have earned some actual hate in her eyes, like Dr. Mir and Arron Kepler, though the reasons aren't always clear (in Arron's case, this resentment seems to be rooted in Arron's attempt to keep a promise to protect Miko/Taki that ended up going wrong, but we do not yet have the complete picture).
  • I Choose to Stay: While she was very tempted to stay connected to Mium's network, with the freedom from her physical body and the virtual omniscience that could offer, she ultimately chooses to stay because Peter and "him" (possibly Mium) trusted her not to do so (as it would be equivalent to physically dying), so she'll stay human... at least for now.
  • Morality Chain: Peter serves as one to her in a bizarre way, given his own shaky sense of ethics. Miko has stated that if anything were to happen to Peter, she would take Mium (a being with vastly powerful information processing and manipulation abilities, who has been forbidden from killing people to future-proof his plans as that would inevitably end in everyone dying) and teach him to hate.
  • Mysterious Past: Like a lot of the Kepler family, there's a lot of questions about her history that haven't been fully explained. From flashbacks and comments and conversations from character who knew her, Taki was apparently confined to a wheelchair, then had some type of implant placed in her only for it to malfunction and send her into a coma. She then woke up somehow (though several characters suspect Peter was involved, possibly by fixing the implant with the aid of Mium), and later moved from Central to Malsa with Peter, changing her name to Miko. There are still gaps and questions about her past, particularly about her relationship with her mother and with her uncle Arron.
  • Older Than They Look: As per the author, Miko is older than she looks. This may be due to her time in a wheelchair or in a coma hindering her growth.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Miko has a...robust vocabulary and can be very creative with her threats when annoyed.
    Miko: "...So you are going to come with me and tell some annoying gits to stay out of my way and give me what I want, or I will use what's left of your spine to floss your arsehole and carve my way there wielding your corpse as a sock-puppet..."
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: When Miko tried syncing herself with Mium's systems due to Vium causing them to lock up by not wanting to die when the A.A. system was shut off, she began morphing into her virtual avatar (a miko that looks like an older, more mature looking version of herself with longer hair). After de-syncing, she found that her hair grew in length to match her avatar's, possibly due to her unintenioning rewriting her data in Eidos, much to her annoyance. She resolves to get a haircut before Peter notices, as it might cause him to become more concerned than she feels in necessary. She forgets to do that.
    • This happens again when the group enters the Spirit Realm to find a Kor's World ship hidden there, which was immediately noticed, though only Tyler thinks to actually question it at the time.

Kor's World

     As a whole 
A parallel world of humans that came to Earth once upon a time, kicked up a bunch of dust, broke plenty of stuff and then left again, just as mysteriously. While Earth was greatly dis-advantaged technologically, the locals outnumbered them by orders of billions to one, and ultimately "won" the fight after turning Terra Firma into an irradiated hell-hole through liberal use of nuclear weapons, at which point Kor's World "lost interest" and left.
  • The Dreaded: Simply the mention that they're on the playing field and IDS goes nuts, rightly so.
  • Faceless Mooks: Except for one very brief occasion, we've never seen a member of Kor's World outside of his or her intimidating red armor with opaque face shield, and even then that was just the face.
  • Fantastic Racism: Whatever the deal with Kor's World is, their soldiers seem to really hate sentient red constructs and the ones who summon and/or anchor them. It's to the point that one soldier preferred to attack Kally due to her dragon summon rather than the actual demon she was fighting. It's notable as this is the closest we've gotten to a motive for Kor's World's actions thus far.
  • Generic Doomsday Villain: Precious little is known about them, and none of it involves their motivations. Peter likens them to a meteor strike. They show up, destroy your civilization, and then move on. Nobody knows why. Based on the comments by on of their soldiers from this page, it may be related to either the presence of demons, S.M.A.I. (given how thoroughly they tried to kill Mium previously) or both.
  • Hive Mind: Implied. All members of Kor's World speak in a robotic monotone and aside from taunting their opponent only speak to "Control." They never act independently.
  • Humans Are Insects: Despite being biologically human themselves, they see the natives of whatever world they visit as annoying insects, not people, so they have no qualms about using whatever force they need to, and care not a whit about collateral damage.
  • Obviously Evil: They wear red, intimidating armor, treat the locals of any world as bugs to squash if they get in the way, and care not a bit about collateral damage, happily using HVM's on armored targets with abandon.
  • Technologically Advanced Foe: Only the IDS using its full might can compete with these guys in anything resembling equal terms, because the IDS reverse-engineered their tech from their one and only visit to Earth. Against everyone else, they hold the clear tech advantage, and if they take an interest in your world, you can pretty much kiss your society goodbye.

Inter-Dimensional Security (IDS)

Founded in the wake of the Incursion, the IDS is a Central organization meant to serve as a security force to any country or world that signs the Interdimensional Treaty with them, preventing incidents such as cross-dimensional smuggling or invasions. In practice, while some members genuinely do want to help, others are more than willing to exploit or ignore those at a lower technology lever to theirs, up to and including suppressing certain technological developments (such as dimensional gate detection) just to maintain their advantage. The branches of the IDS operating in Malsa that we know of so far are Criminal Investigations (led by Arron Kepler), Corporate Affairs (led by Bianca Beyer) and Situation Containment (led by Sofia).

     Bianca Beyer 
The first IDS agent introduced. She is extremely corrupt and has had illegal dealings with PACT, opened unsanctioned portals on Malsa, and smuggled who knows what for an extended period of time. Her ultimate goal is to strengthen IDS's powerbase enough to be ready for a potential upcoming second conflict with Kor's World. Because of Peter Kepler's continual inference with her plans (on the grounds that said plans are both morally bankrupt and dangerously short-sighted), she has made it her life's mission to take down Peter by any means necessary, even if that means killing her fellow agents. Aaron Kepler has a personal grudge with her for that last one as one of his agents died as a result of her schemes going awry and an already frosty relationship between the two turned irredeemably and mutually hostile as a result.
  • Arch-Enemy: To both Peter and Aaron Kepler. The former because she's a large part of the corruption within the IDS (at least within Malsa) that Peter has messed with significantly due to her plans being dangerously stupid in his eyes (which doesn't even include the multiple attempts she's made on his life), the latter because of a long-standing disagreement regarding ethics that escalated when her plots started to endanger both his subordinates and innocent civilians on a massive scale.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: So much so that her peers and supervisors want to keep her on Malsa, because bringing her back to Central for discipline is only going to give her the opportunity to be even more damaging.
  • General Ripper: She hates Kor's World at the atomic level and will do any atrocity she can that might have even the tiniest chance of bringing war to them.
  • Good Is Old-Fashioned: She believes Aron Kepler is "out of date" because he acts with honor and integrity, and those methods "won't work anymore with the threats we're facing."
  • She Who Fights Monsters: In her obsession with hunting Kor's World, she has taken to using their methods, especially the part about not caring a whit about collateral damage.
  • Sunk Cost Fallacy: One of the reasons she refuses Jakim's order to come back is because, as one of Jakim's subordinates speculates, Bianca firing the Skyhammer on Malsa has left her in a position where she'll lose everything if she doesn't come back with something. This has led her to siding with Orin (one of the factions on Palindra that Central hasn't gotten on their side yet) in the hopes of bringing them into Central's fold, though it's just as likely that Orin is just using her to get access to IDS's military hardware.
  • The End Justifies the Means: She honestly believes that all her actions will be justified the moment her goals are met, even if that involves using an HVM on an innocent city.
  • What Were You Thinking?: Bianca ordered Sophie to summon and set loose a known demonic Serial Killer in Malsa to hunt down Peter. Naturally, the demon goes on to kill a bunch of random innocents on live TV. (Which Peter goes on to exploit in the propaganda war against her.) Sophie even calls her out on this.
    Sophie: "The situation was never containable. What did you think was going to happen when you ordered me to let loose a demon that likes to kill humans in a human city?"

     David 
One of Bianca's subordinates, and a leading figure in Situation Containment. A brash and confrontational man who would prefer to just deal with a problem directly rather than bother with the politics of a situation.
  • Everyone Has Standards: He's not entirely happy when the plan starts to involve kidnapping children to use as leverage against Peter's allies, though more so because the situation strikes him as a potential trap than for other reasons.
  • Fantastic Racism: His temper seems to finally begin to snap when Rovak tries to blow him up while retrieving the Orish forces lent to Bianca's cause, referring to Malsa (or possibly Palindra as a whole) as a "backwater shit hole" and derides the Families as "thinking" they matter."
  • Informed Attribute: Aaron claims that David is a "good soldier" who will make the right decision in the end. His alliance with Bianca, and the decisions he makes while on Palindra such as the attempted assassination of the Consul make this claim questionable.
  • Never My Fault: In contrast with The Scapegoat below, David never really takes full responsibility for the mess made by either his or Bianca's decisions, instead getting angry at the natives of Palindra, or at Peter and his allies, for refusing to give up.
  • The Needs of the Many: When questioned about his reluctance to kidnap children after previously attempting to assassinate the Consul, David tries to justify the latter by saying that killing the Consul would have saved millions for the cost of one life.
  • The Scapegoat: David tries to take the blame for the attempted abduction of Kallisto Summers, citing it as a measure to reduce the risk of the deteriorating situation in Malsa turning even worse. This fails, as he's trying it on Aaron Kepler, who knows damn well who's really to blame (Bianca) but didn't press on it at the time.

     Sophie 
Bianca's top operative and the Director of Situation Containment. Her motives for helping Bianca are unknown.
  • Blood Knight: When Kallisto arrives to confront Sophie due to Sophie anchoring Atter and unleashing him in the first place, Sophie isn't concerned about the fact that she's facing down a pissed off Kally (riding atop a dragon no less) or about herself currently being arrested (which she views as just being put in a box until Central needs her again). Instead she's far more interested in the question "Can I beat a dragon?" with a Slasher Smile on her face.
  • Evil Mentor: Has been referenced as having been a mentor to Kally before, and has certainly gone a bit off the deep end by the time we see here, what with the demon summoning and following Bianca's orders. Potentially averted, as we don't know if she was this way while she was Kally's mentor, or if this was a recent development.
  • I Shall Taunt You: When she's being arrested, she taunts Kallisto, trying to provoke a fight. Fortunately, Peter spoke to Kallisto first, and she was able to keep her cool, despite the fact that Sofia's little stunt with the Serial Killer gave Kally, among several, more than ample justification to want her dead.
  • Just Following Orders: How she justifies letting loose a Boxed Crook Serial Killer on Malsa, despite knowing what would happen, because it was Bianca's orders.
  • Mad Scientist: Downplayed, but present. She mostly cares only about her demon-summoning research. Human lives are precious, but of secondary interest.
  • We Used to Be Friends: She was considered a close friend of several members of Aaron Kepler's unit, and a few of Peter's, then she went and set loose that demon on Bianca's orders...
    • As she explains later, she still views Aaron as a friend to an extent, and possibly would have sided with him if he had shown the same drive previously, but she ultimately sided with Bianca because they both wanted to prepare to fight Kor's World and Bianca had more initiative in that regard.

     Atter 
A subordinate of Sophie. Has the appearance of a man in his mid-twenties, blond hair with unusual tattoos. He is not popular among other Agents (particularly Nathan) as he's actually a demon that Sophie summoned and provided an 'anchor' for, allowing him to survive what should be fatal encounters.
  • Body Surf: Is revealed to be able to do this, and not just between human bodies as he's able to possess and corrupt a kaiju-sized construct, and then a recently killed corpse of a soldier when said constuct was destroyed.
  • Serial Killer: Is called this by several characters. He has no objection to this, and is quite happy to carry out his assignments in a way that will justify killing as many people as possible under the thin veneer of simplifying the plans of his bosses.
  • Villain Override: Does this to Eliana's "spirit beast" by shifting his consciousness into it, as his current human body was becoming battered and the new Kaiju-sized, ethereal construct body would allow him to massacre everyone. Fortunately, he was stopped by Ila and Kallisto.

     Elizabeth 
One of Sophie's subordinates, officially her bodyguard. A talented magic user, with the title of "witch."
  • Bodyguarding a Badass: Her role seems to be a bodyguard to Sophie, who is implied to be a very powerful magic user on par with someone like Kally.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: One sign of her being one of the saner members of Bianca's circle is that she recognizes when she stands no chance in a fight (such as when Nathan came to speak with Sophie about the whole Atter fiasco) and is willing to stand down. She may also advise this to others, such as when Kally came to arrest Sophie, where Elizabeth told Sophie that, as her bodyguard, the best thing she could do to protect Sophie was to reccommend that Sophie go quietly as a fight between the two Tactical mages would result in a bad outcome for everyone.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: While it seems that she may not entirely approve of Bianca's and Sophie's actions (in particular, she was perturbed by the fact that Sophie knew full well what would happen when Atter was set loose), her ultimate duty in her eyes is to protect Sophie. That said, she's not stupid, and she won't pick a losing fight if there's nothing to gain by it.

     Tokiwa 
A member of Situation Containment, and thus one of Sophie's subordinate, and a member of Bianca's inner circle. She seems to be the one most aware of the ramifications of Bianca's scheme, at least in regards to the inner politics of the IDS and Central.
  • Not So Above It All: For a while, it looked Tokiwa was the least inclined to get involved with some of escalating machincations of Bianca and Sophie (if only out of pragmatism). Then she hired an assassin to either kill or delay Nathan.
  • Only Sane Man: Appeared to be this for a time compared to Bianca and the rest of her conspiracy (with the possible exception of Elizabeth), but would eventually show that she's about as corrupt as the rest of them (though perhaps not nearly as extreme as Bianca) with her plot against Nathan, hoping that it would hinder or kill him, it's just that she's more concerned with the political appearance of their group rather than the actual results.

     Arron Kepler 
"The only reason Kallisto is there is that Peter wants her there. If we send in agents, he will send back corpses and a note with 'IOU [Some Agents], Peter!' Brute force is absolutely NOT going to work, Bianca!"

The head of IDS's Criminal Investigations branch on Malsa, he's also Peter's uncle, and the one who's been trying for some time to bring him back to the fold, without success. Despite the fact that he intimately knows how Peter ticks, he still can't figure out the latter's agenda, how to stop him, help him, or bring him back to IDS for a debriefing.


  • A Father to His Men: He takes the safety of his subordinates very seriously. When Bianca uses their lives as collateral to try and get him to turn over seeking out Peter to her, he was irritated. When her schemes resulted in the death of at least one of his junior agents, it escalated to open warfare.
  • Fatal Flaw: According to Miko, from this page, Arron has two major flaws (while Miko isn't exactly unbiased in regards to Arron, it's notable that he doesn't argue either one);
    • Pride: Arron, while probably the most diplomatic leading figure within the IDS seen so far, is also somewhat arrogant in subtle ways, either believing that he knows or understands more of a situation than he actually does, particularly in regards to Peter or Miko (the latter of which points out the contradiction where he says the two are probably too clever by half but consistently underestimates them, seeing them as children who are messing with things they don't understand) or ignoring rules when he feels he has a righteous cause (which is which is ironic considering he criticized Peter for acting in a similar way).
    • Sloth: An unusual example, but Miko claims that Arron has "a cowardly compulsion to keep the world from changing," to maintain the status quo, even if it's severely flawed or doomed to fail, to preserve the peace. It's possible this stems from his experiences fighting Kor's World, where he saw the effects of the chaos and destruction first hand.
  • Life-or-Limb Decision: When Bianca's pet demon marks his arm with some unidentified spell, he has to make the grim decision to either find out what the spell does, first hand, or chop his arm off to rid himself of the spell's influence. He ultimately chooses the latter.
  • Old Soldier: He looks old enough to be Peter's grandfather, and he's still in active service. He should have retired decades ago, but he doesn't trust Bianca's way of doing things, and these fears prove justified.
  • Older Than They Look: Looks visibly older than his older brother Kyle (Peter's father), who looks to be in his forties (with the exception of some grey hair). It's possible that Aaron's time in the front line of the war with Kor's World took a toll on his health.
  • Properly Paranoid: He is very distrustful of Bianca and her methods, and this all proves justified when she comes up with the "brilliant" idea to set loose a Serial Killer to go after Peter because the IDS can't manage to arrest or detain him.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Played with. After Bianca crosses one too many lines and the lack of response from Central, Arron finally decides to take the matter into his own hands such as invading Malsa with his soldiers to save the Consul from a potential assassination attempt. However, Atsu (one of Arron's long-time political opponents) notes that Arron is very good at juggling the rules and regulations to suit his needs or justify his involvement.
  • This Means War!: After Bianca's little stunt (attempted kidnapping of Kally) and the death of his men, not to mention her war crime, he goes postal and devotes all his efforts to bring Bianca down. Because she feels justified in her actions, drowning in self-righteousness, she resists him, leading to an internal civil war among the Malsan IDS parties. When a third party tries to mediate, he shouts the guy down.
    Arron:"No! There will be no mediation, negotiation, or reconciliation! If you stick your meddling hand in this, I'll break it!"

     Emmi Esks 
A Criminal Investigations agent serving under Arron Kepler. A long time member in the division, she knew both Peter and Kally there since they joined. Was killed by Atter during his initial attack in Malsa.

     Nathan Summers 
Older brother of Kallisto Summers. Warden of Ervon. Carrier of the Fanciest Stick. Nathan Summers is one of the "old guard" of magic users from before the Incursion, and an incredibly accomplished mage at that. Technically works under Arron Kepler as a member of the IDS's Criminal Investigations branch, Nathan seems to be given a lot of leeway in his job, probably to perform his duties as Warden (whatever those may entail).
  • Arch-Enemy: Atter is currently this, due to his murdering Emmi Esks. This could technically extend to Sophie, who both summoned Atter and is currently anchoring him to prevent him from truly dying, but Nathan seems more reluctant to want to kill her at the moment.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Often gives dramatic sounding speeches when preparing to fight his enemies, who are often left more nonplussed that someone actually talks like that than actually intimidated by the speeches. That said, very few people who actually know Nathan want to fight him in any way, and for good reason.
  • Gut Feeling: There's something that Nathan calls "Providence" that sometimes warns him of threats before they happen (see here for an example) that blurs the line between this trope and Spider-Sense. What exactly Providence is isn't clear, as it could be something Nathan has as a result of using an older style of magic, or it could just be a fancy name for Nathan's heightened survival instincts from years of an exciting (and very dangerous) lifestyle.
  • My Greatest Failure: Not killing Atter sooner seems to have become this for him, berating himself for delaying it with various excuses after he finds Emmi's body after she was killed by Atter. It's implied that he's spent several days searching for Atter with little rest.
  • Shaped Like Itself. His official rank within the IDS is classified. As in, the rank is officially named "Classified." Which is also classfied. It's implied to be intentionally vague so that Nathan can have the freedom necessary to his job without the regulations of the IDS getting in his way.
  • Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Can create a magical staff called "the Staff of Kavil," which is implied to have some history to it and even Naomi (who herself admits isn't that skilled in reading Eidos) notes that there is a lot more Eidos data written into it than a normal staff should have. Nathan mostly uses it to hit stuff with, particularly demons, which it's admittedly effective at.
  • Weirdness Magnet: Has a (somewhat justified) reputation for being a harbinger of weird problems wherever he appears (in part due to his work, which has made him several enemies, including demons).
    Peter: [upon seeing a monstrous red construct in a corridor]: "Dammit Nathan. Shit like this only happens when you show up."

    Tom 
A Special Agent of the IDS, and the partner/assistant/sidekick of Nathan Summers. It's unclear how he came to be working with Nathan, but he notes it's a frequently unpleasant experience due to the dangers Nathan often either attracts or seeks out. Tom is notably an expert in using Ellipsis, if not the best at using it. Is also often seen carrying around a crowbar.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: While Tom may grumble about Nathan's tendency to attract or seek out dangerous situations (with Tom often being dragged along), he'll still try to look out for Nathan in his own way (see Refuge in Audacity below for an example).
  • Had to Be Sharp: Has somewhat hightened survival instincts, which he attributes to hanging around with Nathan.
  • Improbable Weapon User: The crowbar he carries around. It's unclear why he carries it around instead of literally anything else, though he once used it to "squish" a spell that had been cast by Atter, so there may be more to it than meets the eye.
  • Perception Filter: Has this in the form of Ellipsis, and is noted for being one of, if not the, best at using it.
  • Refuge in Audacity: During a time when Nathan was getting some much-needed rest after attempting to hunt down Atter for several days, Tom spent that time sitting on a bench in a nearby park telling anyone that passed by that he's resting, go away. Most dismissed him as a crazy homeless man (without him even needing to use Ellipsis due to his appearance) and only Aaron actually responded.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Inverted. Tom apparently looked fairly normal in the past, but by the start of the story he looks like a dishevelled bum. He seems to use this to his advantage on occasion.

     Kurun 
A member of the Situation Containment unit, specifically the Monster Hunters.
  • All in the Manual: His name isn't revealed in the comic itself, but in The Rant here.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Technically appeared early on when the Monster Hunters tried to arrest Kallisto on the orders of Bianca and Sophie, but didn't show his face (or even get a name) until here.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: It's unclear what his actual rank is, but he stops one of squad members (a Null Caster) from trying to arrest Kallisto any further as it would likely just get him killed, recognizing that the mission had already gone FUBAR. He also tries to stand between Sophie and Kallisto as they get ready to fight each other, pointing out that a fight between two of the IDS's Tactical Mages would be a loss for the IDS whatever the outcome.

Central

Once upon a time, there was a world not that unlike our own, with the exception of their politics and history...and a secret underground society of magic users. This all changed when the existence of other universes was confirmed for them by the invasion of Kor's World. With the help of the magic users, now acting publicly to prevent the extinction of the human race, and the development of autocasters, this world was able to fight off Kor's World, or at least survive until the invaders left as suddenly as they arrived. Victory was not without cost however, as much of their world was left uninhabitable and many of their population had been killed. But with the discovery of certain "bridgepoints" (points where stable portals to other realities can be maintained), this people of this world which would come to be known as Central (as they were the "center" of each world they discovered) expanded their influence, leveraging their advanced magic and technology to convince these other worlds to cooperate with them.

     Kyle Kepler 
A major leading figure in the Civil Service, husband to Lily Kepler, brother to Aaron Kepler and father of Peter and Mari Kepler. Seems to be helping Peter with his schemes, though how much he actually knows about those schemes remains to be seen.
  • Bothering by the Book: Attempts to curtail the IDS's attempts to deal with Peter by getting himself dismissed from their hearings (by constantly questioning, and even heckling, Nick Otte while he's giving an explanation for the events on Malsa), which would leave them without someone from the Civil Service in attendance, meaning they couldn't take any official legal action. One of the members at the meeting notes that Kyle has been using his influence to keep other Civil Service Oversight members away for this exact purpose.
  • Like Father, Like Son: It's not hard to see where Peter may have gotten some of his tendencies from, though Kyle has better people skills than his son.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: One of the few people in the upper echelons of Central's command that actually wants to fix things and is willing to take action to do so.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: One possible interpretation of his character. While his intentions seem to be helping to fix a corrupt system for the good of everyone, he's involved in some ethically questionable schemes and is willing to use less than legal methods, including working with his currently criminal son Peter.

     Lily Kepler 
A former reseacher/engineer, though she's been retired for some time. She's the wife of Kyle Kepler and the mother of Peter and Mari Kepler.
  • Like Father, Like Son: Like Mother, Like Son in this case. It's likely that Peter learned some of his technical skills from her, though it seems they went in different directions; Lily seems to be better at hardware while Peter prefers to work with software and computers (though he does dabble with hardware, such as with the Kor's World tech he's taken).
  • Locked Out of the Loop: More so "ignorant" than being deliberately kept out of the matter, but she seems surprisingly unaware of the politicial situation when she suggests to Kyle that they hand over the original frame for Query, currently damaged, to the IDS to properly analyze it after her own failures to do so. The same IDS who are currently engaged in a civil war on Malsa, who may be trying kill her son (though she may be recommending one of the saner factions when she's talking about the IDS).
  • The Engineer: Was this back in the day, but has retired for some time. She still has some skills, but she lacks the resources to properly examine something like Query.

     Mari Kepler 
Peter's older sister. In comparison to her brother, father, mother and uncle, Mari stands out for being fairly normal. In fact, her day job is being a teacher. This may be changing as Mari has begun acting oddly after speaking with a program given to her by Peter which may or may not be Query.
  • The Team Normal: Compared to her fairly accomplished family, Mari's life as a teacher is somewhat mundane. This has caused a slightly strained relationship to form between her and her father as she feels he showed preference for Peter (e.g. trying to enlist Peter in the Civil Service before he dropped out and joined the IDS) while he left Mari to her own devices. To be fair, this might have been him trying to let her have some freedom in her life, and he genuinely does care about her.

     Atsu Jakim 
The Director of the Board of Oversight for the IDS. He was present on the meeting regarding the escalating conflict between the IDS and Malsa.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has unexplained scars around his head, possibly burn marks or something similar. He's one of the major political opponents for both Aaron and Kyle Kepler, who question the effectiveness of the Oversight Board as a whole given the current situation.

     Minerva Saywood 
The Undersecretary of Interdimensional Affairs for the Office of Executive Bureaucracy. One of her major concerns is the immigration of Central citizens, specifically trying to get more people onto worlds like Malsa in order to ease the burden on Central's current habitations. She's one of Aaron's allies on Central.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: During one of the meetings regarding the situation on Malsa, she recommends just letting Aaron, who seems to be building up for a major conflict with Bianca and her allies, "clean house" given the actions of the latter. She even points out to the higher-ups at IDS that they partly have themselves to blame for Aaron going over their heads, given how they sealed his inquiry into the assests used by Corporate Affairs, as it would have revealed some damning evidence on Corporate Affair and potentially the IDS as a whole.

     Colonel Ricci 
An IDS-Central Military Colonel, and a veteran of the Incursion. Was given operational command over the situation in Malsa when the Regional Commander Karov abdicated his role to avoid facing the responsibility of dealing with the Malsan rebellion. Ricci immediately used his authority to place the Situation Containment division under his command and out of Sophie's, leaving the two sides of the conflict more equal.
  • Colonel Badass: Apparently during the Incursion, he attacked a Kor's World soldier with a shovel. And survived.
  • The Chains of Commanding: Begins to feel the weight of the responsibility of his position after his interrogation of Sophie for her role in supporting Bianca and summoning and anchoring Atter, but unlike Karov he's at least willing to face it and carry on.

Avon

Based in Malsa, Avon appears to be an small but successful electronics company, selling cutting edge, high-tech devices. Underneath the surface, Avon conducts very advanced, very illegal, and often very immoral experiments that can only defined as mad science, with the goal of "changing the world." Was once part of PACT, until they broke away for unspecified reasons.

     Dr Mir 

Dr "Miranda" Mir

One of Avon's foremost scientists (as she sees it) in the field of AI research. She's also a prominent example of both mad scientist and mad science experiment, as in an effort to advance her effort of converting human intelligence into A.I. as a method of artificial evolution, she somehow uploaded her mind into a robotic shell. Whether this was an actual success or not is a subject of debate among Avon personnel, though rarely to her face as the procedure seems to have left her significantly unstable and very willing to kill someone if they annoy her.


  • Arch-Enemy: She and Mium seem to be this to each other; Mir is one of the few people Mium seems to display any negative opinions about, while Mium is unambiguously hated by Mir, who often insults him with the title of "virus." This seems to stem from their shared history from when Mium was M.Y.M. and when Mir was the assistant of Dr Martin though further details about that time have yet to be revealed.
  • Ax-Crazy: If you are an obstacle to Dr Mir and her research in her eyes, or even just an annoyance, she's fully willing to murder you if you don't get out of her way immediately. If you don't, your best hope is that she's distracted by a more immediate issue (such as an invasion of her lab).
  • Berserk Button: While pissing her off has become very easy since her Brain Uploading, there are still some notable topics that can make her murderous very quickly. These include mentioning Mium or M.Y.M., questioning her research or comparing her to Dr Martin or calling her his assistant.
  • Brain Uploading: What she claims to have done, and considers it to have been a success. Several of the other Avon staff and scientists don't seem to agree, and question how much of her mind is even left, particularly if she even has an Eidos Key left (a key part of the human mind needed to perform magic that hasn't been successfully been replicated in AI form) as she hasn't been seen perform magic since her procedure.
  • Broken Pedestal: To Miko, of all people, who looked to Mir as a respected and talented scientist, until Miko realised that Mir was used as an experiment by Dr Martin until he abandoned Mir, something she's worried Peter may do with her eventually.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Speculated in-universe that something like this may have happened, as she was a mage before her change but has not been since using magic since then, and Peter notes that she was not always as crazy as she is now.
  • Mad Scientist: She transferred her mind to a robotic body to advance her research to create the ultimate AI that won't go rogue by digitizing a human mind, and she will make murderous threats based on any perceived insult or offense, regardless of the intent of the person she's speaking to. Yeah, she qualifies.
  • Stunned Silence: As Dr Mir prepares to kill Miko after she returns to the Avon facilities, Miko shuts her up (briefly) by admitting that she used to look up to Dr Miranda for her seeming freedom, but now only pities her as "Miranda" may have only been an experiment to Dr Martin in the end.

     Gate 
A researcher working in Avon's more secretive research division. Was first seen working under Dr Mir, though his official role is unknown Was apparently killed in a raid by Orish mercenaries, only to turn up alive and assisting in the development for Vium's body.

     Ryn Koko 
Brought into Avon when his old friend Ikirium ("Ikki") became the CEO of the company, Ryn Koko is probably the public face of Avon, setting himself up as a technological visionary of the future under the brand of "Ryn Tomorrow," helping to bring Avon up from a struggling company to a massively successful corporation. In reality, while Ryn is skilled in marketing and public relations, he is much less interested in the actual technology and would love nothing less than to enjoy the fruits of his position while not being involved in the "supervillain" aspects of the research departments. Unfortunately, his own success works against him as it convinces the CEO that Ryn is the ideal man as the Chief Technology Officer to oversee the activities of the scientists under Avon's employ.
  • Best Friend: This to Ikki. This seems to be the only thing that gets him to agree his request to become the CTO while the CEO leave to find out what his mother was planning to do with the company.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Accused of this by Ikki when Ryn tries to explain why he would be a terrible choice to be CTO. In Ikki''s eyes, Ryn couldn't have gotten as successful and wealthy as he has if he were truly as dumb as he claimed to be.
  • Genre Savvy: Sometimes. When he's invited to a conference at short notice, and he receives a message (likely from Peter) with a plan that could throw everything into chaos. He decides to follow the plan, despite being aware that the mastermind probably doesn't his interests in mind, since he and Avon have nothing to lose and there could more opportunities in chaos.
  • Only Sane Man: Seems to be this for Avon as a whole, especially in comparison to the researchers.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Wants to do this when Ikki asks him to become the CTO, even offering to take Ikki with him as Avon has become a much more dangerous risk, but can't bring himself to leave his friend alone when Ikki refuses to abandon his mother's company.
  • Snowball Lie: As part of a scheme by (probably) Peter, Ryn claims that he helped Levinworth develop their trans-dimensional gate detector, when in reality it was given to them by Peter as a way to give legitimacy to Levinsworth's own claims and prevent IDS from confiscating the technology. Later on, this almost puts Ryn in an awkward spot when he almost slips in front of someone else who wasn't in the know about that, and he thinks about having Saria make a chart of who knows what.
  • The Hedonist: Mild example, but Ryn states that his life goals are "buying a giant yacht, appearing on magazines covers, and having a hot secretary," and so far he has successfully done at least all 3 so far. Peter somewhat affirms this by saying that Ryn only desires three things; money, fame and safety, which makes Ryn predictable, and thus reliable, to deal with.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: When hiring outside IT consultants to make their computer systems AI-hacker proof, he puts Saria, his attractive secretary, in charge of overseeing them, on the basis that they're the stereotypical computer geeks (young men with little experience with women) and thus they'll be too distracted by her looks to plan anything dangerous to Avon. Not only are said consultants both female and uninterested in the secretary (indeed one is rather annoyed by her), one of those consultants is there to exploit the opportunity presented to plant their own bugs and backdoors in Avon's systems. To add insult to injury, hiring outside consultants was Ryn's idea in the first place, though the reasoning was sound (they needed someone that was both skilled with computers and discrete enough to not talk about what they found in their systems).
    • He also sees himself (figuratively) as the main character in his story, with all the perks that come with it, and thus doesn't always take things as seriously as they may warrant, such as her where he's about two steps away from Miko killing him out of desperation and frustration, though thankfully he's smart enough to listen to his secretary in this case.

     Saria 
Ryn Koko's cyan-haired and attactive secretary, she handles a lot of his schedule and keeping him updated on day-to-day matters. By Ryn's own admission, she's much smarter than her boss and certainly knows much more about what actually goes on in Avon than he does. Despite this, she seems to have a lot of faith in Ryn, and helps to convince him to take his new role as Chief Technology Officer seriously.
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: While her job at Avon is to be Ryn's secretary and all the duties that go along with that, Saria knows a lot more about Avon than he does (including the shadier employees on the payroll), has at least some magical ability (more shown than Ryn anyway) and Ryn himself states she's smarter than himself. Downplayed, as she does not have the usual level of competence associated with this trope, but is certainly more adept in her role than her employer.
  • Just Think of the Potential!: Her argument for Ryn accepting the position of Chief Technology Officer, despite Ryn's own hesitation, is that it offers the opportunity to use the true technology of Avon to help everyone, believing that Ryn is the man that could make it happen.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: Despite working for Avon, she has a very functional set of morals. For example, when one of Avon's facilities was attacked, her first instinct was to go back to find some contractors that may be in danger. Bear in mind, the invaders was making themselves known by blowing up parts of the building. Miko (one of said contractors) is actually shocked when Saria finds them and explains what she's doing, with Miko wondering out loud how Avon could have a minion that fails so bad at being evil.
  • Morality Pet: Among the various other things she does for Ryn, she sometimes acts as his conscience. It was her that convinced him that he could actually do some good with the unwanted role as CTO with the true technology of Avon available to them.
  • Sexy Secretary: This trait is one of the main reasons that Ryn hired her in the first place. Fortunately for him, not only is she very talented on top of her looks, she's aware enough of her own appearance (and may be attracted to Ryn herself) that she doesn't take offense when Ryn states this fact within her hearing. It probably helped that a). he was in an emotional state when he said this and wasn't saying it in a way intended to be insulting, and b). was suitably embarrassed shortly afterwards.

     Dr Martin 

Dr Hadrian Martin

A former researcher for Avon, and their resident expert in A.I. research. His "masterpiece" was arguably a S.M.A.I. named M.Y.M., which was used extensively by Dr Martin and several other researchers at Avon due to its usefulness. Is believed to be dead by the beginning of the story (with the main suspect being Mir). Is eventually revealed to be alive...probably, and working with Rovak Stas of all people, for unknown reasons.


  • Affably Evil: Is fairly polite to his former collegues, including Dr Mir, who might have tried to kill him previously, and vice versa, casually referring to it as "a bit of professional attempted murder."
  • Ambiguously Human: While he was probably human originally, his current status now is questionable at best, as the first time we see him fully, pieces of his face to be missing, and the gaps are filled in with what looks like red Eidos construct. Further adding to the confusion is the fact that only certain people (such as Rovak, Mir and Miko) are able to see or hear him at all.
  • For Science!: Is genuinely interested in the scientific potential of Miko's upload of her mind to the systems of his former labs, enough so that he asks the other Avon scientists to put aside their differences (including attempted murder of each other) to help her in this. They surprisingly do so, though mostly so they can use the knowledge gained in their own research.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: May have been this even before his "demise", as Rovak Stas notes that the "failed prototype" that Mium uses as a humanoid frame seemed much more capable of using magic (or at least "seeing the Eidos form") than Dr Martin claimed it could.
  • Posthumous Character: By the time we hear of him in the story, he has long been missing, presumed dead by the staff at Avon (with Dr Mir being the prime suspect). It's eventually revealed that he is still around...in a sense.
  • Offing the Offspring: Non-related version; at one point he attempted to kill his creation M.Y.M. (and thought he succeeded at the time) for unknown reasons. In the present time, he's pleasantly surprised to find M.Y.M. is still alive (possibly due to some trickery from Peter), as he saw the AI as his finest work.
  • Unseen No More: After the revelation that Dr Martin was still alive, the audience doesn't see what he actually looks for quite a while. Eventually, we finally get a good look here, but it raises a lot of questions in the process.
  • Walking Spoiler: The fact that he's still alive and working with Rovak, with the reasons for both still being a mystery.

Magical Security Bureau (MSB)

Malsa's newest bureau, their purview covers any incidents involving magic that constitute a threat to national security. This puts them at odds with the IDS, as that's technically their job, and the two sides don't get along; the IDS see the MSB as meddling newcomers poking around where they're not wanted, while the MSB see the IDS as arrogant and corrupt, ignoring the duties they promised to fulfill (which is not inaccurate).

     Amy Selah 
Effectively the second-in-command of the MSB, she is one of Tyler's most trusted lieutenants.
  • Dislikes the New Guy: Mixed with Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. When Peter is made the interim head of the MSB, she's suspicious of him given his previous attitude and history (which even Peter will admit is reasonable), but she goes along with it since it was on Tyler's order. Eventually regards him as at least being competent enough for the role, though still tries to keep a close eye on him.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Due to her strong dislike of Peter, she generally tries to avoid him during his tenure as the temporary head of the MSB, so when she does bother to call him, Peter usually takes it as a sign that something at least moderately important has happened, and thus he should pay attention and/or actually do something about it.
  • The Lancer: Frequently serves as the second-in-command of the MSB as one of Tyler's lieutenants and later serves this role to Peter during his time as interim head of the MSB.

     Marc 
A member of the MSB, he can conjure defensive magic, making him a valuable asset. Is also technically a member of and spy for, the Rogue Families, albeit a low ranking one. He later betrays the MSB on the order of the Rogue Families to take out Tyler.
  • Barrier Warrior: His main contribution is to create magical shields that can be used to block attacks in a fight.
  • Foreshadowing: When he voices his displeasure at Tyler trusting Peter, due to Peter's connection with the IDS making him incredibly suspicious, Peter casually points out that Marc is a spy for the Exiled Families, so he can't really complain about Peter too much. Marc later ends up betraying Tyler on the orders of the Rogue Families.
  • Forced into Evil: Claims to be this when facing Tyler during the Rogue Families' ambush, and to his credit he did try to warn Tyler not to go on this particular mission. He does loss some credibility when he kicks a critically injured Tyler while yelling at him, but that could have been the frustration of the situation getting to him.

     Magnolia Dai 
A foreign student at Levinsworth, and a member of the MSB, Magnolia is physically blind but is an Innate user with a particularly rare talent: her ability to read Eidos data in the environment and people around her to an unparalleled extent.
  • Achievements in Ignorance: Played with. While Tyler was hospitalized, Magnolia visited his hospital room after being given his location by Peter. What she didn't know was that Peter gave her (and several other students/MSB members) false information to see if the information was leaked and by who, but thanks to her Innate ability she found the right room, much to Peter's confusion (as he was unaware of her talent at that point).
  • Blind Seer: Physically blind (or possibly just keeps her eyes closed to prevent information overload), but with an Innate ability to read Eidos in better detail than virtually anyone else in the setting (with the possible exception of Mium). Her main limitation (besides being blind obviously) is that she can only process or understand so much information at once before it starts to exhaust her, and she won't always understand what's she seeing at first (for example, when she looked at Mium one time, she knew immediately that he definitely wasn't fully human, but had little concrete conclusions beyond that).
  • Eyes Always Closed: We virtually never see her with her eyes open, either due to her being blind or due to her ability (see Blind Seer).
  • Mundane Utility: Apparently spends a lot of time in the hospital, not as a patient but as sort of consultant, using her ability to read Eidos to help the doctors diagnose unusual afflictions.
  • Superpower Lottery: Peter outright states that the Families have been trying to produce someone with Magnolia's talent for decades without any success, only for her to pop up out of a village in the middle of nowhere randomly.

     Lisa 
An old friend of Naomi's, even to the point where she was regarded as her best friend (before Naomi met Mium). May have been spying on Naomi on behalf of the MSB, though Naomi doesn't seem to have taken offense at that.
  • Can't Catch Up: Was Naomi's best friend (at least in Naomi's point of view) until she met Mium, an A.I. that never needs to sleep, never complains when Naomi asks them to do something with her (even in the middle of the night) and likes her enough to accomodate what would otherwise be unreasonable demands. Lisa just can't really compete with that.
  • Childhood Friends: Was one of these to Naomi.
  • Insult of Endearment: Sometimes calls Naomi a "monster" in private conversations with her, possibly due to Naomi's well-above-average abilities and her Blood Knight tendencies, though it seems like Naomi never took offense to that, making it this trope.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Was the Girly Girl to Naomi's Tomboy. For example, Naomi mentions that Lisa was one of her friends that she would go to for relationship advice, as Lisa had more knowledge on the matter and loved to talk about it.

Malsa

A small but increasingly prosperous country in the world of Palindra, and the main setting of the story. One of the most notable features of Malsa is that it is a major center of genetic modification, which is mostly legal there, including the designer children. It had once been ruled by the Mage Families, a magical aristocracy who were responsible for both leading and protecting the country. This changed not too long ago when the Families passed the role of leadership to the Mage Counsel, led by the Consul, while still remaining the primary line of defense against outside threats, though not all the Families agreed with this decision (see The Rogue Families below).

     Madam Consul 
The leader of the Mage Counsel.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: In-universe: Some consider the Consul to be a responsible, if sometimes unconventional, leader and politician, while others consider her to be too ambitious and power hungry for either her or Malsa's good.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: On a personal level, the Consul acts surprisingly casual and irreverent for the political leader of a nation. She also pulls off moves like promoting her subordinate Tyler to full Family status through granting a title specific to them. She's still a very shrewd and on-the-ball leader, and she's one of the few people in power who seems to have some kind of handle on Peter and how he functions, at least enough to actually work with him.
  • Death Faked for You: During the conflict between Malsa and the IDS, she's boarding a plane and is challenged by the IDS, then a sniper shoots her in the head, "killing" her. This turns out to have been a hologram pre-programmed by Peter to buy her some time and have her escape IDS surveillance and capture by black ops agents.
  • Genre Savvy: While she doesn't know all the "rules" Peter plays by, she's learned enough of them that she can have a stable working relationship with him. She also awed the rest of her counsel when she brought in a "clean" computer with no ethernet, internet, or wireless access and asked Mium (whose android body is not even present) to operate it, at which point, he boots up the computer and communicates with everyone in real-time.
  • Good Is Not Nice: While she's an ally to Peter and his circle and seems to have the best interests of her country in mind, she's also the leader of a country that's under threat of invasion from its neighbours and thus is prepared to make cold, calculated decisions if they will give Malsa the best odds of retaining its independence and prosperity. She also declared war on Arpon after learning about their connections with IDS, who had just launched a H.V.W. attack on one of Malsa's population centers, on the building she was in.
  • Known Only by Their Nickname: So far, we haven't been given the real name of the Consul.
  • Only Sane Man: The Mage Counsel is full of bickering competing interests. It's her unwelcome task to keep them corralled.

     Ashvalt Arduni 
The head of the Arduni family (making him the father of Arkady and the future father-in-law of Camilla) and the most recalcitrant of the Mage Counsel. He is firmly of the opinion that the Rogue Families need to be stomped, especially once he learns they are engaged in actions that are treasonous, but out of respect to the Madame Consul, he restrains himself as she tries to find a non-violent solution, seeing as Malsa has bigger fish to fry. This all changes when Saraine gets the brilliant idea to kidnap and threaten his son...
  • Badass Boast: A message he wants the remaining members of Saraine's bunch to deliver to their boss? "You don't like the consul's laws? Then you'll deal with mine."
  • Combat Pragmatist: What makes him dangerous is not sheer power or talent, as he's pretty much average as a mage. What makes him dangerous is that he's creative and won't hesitate to fight dirty when he has to.
  • Cowboy Cop: Well, while Saraine was actively making threats of retaliation, she wasn't actually resisting arrest as Ashvalt killed her.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's very abrasive, but beneath it all has a genuinely decent moral core and treats his family with love and kindness.
  • Old Soldier: He's been through at least one Mage war, and is still in active service.
  • Papa Wolf: Don't mess with his kids, seriously, don't.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: He gets this from one of his subordinates after killing Saraine, with the subordinate stating his actions will trigger a war. Ashvalt retorts that Saraine's bunch started the war, by going after non-combatant children.

     Arkady Arduni 
A student at Levinsworth and a friend of Naomi's, having known her for some time. He is also a member of the Family Mages (in fact, his father is Ashvalt) and a Registered Mage, meaning that if he can be and was conscripted to fight to defend Malsa if required. Engaged to Camilla Canthi.
  • Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Seems to have taken on the role of this in regards to Ila, or at least from preventing others from accidentally setting her off. How successful he is in this is debatable, but at least Ila appreciates the effort.
  • Friend to All Children: Somewhat downplayed, but out of all the characters he tries to be the most friendly and understanding towards children (which may come from having a younger sibling of his own). This plays a major role in his relationship with Ila, as he understands the importance of trying to treat her as a normal child her age while also being aware of how dangerous she can be, which endears him to her enough that she's willing to risk her life to save him.
  • Only Sane Man: As time goes on, it seems like Arkady might be the least inclined to resort to violence or killing among his peers (including his own younger brother, though to be fair said brother had almost been kidnapped...). It's implied this may be a result of his father Ashvalt trying to raise his children to live more peacefully due to his own experiences in war.
  • Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Currently engaged to Camilla; the hair braids that he and Camilla wear are a Malsan custom that are a symbol of this status. While the details about how they came to be engaged are unknown, the two do seem to care about each other. Indeed, Camilla can be somewhat over-protective of Arkady, though this may be due to their relative level of strength, especially during wartime (Arkady is 'barely' a Registered Mage, while Camilla is powerful enough that she earned the nickname of "Doll of Destruction" in her youth).
  • Playing with Fire: In his first fight in the comic, we see him using fire in a fight against Arpon's Magitek tanks, creating a pressure vortex centered right on it before collapsing a building on top of it.
  • Reluctant Warrior: Despite being a Registered Mage (meaning he's capable enough to be conscripted in wartime), he shows no eagerness to go into battle, only taking comfort in that he can take his fiance's place in the conflict by doing so, so thatt she has a chance to recover from some serious injuries.

     Camilla Canthi 
The young head of the Canthi family. She is one of the more powerful mages currently living in Malsa, having earned the nickname of "The Doll of Destruction" in her younger years. She is currently engaged to Arkady Arduni.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Mild example, as her concerns are primarily for her country and her loved ones (such as her borther Ashe and fiance Arkady), but her first instinct when those are in danger is to put herself between them and the threat, even if she's not in the best condition to do so like when she was still recovering after her battle with Elizabeth, which left her bedridden for days.
  • Happily Arranged Marriage: It's unknown how exactly she and Arkady came to be engaged, but neither of them seem to have a problem with it. Camilla in particular cares about Arkady and worries a great deal for him after hearing he's been sent to the front lines to fight.
  • Healing Factor: Appears to have one of these (or possibly some form of instant Healing Magic) during her fight against Elizabeth, though it ultimately doesn't prevent her from losing.
  • My Beloved Smother: Is somewhat overprotective of Arkady and her brother Ashe, especially after they are called in to fight in the Arpon/Malsa conflict, claiming that the two of them "couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag." To be fair, Camilla is vastly more powerful than the two of them together, and indeed Arkady would probably have been killed if not for the interference of Ila and Mium, but it comes across as being unintentionally insulting, especially since she had been hospitalized herself up to that point.
  • Noodle Incident: The Mashito incident, the event that earned Camilla the nickname of "The Doll of Destruction." We don't know much about it, but from a conversation between two Arpon soldiers, it involved bright flashes of light and charred bodies.
  • One-Hit Kill: Has at least one technique like this; an instantly-cast spell (making it difficult-to-impossible to dodge) that can bisect its target, including people. Played with, in that the first time we see the spell it failed to do more surface level damage but that has more do with the fact that the current target, Elizabeth, is extraordinarily tough by mage standards.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Earned the nickname of "Doll of Destruction" for a reason. While we don't see the inital incidents that led to that name, we do see the area around her and Elizabeth having been demolished in the wake of their fight.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Is ready and willing to live up to the Families' role as defenders of Malsa in a conflict.
  • The Worf Effect: Was introduced as one of Malsa's strongest mages, but lost to Elizabeth (one of the IDS's mages) to show the latter's mages weren't a joke, albeit after a lot of collateral damage (and Camilla at least survived, much to the surprise of Elizabeth).

     Ashian Canthi 
The younger brother of Camilla, and the current heir of the Canthi family. As a Registered Mage, Ash has a lot of magical power at his disposal but is still inexperienced in real combat.
  • Mistaken for Murderer: Inverted, as he was the one making the mistake. In his initial meeting with Ila, he mistook her for a potential assassin due to some of her suspicious actions (such as breaking the lock on a door to get to a hospital roof, which was a restricted area). While the misunderstanding was cleared up fairly quickly, this mistake, along with him trying to get Ila to talk with the police (which to be fair was for benign reasons, as she had stopped and actual assassin, but it may have gone poorly for Ila due to her murky history) has given Ila a poor impression of Ash.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Is fairly strong as a mage, much stronger than the average person in Malsa, but has little combat experience. Not helped by the fact that there are plenty of other mages in both Malsa and its neighbouring countries that have both more experience and more power, such as his own sister Camilla.

     Tamara Anseli 
A hacker that had been hired by Avon to improve their network security, she was later recruited by Malsa as part of their network security. On both occasions, this recruitment was in reaction to the threat of Mium, whom she has as a professional interest in from his identity as the hacker 'Code-R.'
  • Harmless Villain: From Mium's perspective, Tamara's not a threat to him despite her efforts to dig up information on him, as despite her talents she's simply outclassed by Mium.

     Kahlek 
A Mage-Commander in Malsa.
  • All in the Manual: His name was revealed not in the comic itself, but in one of the comments on this page.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: When several Malsan mage-soldiers start to bicker with each other about how to respond to a threat, Kahlek is the one who gets them to focus in a more creative way.
    • He does to best to acquiest with Arkady's request to not ask questions about Ila, but does warn him that someone as strong as her with no obvious Family ties is going to raise a lot of questions eventually.

     Eliana 
Malsa's Tactical Mage, with the ability to summon Kaiju-sized constructs.
  • Dead Pan Snarker: A lot of her comments come across as this, crossed with Casual Danger Dialogue. One example of this is when there's an argument going on in front of her, and her only response is to say to a sleeping Ila that Ila has the right idea.
  • Handicapped Badass: Don't let the wheelchair fool you, Eliana is Malsa's Tactical Mage for a reason (see Summon Magic. Played with, in that according to this Q&A, she technically doesn't have a physical disability and can walk (albeit poorly), but her condition is a side effect of her magical abilities (how that works isn't explained).
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her first summoning during the Malsa-Arpon conflict was anticipated and exploited by Atter, who used the opportunity to Body Surf into the construct. The only reason this didn't result in massive casualties on all sides was the intervention of Ila, buying time for the arrival of Kallisto and her dragon.
  • Seen It All: Doesn't seemed non-plussed by Ila seemingly being capable of holding off a rogue spirit beast (albeit briefly) then flying off, just noting that she reminds Eliana of a boy who would visit her family's roof (referring to Mium). Granted, this could just be because they have a bigger and more immediate problem in the form of said spirit beast.
  • Summon Magic: Her most notable talent is to summon "spirit beasts", colossal ethereal constructs that can be used to assault enemy armies.

     Vium (Beware: Unmarked spoilers) 
When Mium was asked by Ila to help her during her fight against Kardus, who used a device that subjected her to "data overload" and was causing her to shut down, the only way he could do this was to temporarily control her body. Due to the nature of Ila's body making it somewhat incompatible with Mium's nature, he made a "virtual interface" to try to bypass some of those issues. While this was ultimately successful in its goal, there was a complication: the virtual interface ended up being much more self aware than intended, and refused to be deleted after its purpose was fulfilled (due to a mix of knowledge it felt couldn't afford to be lost, and some new self-preservation instincts), which briefly crippled Mium's ability to multi-task before the issue was resolved by Miko letting him ride in her head until she put him in his own body with the help of Avon.
  • Body Surf: Was briefly in Miko's head (albeit with her in the driver seat) after she synced herself with Mium's systems, before he was transferred to his own personal body.
  • Composite Character: Can be seen as this between Mium and Ila. Their personality is largely based on Mium, having their intellect and rationality, but they also have Ila's capability for emotions (at least, Vium's more obviously curious about matters like food than Mium) and self-preservation.
  • Loophole Abuse: Vium suspects that Mium may have intentionally created him by leveraging Mium's own ignorance of the consequences of making a virtual interface for Ila to bypass Mium's restrictions on making copies of himself. Vium also admits that this may just be him trying to self-rationalize his own existence.
  • Spanner in the Works: Vium's insistance on maintaining his existance meant that the A.A. system couldn't be shut down (as doing so would delete him and Mium's restrictions would prevent him from recreating Vium), which in turn severely hindered Mium's ability to operate the various instances of himself (as the A.A. system was designed to prevent multitasking as a way to prevent Mium becoming unstable) until Vium left and Peter "rebooted" Mium.
  • Wild Card: After escaping from Avon's lab before Peter can speak with him, his primary goals are currently unknown, but he has been seen hiring unscruptulous characters like the mercenary Tokiwa hired.

Orin

One of the largest nations of Palindra, Orin is one of the major powers in the world, or at least was. They are notoriously aggressive and direct in their interactions with other nations, and as a result are not regarded fondly, though they claim not to be responsible for most recorded instances of conflict, blaiming them on a rogue splinter faction. Of particularly note are their "warmages," who have the reputation of being exceedingly powerful and violent mages.

     Rovak Stas 
Rovak gives off the appearance of an easy-going man in his mid-twenties...until the explosions start going off. Not only is he an Orish warmage, meaning that he's a skilled and experienced magic user, he appears to be practically unkillable to conventional means, treating bullet wounds and explosions as annoyances as any damage rapidly fixes itself. Despite his extensive list of crimes, he seems to have taken the role of a "hero" in his recent missions, though his choice of employers in this matter is...questionable at best.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: By his own admission, Rovak doesn't like to think too much, at least in the middle of a fight. But when he has a quiet moment to himself, he gives Dr Martin a fairly eloquent speech about the importance of having job satisfaction for a proper killing machine, and voices his suspicions about Martin's claims about the F-8 being a "failed prototype" after seeing it in action in Mium's hands.
  • Buffy Speak: Rovak sometimes speaks in odd terms, usually related to whether is something is meant to be blown up or not. For example, when hired to defend a place, he refers to it as "de-blowing up."
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: Talks a lot during combat, more than any of the other cast members, likely due to being effectively immortal, and so usually doesn't take his fights all that seriously unless someone catches his interest or seems like they actually be a threat (such as Mium).
  • Everyone Has Standards: While Rovak is a terrorist with a very large list of crimes to his name (with Kardus suspecting that Rovak may only take jobs these days that might add something novel to his rap sheet), he's not eager to add "Indecent Exposure to a Minor" to that list after he suffers Clothing Damage due to Ila trying to blow him up (he recovered, his pants didn't).
  • Foil: To Mium. Both are very powerful individuals in this setting; Rovak almost casually throws around huge explosions while Mium is practically unmatched in disrupting the Eidos calculations of mages. Both are nearly impossible to kill due to a healing factor. They both also don't hold much intrinsic value for human life; for Mium, this is because he's an AI programmed by Peter (though he has restrictions that prevent him from killing people unless absolutely necessary) while Rovak is just insane. The biggest difference between the two is that Mium is logical to a fault, doesn't really seek to kill people unless they leave him no other option (or are threatening his friends) and has basically no emotional investment in his actions, while Rovak is incredibly irrational, enjoys fights and tends to seek out novelty in his work.
  • Healing Factor: Is able to recover from pretty much every injury we've seen him take, from bullet wounds to losing limbs. It's not perfect though, as Mium figures out a method of disabling it (namely, destroying the brain while cancelling out Rovak's magic) but Rovak is aware of this weakness possibly thanks to Dr Martin and is able to stop Mium's attempt. It also doesn't respond to any kind of injury; he can be suffer minor cuts and bruises before it kicks in for a life-threatening injury.
  • Immortality: Rovak has something that has been called an "i-code," which grants him a Healing Factor and increased longevity. Whether he's always had this or if he was given this is unknown.
  • Oh, Crap!: When he calls Mium by M.Y.M. during their encounter here, he suddenly has Mium's full attention, and Rovak can feel it, as Mium so thoroughly analyzed him through Eidos that it felt like several years of Rovak's life were being calculated and predicted. After what can only be described as a very brief existential crisis, Rovak calmly decides that maybe fighting isn't the best option today and leaves (though he is tempted to attack Mium simply due to how uncomfortable the experience felt).
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When one of his colleagues sees that Rovak hasn't brought along his team for a particular mission, he says it means either a). said team is dead, which is not going to be good for Rovak's already unpredictable mental state, or b). Rovak left them behind on purpose, which is a worrying sign of pre-planning for an insane immortal.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: If there's one thing you can count on with Rovak, it's that he will cause a considerable amount of property damage when provoked. Or when he's hired for a job. Or when he's bored. Loves to use explosive magic for this end.
  • Pet the Dog: When he first met Mium and Ila, shortly after their second fight in which Ila was badly hurt due to poorly timed intervention by her allies, Rovak assumes that the two are runaway siblings (which Mium runs with) and offers to heal Ila. Granted, this was probably intended to get the two working for him more easily, but he doesn't even ask for Mium to promise anything of the sort before fixing Ila up, and doesn't seem to take it personally when Ila immediately throws him off the roof when she wakes up.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Red eyes on an Orin native are a sign of said native being a warmage, and Rovak is no exception. Bonus points for them glowing when he uses magic.

     Kardus Velzor 
A young man working with PACT, the Rogue Families and the IDS, despite apparently being an Orish warmage. The reasons for this alliance are unknown. Often seen with Acalia.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: When we see his body after his confrontation with Ila, we see that she blew his body apart, leaving only a torso and his head.
  • Oh, Crap!: When he sees that the shutdown switch he was given by Rovak and Dr Martin no longer works on Ila, who precedes to shoot off the hand holding the switch before disintigrating Arpon's mech-tank and eventually killing Kardus.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: One of the signs that he might be an Orish warmage, though he doesn't seem to be as powerful as Rovak (though he does seem to be a good bit saner).
  • Shock and Awe: One of Karkus's preferred methods of offensive magic is to shoot lightning at his target. To his annoyance, it hasn't proven as effective as it normally would against some of his recent opponents (Arkady, who's a Registered Mage, albeit still a bit shaken after being shocked, and Naomi, who's Naomi).
  • Smug Snake: He wasn't taking the conflict between Arpon and Malsa all that seriously, frequently mocked Arkady during their bout, and when faced with Ila (who's there to rescue Arkady), Kardus just calmly uses the shutdown device made by Dr Martin, who gave it to Rovak who in turn gave it to Kardus, to disable Ila. When Ila counterattacks after being enhanced/taken oven by Mium at Ila's request and shoots Karkus' arm off, he immediately begins to panic.

Arpon

A neighbouring nation to Malsa. Like Malsa, Arpon is also currently rising in prosperity (though it's not at the same level at the moment). Due to Arpon's secret dealings with the IDS, including actions that would have undermined Malsa's sovereignty, the Consul declared war on Arpon.

     President Kotaro 
The President of Arpon. Was once kidnapped by Mium and Ila (on Peter's orders) to prevent him from attending a conference. He aided the IDS against Malsa, and later he sent Magitek tanks to attack Malsa during their war.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The reason he was kidnapped to begin with is that he was both paranoid and predictable (at least by Peter's standards), as his designated replacement in emergencies is a trusted family member rather than someone who's actually trained for the position. The result is that said replacement (who was likely not in on his schemes) ends up supporting Ryn Koko in his claims that he helped developed the gate detector due to his reputation, as Peter planned.
  • Improperly Paranoid: Shows he's this during his kidnapping where, after thinking through a list of possible culprits, he assumes that his kidnappers (Mium and Ila) are members of the Rogue Families hoping to provoke a war, based on reasoning that leans towards his own expectations rather than actual evidence, not even bothering to specifically ask his kidnappers for any information, as Mium points out. Played with, in that the Rogue Families do have plans that involve instigating a war, Kotaro's just wrong in this specific instance.
  • Nepotism: As a result of Kotaro's paranoia, instead of appointing someone skilled or trained as an ambassador to act in his stead in an emergency, he designated his trusted but inexperienced niece to be his replacement if something happened to him. Peter knew this and exploited it; by having Kotaro kidnapped briefly, his young niece was brought in during a crucial talk where the dimensional gate detector was demonstrated, exposing the IDS failing in their duties, where she supported Ryn's claims in regards to making the detector solely due to his reputation, not considering that it might not be the best move for Arpon as the IDS was secretly helping them.
  • Underestimating Badassery: While strategizing with his generals about invading Malsa, he feels that their superior arms should triumph over their mages. His generals point out that any fight with a tactical mage could go very badly, both from a tactical standpoint (if you can't get them off the field as quickly as possible, you risk losing a lot of your soldiers very quickly) and from a morale standpoint:
    General: "People's willingness to attack a tactical mage tends to be inverse to their knowledge of what they can do."
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: When he was kidnapped by Mium and Ila for one of Peter's plots, he spent more time speculating and making assumptions about their motives (concluding that they're Family Mages trying to ignite a war for the sake of power) rather than actually asking his captors who they are and why they kidnapped him, which even Mium points out. Granted, his captors are Mium (who is cryptic at the best of times) and Ila (who doesn't really know or care why), but still.

PACT

An alliance of the majority of corporations on Palindra. The influence of PACT even extends across dimensions, such as Central. They, technically, are not loyal to any single nation, but there are hints of corruption with the system, particularly related to the Corporate Affairs department of the IDS.

Rogue Families

When the Family Mages of Malsa transferred their leadership over to the civil government, not all of the Families agreed with that decision, leading to a conflict which the would-be rebels lost. Since their loss of power, the "Rogue Families" as they would be come to be called (also known as the Exiled Families), have been plotting in secret to take down the Consul and retake their place at the top.
     Acalia 
A blue haired young woman, she has been involved in multiple covert operations on behalf of the Rogue Families (of which she is a member) and their allies, such as PACT. This is due to her Innate ability: Spatial Coordinate Manipulation, A.K.A. teleportation. Often seen with Kardus.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Her arm was ripped off by Naomi during her ambush on Tyler. She has been recovering since.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: When going out on a mission to defend an IDS facility, she goes in full body armor, including a helmet, to hide her appearance as her mission would technically count as treason. This would be an effective disguise...except for the fact that her pony tail with her distinctive hair color is hanging out. Also, her teleporting around may possibly give her away.
  • Teleportation: Her Innate ability, and one whose calculations have been impossible to figure out or replicate, making it even more valuable. Even Peter only figured out that it currently existed at all because he couldn't find any other explanation for otherwise impossible assassinations.
  • Those Two Guys: Frequently seen either working with or just hanging around with Kardus.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Her Innate ability gives her considerable mobility and opportunities for kills, and is invaulable for assassination missions, but she has little experience in direct combat. This proves to be a huge issue for her as her inexperience in using a Booster resulted in her having her arm torn off by Naomi (Acalia tried to make herself unmovable, Naomi brute strengthed through it.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Had no issue with attempting to kill Miko due to Miko's (and Peter's) skill at sniffing out secrets. When the assassination failed due to Mium hacking Miko's implant to delete the bullets through Eidos, she only refused to take on that mission again because the experience freaked her out.

     Saraine 
The sub-leader of a Rogue mage family that doesn't like the counsel's rules and decided kidnapping Ashvalt's son to use as bait was a fine idea. Unfortunately for her, said son just happens to be Naomi's friend, so this draws in Naomi and Kally to rescue him, which in turn draws Ashvalt's attention...
  • Bullying a Dragon: Literally. She goes and antagonizes Kally when the latter has Ashvalt's son in custody, making threats if she doesn't return the boy.
  • Evil Old Folks: She's a generation older than Ashvalt, a man old enough to have a teenage son, and she sees nothing wrong with kidnapping and murdering children just to make a point.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: Combined with Off with His Head!. When she smugly proclaimed that being arrested for kidnapping is a waste of time and she intended to go after Ashvalt's family again, Ashvalt cleverly uses barrier magic to slice off her in half diagonally, from top of one shoulder on one side to out the abdomen on the other.
  • Logical Fallacies: Specifically Appeal to Hypocricy. She tries to call Ashvalt a hypocrite for killing Child Soldiers... while he's trying to stop her from killing his son (who, it should be noted, is neither a solder nor much older than 10).
    Saraine: "What's wrong Ashvalt? Now that you're done killing family children, you want everyone else to stop?!"
    Ashvalt: "I killed mages, Seraine. I killed those that fought me."
    Saraine: "How terribly inefficient."
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: She dehumanizes Ashvalt's son by referring to him as bait and calling him "it."
    "This bait was not intended for you. I require you to have it returned to me."
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: She's bisected as she was in the process of saying "You wouldnt-".
  • Power Nullifier: Via Energy Absorption (A.K.A. "Void"), she can use her magic is to nullify other mages by taking in magic out of the surrounding area, including the mages themselves, limiting their ability to cast magic. This ends up being her downfall, as she has to take in and hold the energy to do this, and after the fight with Kally she hit her limit... leaving her wide open to Ashvalt's attack.
  • Smug Snake: She walks around as if she's omniscient and omnipotent. Both Kally and Ashvalt say it ain't so.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Aside from an Early-Bird Cameo, she shows up later only to get summarily killed shortly afterwards.
  • Worf Had the Flu: She wasn't at her best when Ashvalt killed her, seeing as Kally had over-saturated her "Void" capacity, so Ashvalt could cast faster than she could.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Considering she kidnapped Ashvalt's son and put his life in danger, yes, she would.
  • You Wouldn't Shoot Me: She tries to say this to Ashvalt. Sadly for her, yes, he would. And There Was Much Rejoicing from the fanbase.

     Elmon 
A member of the Rogue Families. He was the ability to transport a target, including people, to a "spirit realm" that's virtually impossible to escape without outside aid.
  • Void Between the Worlds: Has the ability to banish a target to one of these, which he calls the "spirit realm". It's normally a death sentence, as no one but him has any chance of rescuing the targets that have been banished. However, he didn't count on an existance like Mium that could figure out the spell formula for someone like Tyler to use.

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