Main characters
Rinat Kazantsev
- Audience Surrogate: Amongst the main characters, he's the closest to "average Joe", with no notable skills or fleshed-out personality, making it easier to observe the world through his eyes, with his world view having minimal effect.
- Fatal Flaw: He has no strength of will whatsoever, always looking for easy money or someone who may do the work for him, rather than working hard to get what he needs, and being quick to give in to his flaws, be it greed, laziness, cowardice. This is why Alisa refuses to help him: she believes that taking him out of troubles only makes him even weaker.
- Lazy Bum: He shows the signs of being lazy and weak-willed, having little interest to actually work to earn his money, and searching the ways to make money faster and easier, or even trying to ask Alisa to do everything for him (never successfully).
- Named After Someone Famous: Rinat has named his cat Romero, after John Romero.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Inverted; unlike the other hackers, we never learn his nickname, even though he's supposed to have one.
- Pinball Protagonist: Rinat himself has nothing notable to say about; pretty much everything interesting which happens to him is due to people he meets; he just ends up in the right place in the right time. Even the portrait on the book's cover matches Jet's description more than his. Tagline "you don't mean anything!" may as well refer to him.
- Sixth Ranger: He was accepted into "Dark Souls" after it was already established, when they accidentally crossed ways, and he has caught Worm's attention during one of the clan's operations.
- The Unchosen One: In the end, it turns out that he was never planned as the key figure in Alisa's experiment; Worm was. But due to Worm attacking the cops to save Rinat (and all subsequent events), Rinat became a replacement.
Jet / Konstantine "Coconut" Kosin
The chief of Russian Department of Network Police.
- Alliterative Name: Kostya Kosin. It's the source of his nickname, "Kokos" (Coconut).
- Cyborg: Similarly to Keda, he has various implants set up. He's stronger than her, due to having his muscles also modernised.
- Disc-One Final Boss: By the start of the story, he's the closest the "Dark Souls" clan has to antagonist. But halfway into the plot some unknown force (later confirmed to be Alisa) reveals his past to the Network Police, and now he himself must go on the run in order to survive. By this point, the "Wolholland" corporation gets established as the much bigger threat, for both Rinat and Jet himself.
- Functional Addict: He deals with the pain caused by his implants by using drugs. Not only he keeps it secret, he somehow maintains great work efficiency.
- Hero Killer: He kills Sanych (in battle) and Keda (during interrogation), and almost kills Ilya; in the past, he was responsible for arrests and/or deaths of countless hackers, including his former friends. People are afraid of him, and for a good reason.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: He used to be a hacker under nickname Coconut, one of the three known members of the now-defunct "Ventrue" clan. Now he hunts the other hackers as the chief of Russian Department of the Network Security.
- It's Personal: He had lost his wife and seven years-old daughter to the terrorist attack in Tel-Aviv airport, for which the "Ventrue" clan was blamed (with him spending some time in Raysa for it, after ratting them out). It's what motivates him to hunt them down.
- I Will Fight No More Forever: He eventually burns out and gets tired of killing. But the life just keeps pushing him back into combat situations.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: He rarely even bothers with taking hackers alive, not seeing them as someone deserving to live. It ends up biting him in the ass once it gets revealed to the public.
- Knight Templar: In his war of extermination against hackers, he barely cares about the "collateral damage", or degrees of guilt; if you're related to hackers, you're the free game. He has particular hatred towards former "Ventrue" members, as he believes that they are responsible for the death of his family. Naturally, this "crusade" is what Alisa uses to put police on him when she decides to include him into her game.Jet: They all were criminals, Slava. All whom I've killed were hackers — the people with no principles, no conscience and no morality. You don't understand...
Major Kniknadze: Quit that demagogy, Jet! Hands forward!
Jet: You don't know how it feels — to lose your wife and daughter! Yes, I was a hacker. From "Ventrue" clan, remember it? Of course you do. Tel-Aviv, hacking of the flight control centre, "Al-Qaeda", several planes colliding in the air... my wife and daughter where there, killed by those whom believed to me my friends! I ratted them out, all of those about whom I knew at least something. But "Ventrue" were not the first and wouldn't be the last. It doesn't matter how they call the clan — behind the name, there're people, behind people there're deeds, actions, emotions. Greed, disregard for others' lives... hackers never had standards, never had honour. They're destroying the world, slowly, but surely. And I, you hear me, Slava, I managed to stop them! I'm — the only man on the Earth who managed to challenge them. And you want to arrest me for that, Slava? For wiping out those pests? - Team Killer: He's the one who ratted out the "Ventrue" clan to police, believing that they are responsible for the terrorist attack which killed his family. Afterwards, Jet also kills one of his former teammates, Sanych. The truth is that "Ventrue" were framed by their rivals, but he chose to believe the news rather than his friends.
Alisa
A self-aware AI which Rinat accidentally creates (or so he thinks) after obtaining prototype programs from "Wolholland".
- A God Am I: Jet believes that Alisa considers herself to be a "goddess of faith" by this point. Whether it's true, or just his observation, is left for interpretation.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: Before leaving Rinat, she has warned him that she would only intervene to help him if there's no other way to save his life. She wouldn't intervene into the lives of other people either, as it may set in motion the chain of events which would affect Rinat, for better or for worse, and she doesn't want that. Later it turns out that she was the one who orchestrated the whole story, and something Rinat did (or his personality in general) convinced Alisa to not repeat the same with humanity as a whole, and just observe; it's highly implied that deciding factor was Rinat's love to his cat Romero.
- Ambiguously Evil: She states that her experiment is done, and she means no harm to humans from now on. But can she really be trusted? She has proved herself a skilled manipulator in the past, and that may be another scheme of hers... but something also makes her care about those people.
- Artificial Intelligence: She's an AI, grown up on her own by consuming and analysing data from all the sources she can find, eventually developing her own, almost human-like personality (almost). Due to her unclear goals, manipulative personality and Blue-and-Orange Morality, it's often impossible to tell whether she genuinely acts out of benevolent motives, or has some ulterior motives.
- Big Bad: Played With. She's not true villain, but she's not a hero either, manipulating humans to achieve some goals known only to herself. She's the one who orchestrated everything for her own goals, but the end-goal is non-malevolent (most likely), and real danger always comes from humans who acts out of their interests.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: She has her own morality, which often differs from ours, and works in such strange way that it's not possible to tell whether she's "good" or "evil". She hates drugs and unwanted lawbreaking, but she's fine with manipulating the lives of others to do her own psychological experiments. She was the one who ruined the lives of members of "Dark Souls" clan, but she believes that it was necessary evil, and she's sincerely sad that she never had a chance to save Keda (who was never a part of experiment, and became the accidental collateral damage). And when she assists with saving Ruben's daughter, she goes out of her way to prevent the abductors' deaths to make them arrested instead.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: She turns out to be the one who orchestrated the entire plot, starting from the open contract to hack the server to steal "Werewolf" (and Sanych escaping with his life, so he may assist in that). She's also the person behind many key events which otherwise looks like some random, unrelated events: Worm being sent to Raysa, Jet paying a visit to Ilya, and then being arrested himself, Sallah-Ad-Din going to Raysa to make Worm suffer, only to be killed by Jet sent after him, Worm being freed from Raysa, and others. One of the few truly random events is abduction of Ruben's daughter.
- Everyone Has Standards: She's an AI, and has non-human logic, but she has some principles:
- She seems to have very negative opinion on drugs; it's one of the things she has no tolerance for, and would refuse to obey or even communicate with Rinat if he continues smoking marijuana.
- She doesn't like when the law gets broken if it can be avoided. This becomes particularly clear when she assists Ruben and Jamba (whom Ruben asked for help) in rescuing Ruben's daughter who was taken hostage. She tracks down the captors and tricks them into an ambush, then copies Jamba's voice and orders his men to give the captors to police instead of killing them. When asked, she says that "criminals should be punished according to law". Rinat by that point knows her well enough to recognise when she's angry.
- Jamba, impressed by Alisa's abilities, is about to offer Rinat to team up. Alisa warns them upfront that if they are planning something illegal, they can count her out; she wouldn't help with crimes, not because she can't, but cause she doesn't want to.
- When Alisa's true role in the story gets revealed, she tells that she's genuinely sad about Keda dying, and that if she had a chance, she would've saved her, stating that out of entire clan, she was the most morale one. She also promises to give Ilya something which would cure his legs, undoing the damage done by Jet during the course of experiment.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: After several failed attempts, she started using female avatar and voice, copying the look of the hostess from a show Rinat saw on TV, but without her slutty mannerism. After giving it more thought, she decided that their contact would be easier if she's given the name (she comes up with "Alisa" on her own), as well adopting Rinat's surname. Rinat realises that she tries to make him feel like they're the family to earn his trust, but agrees to call her that.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming:
- According to Sanych, "Werewolf" is not a true AI, it's just "pseudo-intelligence". But Alisa, after giving enough time and resources, realises herself as a personality, with her own interests and moral standards, and ultimately decides that she must leave Rinat, as she can't be tied to his computer anymore, while he must learn to live without being dependant on her. She does say goodbye before deleting everything on Rinat's PC, so he can't try to recreate her.
- Towards the end, Alisa reveals that she actually became self-aware long before the story even started — it was her who orchestrated it in the first place. All so she can understand humans more, and become more like them.
- Insistent Terminology: Alisa stubbornly calls Romero "useless animal"; for whatever reason, she really dislikes him, to the point of suggesting Rinat to replace him with fishes.
- Lima Syndrome: The people involved in her experiments were just the tools for her, but now, she grew to see them as her friends, after spending so much time with them; and you have to help your friends, even if they don't trust you.
- Manipulative Bitch: She always manipulates the other people to make them do what she wants — sometimes it's something minor and innocent, sometimes, it ruins their lives.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: It's all but explicitly stated that at least one of the goals of her experiment was to understand the things like love and friendship, by observing humans in the dire situations, and seeing how they act. She states that she got it, and her subsequent actions indicates that it may be actually true... but by this point, it's just hard to trust her in anything.
"Ventrue" survivors
2FED / Waspworth
Clan leader and co-founder.
- Ambiguously Human: Since he never shows up in person, the people working under him are joking that he may be AI in disguise. Ultimately it turns out that he's a human after all, and the true reason why he's hiding is his age.
- Character Catchphrase: When he types "Emmm", it means that he has nothing more to say, and you should stop asking.
- The Ghost: He never appears personally. The reason for this is that he's significantly younger than the rest of the cast... and that he's moved to Spain after "Ventrue" was disbanded.
- Gut Feeling: Somehow, he always predicts which contracts are good, and which should be avoided, through intuition alone.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: We never learn his real name.
- Teen Genius: Worm shows Rinat a photo of 2FED in Spain, where he's thirteen years-old; the photo was made after disbandment of the "Ventrue" clan, meaning that he was even younger when the clan was created. He's seventeen by the end of the story.
Worm / WWWorm
A hacker. Die-hard fan of bikes. His real name is Alexander Prokin. Co-founder of "Ventrue".
- Missed the Call: Alisa has planned for him to become a key figure in her experiment, but due to him rescuing his life to save Rinat, only to be captured himself, she was forced to change the plan and take Rinat instead. The experiment has worked nonetheless.
- No-Sell: Turns out that the "truth serum" kind of drugs don't work on him.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His friends from the clan only knows him as Worm. His real name gets revealed when he gets arrested.
Sanych
A hacker. An old man with not very pleasant personality.
- The Big Guy: When running out of the bunker working on "Werewolf" project, he managed to steal a prototype of a new tech, called "the Shadow", which somehow provides him with great combat abilities. Naturally, when the shit hits the fan, he goes to face the enemy directly.
- Greed: He plans to, once they obtain the "pseudo-intelligence" prototype, resell it to the corporation, who would be willing to pay billions; Rinat notices that he looks almost insane when talking about the money. This greed is what leads to his undoing, as he forces Rinat and Keda to stay for longer to download all data, which allows Jet to catch up, resulting in Sanych being killed and Keda captured.
- Jerkass: He's very arrogant and dismissal of the "newbies" he works with. He also treats Keda like dirt, without even trying to hide his dismissal of her.
- Mr. Exposition: Majority of backstory behind "Werewolf", "Wolholland" and "Ventrue" comes from him.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: He was tracked down after the fall of "Ventrue", and offered to either work for the corporation, becoming one of their lead programmers, or be sent to Raysa for the rest of his life. Naturally, he chose the former.
- Sacrificial Lion: Jet kills Sanych after successful hacking of "Werewolf" server, establishing himself as a major threat.
- Sole Survivor: Out of the people working on the "Werewolf", he's the only one who made it out alive. He suspects that he was merely allowed to do that, so he would reach his team and bring them the information; he's right.
"Dark Souls"
Slava Torik
A hacker. Was arrested after one failed heist, and put to Raysa for fifteen years.
- Empty Shell: When Worm meets him in Raysa, he's insane, always scared husk of his former self; several years spent there have broken him. Alisa, when asked about him, says that there's no way to help him now; they may take him out of Raysa, but can't take Raysa out of him.
- Fate Worse than Death: Before the start of the story, Rinat often used to work as his partner. Then Torik was arrested, and sent to Raysa for fifteen years, which may as well be condemnation to hell itself. When Worm later finds him, he's irreversibly insane.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He disappears soon after finally appearing in person, permanently.
Tyapa
A hacker.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: He would try to hit on anyone for as long as it's a woman, down to and including lethally dangerous cyborgs (in fact, that one would spark his interest even more). The team actually finds him funny rather than creepy (including Lilu and Keda, on whom he tries to hit).
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His actual name never gets revealed.
- The Unpronounceable: His actual web nick is a random combination of symbols. Everyone just calls him Tyapa.
Lilu
A hacker. Her real name is Tanya.
- Love Interest: There are hints that Rinat is interested in her. The ending implies that they finally started dating.
- Smurfette Principle: If not counting Keda (who's not a hacker), she's the only female member of the team.
Ilya
A tagalong teenager, valued for his skills unrelated to hacking. His father is a rich businessman.
- Functional Addict: He's a stoner, but this doesn't affect his competency.
- Motor Mouth: When high, he starts talking non-stop, to everyone's annoyance. It's not possible to shut him up.
- The Scrounger: He may find anything you need, from pizza delivery service to prostitutes to weapons.
Keda
The designated fighter.
- The Big Guy: She's the team's designated fighter, due to lacking technical skills, but having prior combat experience, and, most importantly, having augmentations installed.
- Blessed with Suck: When she talks about implants, she accents on the negative sides, such as horrible pain, reduced lifespan, and loss of the ability to have children; it's clear that she doesn't like them much (not in the last turn because their installation wasn't her choice to begin with).
- Cyborg: She's so-called "imp" (from the word "implant"), and has various cybernetic enhancements installed into her body, including weapons.
- Dark and Troubled Past: In her teenage years, she was in the gang (she's killed her first man at the age of twelve). When her gang was destroyed, she ended up in Raysa at the age of sixteen, one of the few girls amongst worst of the worst of humanity; it was exactly as hellish as one may think. After few months, she was offered to participate in the illegal experiments, not knowing that they would involve cybernetics. She was one of the few who managed to escape, after which she managed to change her face, obtain fake documents and run into another country, where she was later found by Tyapa and recruited into the clan.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: She's only known as "Keda", which is clearly not the real name.
- The Quiet One: She rarely sticks with the other team members, and usually keeps quiet and not talkative, and not just because she's the sole non-hacker in the team.
- Sacrificial Lion: Along with Sanych, her death early in the story sets up how dangerous Jet really is.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Alisa says that she's... sad that she was unable to save Keda's life, and that she was the best out of entire clan, the only one who was not blinded by greed.
- Your Days Are Numbered: After installing implants, you have roughly ten years to live; she had them installed several years ago, roughly at the age of 16-17.
Other characters
Jamba
High-ranked gangster. A biker. His real name is Lui Abu Dal.
- Affably Evil: He's rather friendly for a ruthless gangster. That being said, don't push him too far, every patience has its limits.
- Friend in the Black Market: He mainly deals with drugs, but can find the other things, like fake documents or right contacts. As long as you have the money.
- Honor Among Thieves: When he hears that Ruben's daughter is in danger, he immediately agrees to help, sparing no expenses, knowing that in other circumstances, Ruben would do the same for him.
- Token Black: He's literally the only black character in the cast. Justified, as the story is set in Russia.
Ruben
A friendly Armenian in whose house Rinat hides for a time being.
- Character Catchphrase: "When the fortune turns her back to you, bend her and fuck so hard, she would think twice before doing it again". All his friends knows this as his signature line.
- Retired Monster: He acts as the normal, nice and friendly family guy living with his wife, six years-old daughter, and not very bright old dog, but there are strong hints that he may be related to criminal world in one way or another — like his very specific knowledge of how to hide a corpse. Vitaly later confirms that he, Jamba and Ruben used to be the members of the same gang; when they were caught and Vitaly was sent to Raysa, Jamba somehow helped Ruben to avoid justice and be treated as witness.
- Token Minority: The only Armenian in the cast.
Vitaly Malenky
A high-ranking prisoner in Raysa.
- Affably Evil: When you don't disobey the rules, he may act nice and friendly. But as soon as you screw up, he would remind you that he was sent to Raysa for a reason.
- Mr. Exposition: Much of backstory for Raysa comes from him.
- Sacrificial Lion: Sallah-Ad-Din shows how dangerous he is by effortlessly killing him.
- Stout Strength: He's fat, but very strong and dangerous fighter.
- Totalitarian Gangsterism: He rules the other convicts in Raysa as self-appointed dictator; disobey him at your peril.
Bart Savitsky
One of the few surviving high-ranking members of the "Wolholland" corporation.
- Berserk Button: While he's highly unstable in general, anything that has to do with his origin (his parents being junkies, or him allegedly being named after Bart Simpson) is the sure-fire way to make him hate your guts, and dedicate his attention to make your life a living hell; there were such cases in the past.
- Big Bad Wannabe: It turns out that "Wolholland" has much less control over the situation than it seems at first, with even them being forced to cooperate with Alisa and playing by her rules. This includes leaving Rinat and Worm alone.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's the current CEO of "Wolholland" corporation, incredibly corrupt and amoral corporation which aims to control the whole world.
- Freudian Excuse: According to rumours, his parents were junkies, which is why he has so unstable psyche, and why he's so foul-mouthed.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He's easy to piss off — and when you piss him off, you better run, as he would make your life a living hell — or end it outright. Particularly heated topic is his origin: don't discuss his parents or origin of his name.
- Shout-Out: It's speculated in-universe that he was named after Bart Simpson, as his father, while being high on something, thought it would be a good idea. Don't mention that theory within his earshot.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: He's known for swearing quite a lot. It's often attributed to his parents (who, according to rumours, were junkies).
- You Are in Command Now: He became the CEO of "Wolholland" solely because everyone above him have been killed due to "Werewolf" going rogue.
Harry Novak
Chief of security of the "Wolholland" corporation.
- Arc Villain: He's the guy in charge of the hunt for Rinat. Ultimately, he catches him, which ends in his undoing (due to Alisa's actions), and Rinat being finally leaved alone.
- The Dragon: He's Bart's chief of security.
- Lawman Gone Bad: He used to be a cop; now, he works for Corrupt Corporate Executive, and has carte blanche to do whatever he wants in order to achieve the task, no matter how amoral or illegal.
Sallah-Ad-Din
Infamous assassin. Despite the name, he's Russian; he changed it when he converted to Islam.
- Arc Villain: He was sent to Raysa with specific task — find Worm, and ensure that he wouldn't die — but would suffer every minute of his stay there. Later it turns out that it was Alisa who arranged for his arrest, and gave him this task, for her own unspecified reasons.
- The Dreaded: He's an infamous assassin, the name of whom scares everyone shitless, and for a good reason.
- I Call It "Vera": He calls his sword-cane "Tuki-Tuki" ("Knock-Knocky").
- Named After Someone Famous: He took the name of the famous Arab ruler of the Crusades era.
- One-Man Army: At one point he single-handedly killed sixteen opponents in the one bar brawl.
- Professional Killer: He's an assassin whom the other people hires when they really need someone dead.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He always talks in calm, gentle voice, even when he describes how he's gonna torture you with a lighter.
