Characters / Welcome to Night Vale

(Portraits by H. Holloway)

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Cecil and Associates

Cecil Gershwin Palmer/“The Voice of Night Vale”

"We understand the lights. We understand the lights above the Arby’s. We understand so much. But the sky behind those lights, mostly void, partially stars, that sky reminds us: We don’t understand even more."

Voiced by: Cecil Baldwin

Our smooth-talking, (usually) unflappable radio announcer. A Night Vale local, Cecil has a voice like butter and remains calm in the face of many of the town's dangerous peculiarities — but is reduced to fanboyish glee over his husband Carlos' perfect hair and internet cat videos.

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• Action Survivor: Episode 33 shows that Cecil was an intern at the radio station. Given their mortality rate and that he is still alive today, he definitely has a place in this trope.
• Ambiguously Human: There's enough evidence (most notably the fact that he's apparently a few hundred years old, and his apparent clairvoyance) to cast reasonable doubt over his status as a human being. He's at least normal enough to be treated as normal by the inhabitants of Night Vale, but they also treat the almost-definitely-not-human City Council and Hiram McDaniels (who is literally a 3,600 pound, 18-foot-tall, five-headed dragon) as normal, so that isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. At the very least, he's described as humanoid by Kevin.
• Ambiguously Jewish: There are many moments in various episodes that point to Cecil's Jewish heritage — the name Gershwin comes from Gershowitz, after all — but they are subtle enough that they might go unnoticed by the casual viewer. In Episode 89, he mentions going to torah school as a child, and the covering of mirrors featured in Episode 33 is commonly done in Jewish households after a death.
• Badass on Paper: Played with — for all intents and purposes, he's just a radio show host. But when you consider what the staff at the station have to go through each day, and that Cecil must have worked his way up...
• Berserk Button: For a generally nice guy, Cecil has a lot of these.
  • Racism. This is the reason he hates the Apache Tracker so much. He also expresses disapproval toward Pamela Winchell for claiming that Hiram McDaniels can't be mayor because he's a dragon.
  • Desert Bluffs, and everything about them. Probably justified, though, since Desert Bluffs and Night Vale are rivals.
  • Steve Carlsberg, the reasons for which were finally explained for real in Matryoshka, and have much more to do with Cecil himself than Steve.
  • Anything bad happening to Carlos. This one would be considered understandable if it weren't for the fact that Cecil considers Carlos getting a haircut to be an unforgivable crime.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Do not screw with Cecil. He's one of the nicest, dorkiest guys you will ever meet, but if you push any of his berserk buttons he will end you plain and simple. When faced with a StrexCorp machine which severely injured Khoshekh he described the experience as wanting to beat the thing to death with a hammer. He didn't have a hammer, though. He only had self control.
• Camp Gay: Played with. While his voice is usually even and "sonorous," he tends to slip into Valley Girl speech patterns, loves cute things, is a self-described "aficionado of the theatre", and is often very descriptive about fashion and people's outfits. One of the first things he mentions when describing his first date with Carlos is the lab coat which Carlos wore and the tunic and furry pants which he himself wore.
  "Apparently here they pointed to Night Vale Weekly Gazette writer Lauren James, who usually wears very nice shirts. It's really her bangs that don't work, I think. I mean I like bangs, but they just frame her face too dramatically, especially with those thick-rimmed glasses."
  "Stay tuned next to the sound of two men putting on just the most vicious outfits."
• Character Narrator: Almost all of the stories occur in third-person-limited narration via Cecil's newscast, although he's Lemony enough to occasionally break into second-person audience address or first-person editorial. Cecil is usually reporting things that happened elsewhere or only a bystander to a story with a Non P.O.V. Protagonist, but on rare occasions he is the protagonist of the storyline.
• Combat Pragmatist: Cecil can do a surprising amount of damage with an ordinary cell phone. Like pirating the station's signal for an unauthorized broadcast, or smacking John Peters (...you know, the imposter) completely unconscious.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: He's got a Night Vale native's skewed sense of what is odd or dangerous.
• Cool Uncle: "Cookies" reveals he has a niece named Janice, who he cares for very much. Enough to buy a shitload of Girl Scout cookies in order to help her out.
• Creepy Good: Cecil seems genially disposed towards most people, but is capable of genuine creepiness—though it seems to be part and parcel of the creepy atmosphere of Night Vale itself.
• Cuteness Overload: Cecil has a soft spot for all things adorable, and sort of breaks down in Squee for a while. This gets used against him.
• Defrosting Ice King: In The September Monologues, Steve Carlsberg suggests that Cecil was work-obsessed and extremely anti-social before he started dating Carlos.
• Despair Event Horizon: After being put through the emotional wringer through most of season 3, poor Cecil finally seems to have hit this in Season 5 after Violet's death, especially when coupled with his dear friend Josie's failing health.
  "Stay tuned next for... I don't know. I don't care."
• Disproportionate Retribution: When Telly the Barber cuts off Carlos's beloved (by Cecil) hair, Cecil reads out detailed information about Telly's physical attributes and location, apparently hoping a lynch mob would form over the hot new guy's hair being cut.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Interesting inversion. In universe everyone refers to the character as Cecil, but at the end of every episode Cecil Baldwin (the actor) is only credited as "The Voice of Night Vale".
• First-Person Smartass: Though a very genial person overall, Cecil will occasionally come out with slightly catty or over-honest commentary on residents' appearance, behavior, personality, or intelligence. Despite his rose-coloured glasses, he has even gone so far as to be critical of Carlos on several occasions too.
  "Carlos did want me to ask if anyone has ever actually seen the Night Vale clock tower. I told him that it was invisible, and always teleporting, and that's why he can't ever see it. I mean, that seems sort of obvious. Okay. That was unfair. Carlos is a very smart man, and I shouldn't roll my eyes just because he doesn't comprehend basic architecture." — Episode 16, "The Phone Call"
• Gadgeteer Genius: In episode 36 Cecil manages to successfully broadcast part of his show by pirating the station's signal from the roof. He wires his phone into the soundboard and hacks the station's auxiliary power to run the transmitter after StrexCorp shuts down his usual recording studio to take him off the air. He learned how to do this as a Boy Scout.
• Genki Girl: Male version. The novel has two separate characters describe Cecil as "overenthusiastic about most things". One of them was Carlos.
• Has a Type: Seems to be attracted to handsome scientists, despite—as his boyfriend Carlos observes—having very little grasp of science himself.
• Happily Married: He and Carlos got married in episode 100 (Toast).
• He's Back!: Suddenly returns in truly badass fashion halfway through episode 48, followed by one of the most kickass weathers.^note Gee, Neil Young fans much?
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Old Woman Josie. They used to go bowling together and he wants to tell her more about his new boyfriend. Although [Best Of?] revealed that Cecil is actually much MUCH older then Josie, working in radio since she was a little girl and long before that.
• Intrepid Reporter: Seems to consider himself this to some degree, although Intrepid Gossip might be more accurate.
  "Look. I've probably said too much. I can see down the hall that an envelope just came flying out. I pray it's not another HR re-training session in the dark box. Uuuuugh... but what can I say? I'm a reporter at heart! I can't not report." — Episode 3, "Station Management"
• Kent Brockman News: Cecil is devoted to the cause of giving out community updates and warnings. He also gushes about Carlos, berates Steve Carlsberg, and shares details about the station cat's adorable kittens in between stories. He really likes uncritically reciting press releases:
  A press release day is a good day because I don’t have to actually research or prepare anything. Happy holidays, to me!
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: "Cassette" reveals that Cecil's memories are highly unreliable, perhaps even deliberately altered. Cecil did not take the revelation well, and his decision to destroy the tape suggests that he's still in denial. Subverted later in season 5, when it's revealed that the cassette tapes actually came from an alternate timeline which partially merged with Cecil's home timeline, which is why he did not remember them.
  • He also has no memory of what happens when he is under the control of whoever bought him at the auction.
  • He himself mentions and acknowledges as early as the second episode that he will and has forgotten whatever he had reported on mere minutes ago, such as the Glow Cloud. It is unclear which events trigger his amnesia, as some seem to stick while others are immediately forgotten once he is done reporting them.
• Love at First Sight: Cecil fell for Carlos instantly.
• Manchurian Agent: Episode 61 reveals that whoever bought Cecil from the auction back in Episode 37 can control Cecil without Cecil being aware of it.
• Married to the Job: In The September Monologues, Steve Carlsberg says Cecil was this way before he met Carlos.
• Mouth of Sauron: To the Sheriff and his secret police, the City Council, and the mayor, whose voices are never heard (though their replacements are) but whose every declaration Cecil reports faithfully and cheerfully.
• Mysterious Past: Even after "Cassette", we still know very little about Cecil's life before he became an intern at the station, what happened with the mirrors, or what became of his mother and brother. The episode "[Best Of?]" gave us more information, but if anything it just raised more questions.
• Nerds Are Sexy: He seems to have a thing for scientists. There's Carlos, obviously, but he also had a fling with Guglielmo Marconi around the time that he invented the radio.
• Nice Guy: Oh yes, although you should also avoid getting in his bad books.
• Ninja Prop: He learns to weaponize the Weather.
• Noble Bigot: Towards Desert Bluffs, somewhat. While he does virulently hate the town, even he draws the line at Sheriff Sam's anti-Desert Bluffs methods.
• No Hero to His Valet: Cecil is overall a pretty good guy, but he hasn't always treated his interns very well.
• The Non Descript: Night Vale writers Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor have both confirmed that Cecil's appearance will remain ambiguous. The best description we have of Cecil comes via Kevin narrating a photograph. He describes Cecil as being a man, not fat and not thin, not tall and not short, with eyes like Kevin's, a nose like Kevin's, and hair like Kevin's. He also wears a tie, and has a hard to describe smile. (Keep in mind, though, that Kevin sees faces a little differently than most people do. Also, unlike Kevin, Cecil actually has eyes.) Occasionally Cecil will offhandedly describe other parts of himself, such as his shoes or hands, but mostly just in the process of describing what he's doing. One episode also mentions him wearing his best tunic and furry pants as a date outfit. Kyle Kallgren described him with the phrase, "Cecil looks like... nothing."
• Obfuscating Stupidity: It's unclear just how aware Cecil is of what's wrong with Night Vale, but it's definitely more than he's allowed to let on. In "Who's a Good Boy? Part 1", he mentions that he'd usually have to describe City Council abandoning the city as "a sudden and fortuitous vacation", but he's not on the radio anymore.
• Oddball Doppelgänger: To/with Kevin from Desert Bluffs. Although there are notable differences between the two, unlike the other doubles, which are so similar that they cannot even tell themselves apart from their originals. Cecil's voice, for one, is very different from Kevin's, as are his political leanings, general demeanor, and opinions towards the counterparts of recurring characters such as Steve Carlsberg.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He's usually quite unflappable. Which makes genuine fear in his voice pretty damn disturbing.
• Parental Substitute: It's implied in "Matryoshka" that he was one for Janice
• The Philosopher: Fond of lacing his monologues with poetic language and endearingly loopy metaphors, not to mention frequent bouts of existentialism. Verges on Fauxlosophic Narration at times, but Cecil's brand of bizarre insightfulness usually prevails.
• Purple Prose: Cecil is quite fond of this verbal style when describing people, places and events.
• Really 700 Years Old: Episode 67 shows that he first became a radio intern not only before Night Vale was founded, but before the existence of radio. The earliest year stated outright in that episode is in the early 1930s, by which point he has been an intern for many years. His first ever report as an Intern was of the foundation of Night Vale - stated in "History Week" to be 1745. By the time he's taken over from Leonard Burton, it's World War II—probably not long after Pearl Harbor Day, since he mentions America being attacked.
• Rummage Sale Reject: One of the few things we know for sure about his appearance is that his outfits are... interesting. One of them involves a trash bag poncho, galoshes, and cat ears.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After several months of being used against his will by whoever bought Lot 37 at the auction, in addition to repeated attempts on his life and the growing dissatisfaction with life in Night Vale, Cecil decided to move to and begin broadcasting from the desert otherworld that Carlos has been in. The events of episode 70 made him change his mind and stay.
• Servile Snarker: His station may be run by authoritarian and incredibly suppressive bosses, but that doesn't mean he has to like it.
• Stalker with a Crush: Downplayed. Cecil is so obsessed with Carlos that he shouts his crush to the entire town on a regular basis, gets disturbingly overprotective of Carlos' hair, and prior to Episode 25 misreads every meeting as a potential date. However, the series also averts some of the worst implications of the trope because Cecil does respect Carlos' right not to reciprocate his affection (noting, in Episode 16, that "sometimes people just don't call, and that's okay"), and Carlos is in fact the one who initiates each new step in their relationship: it's Carlos who wants to see Cecil after his own near-death experience, Carlos who then asks Cecil out, Carlos who kisses Cecil at the end of their first date, and Carlos who suggests they move in together.
• Straight Gay: Cecil has only ever mentioned male love interests in the show and Night Vale writers Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor, as well as Cecil Baldwin, have all confirmed Cecil's sexuality as gay. While Cecil can get a little Valley Girl when off-script (particularly when gushing about Carlos), he is otherwise very attached to his idea of professionalism and doesn't go for camp.
  • Obviously, there is his intense and long-standing love for Carlos. This is especially notable under the Straight Gay trope because from the get-go Cecil speaks about his same-sex crush without any reservation or sense of it being abnormal or unexpected. To all appearances the rest of Night Vale reacts to his relationship the same way, most notably Old Woman Josie, with whom Cecil happily chats about his "new boyfriend".
  • When he speaks about his trip through Europe as a college student, Cecil mentions a male traveling companion with whom he shared a small cabin and went rolling down hills in the middle of the night. Although his memories of this companion have some typical Night Vale disturbing details (like being unable to remember his name or where they met), Cecil clearly cherishes the memory of their time together.
  • Also from Europe, he waxes poetic about "the beautiful face of that young man from Luftnarp with his gaping mouth and ashy skin, last seen already half turned away as you boarded the bus, already turning towards a future without you in it, where this thing between you that seemed so possible now already and forever never was."
  • He also met a... very handsome scientist in Europe named Guillermo Marconi. He showed Cecil all sorts of things. All sorts of things
  • In "The Candidate", Cecil seemed to be attracted to Hiram McDaniels, who is literally a five headed (male) dragon. Calling him "dashing" and "dynamic", commenting on how attractive he is and pushing him to run for mayor apparently just because he finds him hot. However, this hasn't been referenced since, and might be a case of Early-Installment Weirdness.
• Super-Strength: He demonstrates 'strength beyond his stature' sufficient to hold down a golem in Episode 63, though this may be a side-effect of his being under the control of whoever bought him at the auction.
• Tomato in the Mirror: In episode "Cassette", the cognitive dissonance that Cecil displays when attempting to reconcile his clearly altered memories with the past he heard in the cassette recordings, coupled with the revelation that the mirrors in the radio station bathroom are always covered, hint at this.
• Tranquil Fury: In earlier episodes, he would rarely raise his voice when angry, to disconcerting effect. He appears to have moved past that.
• Trouble Entendre: Uses a lot of these when talking about his delightful new bosses from StrexCorp, most memorably:
  "So, our new owners have had to learn to live with those doors, bleeding on their way out. Good practice for them. (Pause.) Anyway."
• Unfazed Everyman: He doesn't seem to find much, if any, of the madness happening in town to be at all weird.
• Unreliable Narrator: He has eccentric news judgment even at the best of times, lets his biases override his professional detachment, gets much of his narration written for him by businesses and by his higher-ups, and falls victim to the occasional mind-control entity. His memories aren't reliable either; that probably doesn't help matters any.
  • "The September Monologues" touches upon this even more, showing that Cecil is willing to lie to a very extreme degree to protect those he cares about, even if it could possibly hurt others. He apparently was quite nice to Steve at first, and even liked his scones.
• Vague Age: He doesn't seem to be aware of what year he was born. The only clue we have is that he's around the same age as Earl, who is himself old enough to have a wife and child, though this is incredibly unreliable as Earl is stuck outside of time.
  • According to "[Best Of?]", Cecil was an intern before both the founding of Night Vale (described in "History Week" as taking place in 1745) and the invention of radio.
• Vocal Evolution: Initially Cecil is fairly deadpan, but over the course of the series becomes a little less formal and more obviously emotional. Cecil in "Pilot" is a much less rounded and developed character than Cecil in "Whispering Forest". This is even more obvious when you compare the opening lines from the pilot to their Ironic Echo from "One Year Later". The words are nearly identical but the reading is much warmer and more dynamic in the later episode.
• The Voice: Well, he's a radio host, so not surprisingly he has a deep, smooth, dynamic voice with precise and proper diction.^note In the very first episode, he has a recognizable community-FM-radio sound, especially in the final minutes: "Settling in to be another clear night and pretty evening here in Night Vale..." FM radio announcers in the '60s and '70s would have sold their souls to sound like Cecil.
• Worst News Judgment Ever: Cecil isn't quite this bad, but he has odd ideas of what is newsworthy. How much of it is Cecil being Cecil, or Night Vale being Night Vale, is up to you.
• Yandere: He's quite harmless and sweet toward Carlos, but his adoration of Carlos' hair drives him to abuse his position to threaten Telly the barber, who dared give Carlos a haircut.
• Yaoi Fanboy: He writes Jaws slashfic. (And makes his interns proofread it.)

Carlos Dave Róbles

Voiced by: Jeffrey Cranor (The Phone Call, a brief cameo in Toast), Dylan Marron (all other appearances)

Carlos is the newest addition to Night Vale's populace. He came to town to study its particular brand of weird science, and spends much of his time being baffled by little things, like how time doesn't run right there. Or how all the clocks contain only grey matter. Or how the local radio host waxes lyrical about his hair...

Has been recently revealed to be part of the University of What It Is faculty, and apparently, missing for decades.

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• Anti-Magic: Carlos is immune to the otherwise citywide torpor in episode 35, "Lazy Day", and to the buzzing shadow-energy in episode 27, "First Date". It's unclear why—particularly since Cecil, who normally is susceptible to citywide effects (he's affected by, among others, the creeping fear in episode 3, "Station Management", and the Glow Cloud's mind control in episode 2, "The Glow Cloud"), is unaffected by the shadow-energy when he's with Carlos in "First Date". In "Well of Night", Carlos seemed immune to the powers of the chanting, and even managed to sleep through it, whereas it kept Cecil up all night. On the other hand, he proved susceptible to the black cube condos, and upon visiting one looking for a place to move in with Cecil nearly falls prey to its influence and only escapes because Cecil abandons his post at the microphone to rescue him.
• Berserk Button: As seen in c being lied to and seeing his family being endangered are both sure to turn his usual calm behaviour to blind fury
• The Bus Came Back: As of Episode 70B, Carlos has returned to Night Vale for good.
• For Science!: Carlos's motivation, although unusually for this trope he seems to do more good than harm.
• Going Native: Seems to be gradually happening. In episode 4, "PTA Meeting", Carlos tries to disrupt a town meeting to warn the citizens about some kind of presumably impending doom, then flees, screaming that "There is no more time!". By episode 35, "Lazy Day", he's taking advantage of gravity slacking off to clean his gutters.
• Happily Married: He and Cecil got married in episode 100 (Toast).
• Hates Being Touched: According to Nilanjana in It Devours!, Carlos doesn't like hugs or, in general, being touched without permission.
• Heavy Sleeper: According to Cecil in episode 72, Carlos can sleep through anything.
• Hero of Another Story: It's heavily implied through Cecil's narration that while he informs us of the current weird happenings in Night Vale, Carlos is the one who’s acually down on the streets saving the day.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: "I'm not a hero, I'm a scientist".
• Informed Attractiveness: Cecil can't bring Carlos up without telling us that he's beautiful and perfect, and of course we only have his descriptions to go on. Cecil also describes Carlos's voice as "caramel" and "oaky". He shares some voice mail messages from Carlos in Episode 16, allowing listeners to form their own opinions. Old Woman Josie is the only other Night Vale resident who comments on Carlos' attractiveness, also describing him as "perfect" and "smelling like lavender chewing gum". During The Thrilling Adventure Hour cross-over episode, his perfect hair and teeth seem to have universal appeal.
• Innocently Insensitive: As most displayed in episode 51, he can be sort of oblivious to Cecil's feelings and how his actions can affect them, especially if he gets distracted with science. However, he does his best to make it up to him once he's cottoned on.
• I Work Alone: "A scientist is self-reliant. It's the first thing a scientist is." (He might have misunderstood Cecil's intentions.)
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine:
  • So ubiquitous that he even has a "casual weekend labcoat" which is his date attire in Episode 27.
  • In the "Condos" live episode, he is described as having a "business-casual labcoat".
  • He wears a "running labcoat" in episode 75.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: His amazing jaw is mentioned as part of his physical appeal.
• Married to the Job: Carlos seems to be intensely focused on his scientific work, unusually so, and at first refuses to talk to Cecil about anything else. It's not initially clear if Carlos is just socially awkward and bad at picking up social cues, or if he really is just that obsessed with science, or if it's some combination of the two. Even after the two finally do begin a relationship, Carlos still seems distractedly fixated on science. By the live episode "Condos", set a few weeks prior to episode 42, "Numbers", Cecil remarks that Carlos is slowly learning social graces like calling to cancel dates if he winds up working late—but when he gets trapped in the desert otherworld, he quickly becomes so professionally interested that he begins to lose touch with Cecil.
• Monster of the Week: It's heavily implied, particularly during Episodes 25, 27, and 29, that Carlos spends his time thwarting these, or at least trying to help people understand what is happening.
• Mysterious Past: In Episode 49B, even Carlos himself is uncertain what brought him to Night Vale... or where it brought him from. In Episode 55, a University of What It Is faculty-member named Carlos disappeared decades ago on sabbatical investigating strange rumors in the desert. It's not yet clear whether this is "our" Carlos and, if so, when he lost contact with the outside world.
• Oddball Doppelgänger: In "The Mudstone Abyss" Kevin reveals that New Desert Bluffs now has a new resident: Charles the Theologist.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Almost to the point where it's parodied, in deliberately depicting science as being a single, monolithic thing. To date, Carlos has mentioned work that touches on theoretical and applied physics, mechanical and electrical engineering, organic and inorganic chemistry, plant/animal/microbial biology, ecology, medicine, geology, and seismology. In the Night Vale / The Thrilling Adventure Hour crossover, Carlos even finds it strange that a scientist would be limited to just one field of study. When asked what his is, he simply replies "Science."
• Only Sane Man: He is the only person, aside from the audience (and Steve Carlsberg and Earl Harlan), to whom Night Vale is in any way weird. By Episode 25, Carlos has clearly become more accustomed to random and inexplicable things happening, although he still has trouble with the way Night Vale residents respond to such events. He seems to make peace with that as well, after his near-death experience later in the episode.
• Put on a Bus: Between Episode 49B and Episode 70B, Carlos is trapped in the desert otherworld and can only communicate intermittently with Cecil - which he does much less often than Cecil would like.
• Science Hero: His scientific skills save the town repeatedly.
• Traumatic Haircut: Traumatic for Cecil, at least... to the point where he ran the barber who gave it out of town to wander the desert in delirium.
• The Unseen: Until the voice message in Episode 16, we only ever heard Carlos filtered through Cecil's narration.
• Vocal Dissonance: A mild case. His appearance is apparently perfect, but both his voices have been slightly dweeby. Who's to say dweeby isn't perfect, though?
• What Have I Done: Has this sort of epiphany in Episode 70A, realizing he's spent the last year 'all wrong'. He decides to rectify this by returning to Night Vale to be with Cecil.

Steve Carlsberg

"But every time I look up, I see them. Glowing arrows in the sky, dotted lines and circles, a great chart that explains it all, and I ask you, how can I know all of this? How can I understand, and not try to explain? How can I see the dotted lines so bright and tangible, and deny them?

I have to try, even if it means that everyone – even my wife, or even Janice – grows to hate me. The truth is more important than all that. It has to be.

Or else, why would it shine so clear above?"

Voiced by: Hal Lublin

A Night Vale denizen whose various attempts at community activism are summarily dismissed by Cecil, his brother-in-law.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: His actor describes him as having a "golden retriever"-like love for Cecil, hence how enthusiastically he responds whenever said host shows him the slightest bit of affection. Cecil is not pleased.
• Berserk Button: Janice may be disabled, but she is NOT BROKEN!
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's actually a really friendly dude, he cares a lot about his stepdaughter even if he does seem to be occasionally inept, he maintains a fondness for Cecil despite getting nothing but apoplectic rage in return, and he tells Kevin he has "cool eyes" just to be polite. But you wouldn't like him when he's angry.
• Butt-Monkey: Cecil reserves a special level of ire for Steve, matched only by his hatred of Desert Bluffs and Telly the barber. the novel shows that most residents feel similarly, even if they can't quite put their finger on why.
• Cassandra Truth: Subverted; it's not that nobody believes him when he says something weird, crazy, or creepy is happening— because they do. It's more that everyone else (especially Cecil) treats the weird, crazy, and creepy stuff as a given, and therefore don't really see any reason to listen to him. Double subverted in season 5 when it's revealed that this is actually because he's the only one who can perceive Huntokar's messages, and nobody believes him when he talks about it.
• The Cast Show Off: He does some rapid-fire impressions, possibly just to show off that he can.
• Clueless Detective: More like ditzy-clueless Conspiracy Theorist. He never ever realizes that the secrets he uncovers were never secrets to anybody else. (Which annoys poor Cecil to tears.)
• Conspiracy Theorist: Of course, this being Night Vale, all of the conspiracies tend to be true.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Moron he is, but in Old Oak Doors, he suplexes Kevin and throws him directly into the path of the Smiling God.
• The Ditz: From what we heard in Old Oak Doors the guy is actually genuinely nice but unfortunately not that bright. So he believes people (even Kevin) and expects things to be normal, but this is Night Vale, where nothing is normal.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Possibly even Only Sane Man. At the least, he pointed out that building a drawbridge in a town with no waterways was a questionable use of money. He seems to not realize that the secrets are Open and whatever he uncovers is already known... but on the other hand, what does a town where everything is secret need, if not openness and honesty?
• Gone Horribly Right: Upon noticing how sad Chad looks, he recommends that he should get a puppy to cheer him up. And he does.
• Informed Flaw: During the reveal that Steve is Cecil's brother-in-law and Janice's step-father, Cecil is very dismissive of Steve's competence at being a step-father. Then, in "Old Oak Doors B" and "The September Monologues", we see that Steve deeply loves his stepdaughter and is willing to do tremendous things on her behalf.
• Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: In the September Monologues, Steve explains how he desperately wants his daughter to know about the arrows and circles in the sky, to share his forbidden knowledge so she knows more than the spoonfed information from the town powers yet is terrified that she would be ostracized for it or reject him the same way Cecil did.
• Large Ham: Not in the traditional sense, but whenever the chance comes, expect Steve to go the extra mile of ham.
• Only Sane Man: Played with. Unlike most Night Vale natives, Steve is aware that Night Vale is weird and even how it is weird—but he claims to know this because of the arrows and dotted lines in the sky that only he can see. That Steve's ideas of reality mesh better with the listeners' than, say, Cecil's seems like an indication that he's saner, but that's a dangerous assumption to make in Night Vale. Played straight as of season 5, where it's confirmed that the arrows and dotted lines are real and do contain a lot of important information.
• Papa Wolf: Heaven help you if you threaten Janice. He physically picks up Kevin and throws him into the Brightly Lit Land Beyond the Old Oak Doors for suggesting that his daughter's lifelong paralysis meant she needed to be "fixed" in the name of "Productivity".
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: For Cecil. Steve himself is aware of the grudge, but seems to be completely indifferent to it. In "Cookies," we at last get a glimmer of why, as we learn about his gambling and assorted other petty habits. Which Cecil abhors, because Steve's the stepfather of Cecil's niece, Janice.
  • This becomes more and more explored as the show goes on. The reasons that Cecil cites in "Cookies" appear to be rather exaggerated, with the true reason for the radio-host's apparent hatred being that Steve speaks dangerous truths, and Cecil is afraid that it will put his family in danger. Steve is quite aware of Cecil's feelings towards him, and understands them, and bears the man no ill will in return.
  • Eventually deconstructed, as it turns out in episode 110 that Steve is a lot more affected by Cecil's hatred than previously believed, to the point that after one dismissive reaction too many, Steve starts crying and plainly tells Cecil that his words hurt him. Interestingly, it turns out that Cecil's reasons for how he treats Steve have a lot more to do with Cecil himself than Steve. Cecil ends up doing a major turnaround, frequently mentioning what a good guy Steve is.

Janice

She is Cecil's niece and the step-daughter of Steve Carlsberg. Has a congenital disability that makes her unable to walk.

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• Gadgeteer Genius: At the very least, she was able to design (and possibly build) a "stealth wheelchair" to aid in her heist of the Registry of Middle School Crushes.
• Motor Mouth: She talks extremely fast when Cecil quotes her reaction to the opera.

Abby

Cecil's older sister, Janice's mother, and Steve's wife.

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• The Ghost: She's yet to be voiced in the show, and she doesn't really have much to do with a lot of the action. Justified in-universe, since she and Cecil didn't have the most stellar relationship before the show began. They're trying to fix things.
• Promotion to Parent: As revealed in Ghost Stories, after their mother disappeared when Cecil was fourteen, Abby had to drop out of college to take care of him. It was a tumultuous time for them both, as Abby blamed Cecil for her having to drop out of school, and Cecil was rebellious because he resented the fact she simply wasn't their mom.

Others at the Station

Dana Cardinal

"I wonder sometimes if my double could have done better. Or, if I am the double, whether the original me would have done better. Did I destroy my better half? Then maybe I was lucky that even half of me was better, once upon a time."

Voiced by: Jasika Nicole

One of the radio station's longest-lived interns, who survives a fight to the death with her doppelganger or Dana's double did as well as becoming stranded in the forbidden dog park. On her return, along with the removal of StrexCorp from Night Vale, the gorge declared she was the winner of the Mayoral election. Despite not having been a candidate.

---

• Action Girl: She survives a fight to the death with her double in "The Sandstorm"... or perhaps her double survives a fight with Dana. Cecil is never sure. In Episode 41, we learn that even Dana doesn't know if she is the "real" one or not.
• Ambiguous Clone Ending: She murdered her double in episode 19... but she's still not sure if she's the original, or the replacement.
• Another Dimension: The house that does not exist transported her to a plane where Night Vale is invisible and intangible to her. She walks straight through Carlos as he takes readings on the house.
• Clear My Name: Cecil spends a very long time suspecting that Dana bought him at auction and was using him against his will to protect her from threats after she was elected Mayor. It turns out in Episode 70B, "Review", that Hiram McDaniels' Violet head bought him and had him protect Dana because Violet didn't agree with the other four heads' campaign of vengeance against Dana for beating them out in the mayoral election.
• Dark Horse Victory: Despite not being a candidate, Dana wins the mayoral election mere moments after returning to Night Vale from the other world.
• Mauve Shirt: One of the only interns to survive being sent to certain doom. As of Episode 41, she is still alive and sometimes calling Cecil with reports, although stranded in a featureless desert on another plane of existence. Cecil mentions that she somehow still manages to text him despite being without a phone charger for the last eight months. As of episode 49, she's now the mayor of Night Vale, and it looks like she'll be sticking around for a while.
• Odd Friendship: She gets along quite well with the Man in the Tan Jacket.
• Only Sane Employee: Among the interns, which may be the reason she's still alive. Later, as Mayor, she so far hasn't totally succumbed to whatever madness seems to strike everyone in the town's government. A few of Cecil's news stories make it seem like she might have, but she appears in episode 65 to be mostly the same person as she was when she returned from the desert otherworld.
• Plucky Girl: She continues to report on occurrences within the Dog Park despite the fact she's nearly starving. She manages to escape from the Dog Park, but ends up in what appears to be another dimension. Even so, she's prepared to explore the featureless desert where she finds herself and report back.
• Supporting Protagonist: In Episode 30, she gets the chance to narrate her own story. This continues in Episode 41.

Khoshekh the Cat

Voiced by: Jonathan Atkinson

A male cat who was found floating next to the sink in the men's bathroom at the Night Vale Community Radio Station.

---

• Adorable Abomination: At first glance, just the adorable half. But at one point, Cecil plays a recording of Khoshekh's meow, which is a terrible screech. Later, he reminds the people who adopted Khoshekh's offspring to look out for their pets' poisonous spine ridges and venomous fangs, and ends the segment by cooing, "Who’s my adorable little kitten with your adorable tendril hub? It’s you! It’s you!"
• Almighty Janitor: The ending of "Who's a Good Boy? Part 2" implies that Khoshekh might have extraordinary powers strong enough to single-handedly defeat the devil himself in single combat, but unlike most such beings in Night Vale, he seems to have no higher ambitions than floating in the station bathroom. The "Silas" two-parter reveals that he does want very, very much to escape and take his revenge on Sandrine, but his curse somehow keeps him immobile until, for whatever reason, he stops wanting it.
• And I Must Scream: Judging from what Cecil says, he is stuck next to the sink and can't leave. Ever. Downplayed because the radio station is trying their best to keep him comfortable, like leaving the water in the sink trickling so he can drink and leaving food next to the sink so he can eat. Also, it's Night Vale, so an And I Must Scream fate for an outsider could easily be seen as a minor annoyance for a resident. "Silas the Thief" reveals it's even worse than previously assumed. He's a thief who was transformed into a monstrous, helpless form unable to communicate with the world around him. The only upside is that he's got Cecil taking care of him, even if he has no idea what Khoshekh really is and annoys him by treating him like a mindless pet.
• Animalistic Abomination: If he resembles a cat. Doubtful, given the poisonous spine ridges, venomous fangs, tendril hub, chest tongues, multiple sets of teeth, fur cusp, and visible skull. "Silas the Thief Part 2" makes it clear that whatever he is now, he is not a cat. In fact, he's pretty confused about why Cecil thinks he is one.
• Becoming the Mask: It's implied that Silas has become increasingly cat-like mentally over the years.
• Cats Are Magic: Khoshekh can float. Not that that's unusual, for Night Vale. Also, anyone who takes a picture of Khoshekh or his kittens dies horribly almost immediately. Cecil hesitates to even describe them as a result.
• Cute Kitten: Cecil and most of the radio staffers seem to think so.
• Floating in a Bubble: Although no bubble is ever mentioned, Khoshekh is unable to leave the men's bathroom, and stuck floating next to the sink.
  • As of Episode 43, whatever kept him floating there seems to have been destroyed in the attack, so he's now able to be moved and recovering at Cecil and Carlos' house.
  • In episode 48, he was returned to his spot in the men's restroom.
• Given Name Reveal: His real name is Silas, as revealed in Episode 195.
• Hero of Another Story: Maybe. Khoshekh disappears at some point during Episode 90 along with his kittens, and reappears at the end with a chunk of flesh that appears to be part of Good Boy's ear in his mouth, implying he at least fought and got away from Good Boy. Cecil even wonders if it was Khoshekh who saved them.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Zig-Zagged. "Silas the Thief" initially shows that he loathes Cecil and views him as a jailer, but it gradually becomes clear that Khoshekh alternates between hating and loving Cecil within seconds, just like a cat does with their owner.
• Mister Seahorse: A true-to-life Your Tomcat Is Pregnant.
• Origins Episode: Episode 195 has him recount how he was transformed from a human.
• Suddenly Voiced: Episode 195 is narrated by him, recounting his former life as a human.
• Was Once a Man: As revealed in episode 195, he was once a thief by the name of Silas, but was forcibly transformed by his resentful partner.

Maureen

"Listen to me, you monster! I got you coffee, and I made mimeographs, and I sang sea shanties to the ants every single day. I even copy edited your Jaws slash fic even though that wasn't in the job description! I did! And then one day, "Oh, get me some orange juice, Maureen! I mean, I won't even tell you how it's making people blink in and out of existence!"

Voiced by: Maureen Johnson

She is the second intern after Dana to be voiced on the show and Cecil's current intern. She quit after being hit by a hatchet in episode 62.

---

• Ambiguously Gay: She mentioned in Episode 82 that she "doesn't even like boys".
• Calling the Old Man Out: She calls out Cecil on the fact that his intern program has a high death rate, not that he seems to notice what she's talking about.
• Not Quite Dead: Seemingly killed off twice only to re-appear again. Unlike other interns it seems that Maureen has a habit of coming back from her apparent doom. To put it more bluntly as currently stands if they Never Found the Body she will return eventually.
• Only Sane Man: She is the only one before Intern Diana that comments on the fact that Cecil's internship program has an absurdly high mortality rate and that Cecil continuously puts his interns in dangerous situations.
• Running Gag: Having her turn out to be Not Quite Dead. She seems to have copped onto this as of episode 62, and has resigned as an intern after (justifiably) considering it to be too much risk.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After three near-death experiences, she decides the life of an intern is too much for her and quits.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She becomes general of the Strangers. By the time she realizes what they're really up to, it's too late.

Leonard Burton

"Oh yes, those were glorious days. These days the world seems to never be ending for some and not others. The world is a worse place now than it ever was before, but far better than it ever will be again. The past is always better than the present, and the future is the worst of all."

Voiced by: James Urbaniak

The former host of Night Vale Community Radio that Cecil interned under.

---

• Back from the Dead: Possibly. He died violently at some point in the '90s, yet somehow came back to host "[Best Of?]" — without even being aware of his own death. It's possible that the Leonard who hosted "[Best Of?]" is a duplicate of some sort.
• The Ghost: Only mentioned in passing during "Cassette" as being the radio host Cecil interned under. Becomes an Ascended Extra in [Best Of?] by hosting the entire show, although his status of living and that broadcast's existence are called into question by the episode's end.
• Informed Attribute: In "Cassette", Cecil describes him as having a voice "all high-pitched and grating like sandpaper". When he actually appeared in [Best Of?], his voice didn't exactly much Cecil's levels of Cozy Voice for Catastrophes, but it was hardly grating, either. In fact, it was Dr. Venture's voice, which is almost hilariously snarky.
• Nostalgia Filter: Spends most of his broadcast talking about how much better the past is than the present and how the future is going to be even worse.
  "The past is always better than the present, and the future is the worst of all."
• Really 700 Years Old: Like Cecil, has apparently worked at Night Vale Community Radio before the invention of radio and the foundation of Night Vale, and might have been around for a lot longer than him. Maybe.
• Tomato in the Mirror: After having hosted the entirety of [Best Of?] due to Cecil's vacation, the final recorded broadcast he plays reveals that Leonard Burton died sometime during the Clinton Administration, and rather violently at that. This serves as both one for the audience and "Leonard", but he seems to simply dismiss it after some concern.

Deb

"Hello Cecil, it’s Deb, the sentient patch of haze. I have some new ad copy I want to run by you. And then I want to disregard any petty human feelings you have about it. And then I want to run the ad on the air. Here goes, ok?

Voiced by: Meg Bashwiner.

A sentient patch of haze who often comes on the show to read ads.

---

• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 184, "Fog," focuses on her professional relationship with Cecil.
• American Accents: She has a really thick Upper Midwest accent (which the Proverb Lady switches back into when crediting herself as Deb). Like, really thick. That's one heck of an accent ya got there, donchaknow.
• Emotion Eater: Implied to feed off feelings of despair.
• Enigmatic Minion: She doesn't work for the station, or an ad agency, or... she gets pretty cagey about who exactly she works for, which seems to worry Cecil.
• Happily Married: To her partner, with their 25 children.
• Puny Earthlings: She's very scornful of humans.
• Speak of the Devil: Episode 184 reveals that it's possible to forcibly summon her by saying her name five times.
• Starfish Aliens: She's a sentient patch of haze.
• Vetinari Job Security: Double subverted. Cecil is able to do her job fine when she quits in a huff, but she can do it effortlessly from memory, and with much more passion.Also, she floods the city with reality warping fog when she's in a bad mood, so it's a good idea to keep her occupied with the advertising copy.

Night Vale City Government

The City Council

The central governing body of Night Vale, rules with an iron fist. Often dress in crimson robes and soft meat crowns.

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• Affably Evil: The City Council are simultaneously evil tyrants and cowardly goofballs who frequently undercut their carefully-constructed aura of menace with silly, counterproductive antics.
• Ambiguously Human: They apparently look mostly human, but their apparent age, mention of "dirt gills" for burying themselves to avoid the fallout from political scandals, and other things, suggest they might not be, even by Night Vale's loose standards. As of Year 5, Cecil has taken to describing the City Council as one single entity with multiple bodies, except for Tamika Flynn, who has demanded a place in the Council despite the Council remaining the same since Night Vale's inception, which explains their propensity for speaking in unison.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The only possible explanation for the long list of things they've banned. Although considering that wheat and wheat by-products did genuinely pose a public health risk, some of the others on that list may also have been an actual danger, but others, like the ban on breathing as a reflex action, are definitely for nonsensical reasons.
• Corrupt Politician: They ban the purchase of bloodstones, apparently a vital component of many Night Vale rituals that the residents perform for their very survival, from unlicensed manufacturers, and own the only licensed bloodstone factory in town. They also spend taxpayer money on ridiculous things like several million dollars on a drawbridge in a landlocked desert city.
• Crazy-Prepared: When asked how they knew they'd need a bunker for withstanding attacks by wheat and wheat by-products they simply replied, in unison, "prophecy". They also had a rocket sled for escaping antique attacks.
• Creepy Child: They use a seemingly limitless supply of unsettling mute children as messengers. Cecil isn't sure if they're sentient or not.
• Hive Mind: They usually speak in unison. However, they start arguing with each other after failing to escape StrexCorp.
• Love at First Sight: The entire Council and the entire Radio Station Management fall in love with each other in the classic "eyes meet across a crowded room" manner, although the trope doesn't usually involve one side [[ feeding the other live rats...]] Given both groups seem to be Eldritch Abominations this technically counts as Interspecies Romance.
• One-Winged Angel: In 2052 they will apparently assume their terrible true forms and devour half the city.
• Permanent Elected Official: Enforced by secret police.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Their edicts are bizarre, they frequently blow money on things like summoning the ghosts of dead rock stars with laser spectaculars, and their tax code is "lovably Byzantine."
• Really 700 Years Old: They've been in power since the city of Night Vale was first incorporated, in 1824.
• Requisite Royal Regalia: Their original garb consisted of long crimson robes and meat crowns. Apparently, probably in response to pressure from the vegan lobby, they switched over to "imitation meat crowns" at some point in the last century.
• The Elites Jump Ship: When Night Vale is in more danger than usual they have a habit of bailing.
  • They were all out of town on vacation during the events of "Street Cleaning Day" and "The Monolith".
  • In "Orange Grove" they reacted to StrexCorp selling orange juice that made you fade out of existence by announcing they "Just can't be here anymore", made the ASL gesture for "I love you" and attempted to disappear in a cloud of maple-scented smoke. Then started casting blame on each other for "not believing hard enough" when it failed.
  • When a rampaging herd of antiques reached city hall they fled in a rocket sled designed specially for the occasion.
  • Because of this it surprises Cecil when they actually stay in Night Vale during the attacks of the Strangers and Good Boy, and even try to create a plan and fight back with the citizens rather than run or hide.

Pamela Winchell

"She has been controversial, to be sure, but she is our leader. Our parent. She cares very much about us, Night Vale, and when she jails or tortures someone without just cause or due process, it is because she loves this town so much.

Voiced by: Desiree Burch

The mayor of Night Vale at the start of the series. Fed up with just about everything, has a habit of calling press conferences several times a day for things that do not necessarily warrant press conferences, and is eventually forced to resign.

---

• 10-Minute Retirement: She doesn't take kindly to being removed from her position. Her "retirement" is more like threatening the destruction of everything Night Vale holds dear.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Less of the "cute, quirky space case" type and more of the "dangerously insane psychopath" type.
• Demonic Possession: Implied by Winchell's statement at a press conference in Episode 17, "Valentine":
  "The Mayor smells of olives. The Mayor burns like a match tip and casts her flickering light on the darkened path of fate. The Mayor does not have keys to the Stone Door; the Mayor is the Stone Door and all that quivers behind it. The Mayor is forgiving. The Mayor makes no mistakes. The Mayor clutches tightly to your lungs, all six arms embracing your savory breaths. Let the Mayor out. Let the Mayor out. Let the Mayor out."
• Fantastic Racism: Cecil accuses her of this when she insists that Hiram McDaniels cannot be a good mayoral candidate because he's a dragon.
• Giftedly Bad: In any retirement related creative hobbies. She set aflame the press conference gazebo with bird watching, crashed several economies with coin collecting etc.. Her mass poisoning demonstration, sadly, went off without a hitch.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It's not hard to make her angry.
• Hot-Blooded: Mayor Winchell often gets extremely worked up while speaking to the press, at one point pounding her podium so hard that her fists bleed.
• Insane Equals Violent: She's temperamental and more or less confirmed to be totally insane.
• Mayor Pain
  "She has been controversial, to be sure, but she is our leader, our parent. She cares very much about us, Night Vale, and when she jails or tortures someone without just cause or due process, it is because she loves this town so much." — Episode 24, “The Mayor”
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: If we are to take the quote listed under Demonic Possession seriously, she has six arms, which also goes with her insane and violent nature.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Prone to yelling and throwing temper tantrums when things don't go her way.
• Tears of Blood: Happens in Episode 30, "Dana." Probably flavor one.
• Ultimate Authority Mayor: Averted when Winchell announced in "The Mayor" that she would be leaving office by year's end. It is heavily implied that this is not an entirely voluntary decision on her part.
• Villains Out Shopping: "Civic Changes" reveals that she and Cecil have lunch together sometimes.

Sheriff Sam

''"There's a new sheriff in town, Night Vale. The former sheriff, whose name we never knew, whose face we never saw, and whose voice was only ever heard through a vocoder, is gone. Our former sheriff was secretive, reclusive. Really into classical music and kleptocracy. Rarely made public appearances, and when he did, it was with a balaclava and cape.

The new sheriff has a more public persona, refusing to wear the traditional mask or cape and actually allowing their first name to be known. (It's Sam, by the way.) The Sheriff called a press conference this morning to announce that they are taking over the Secret Police effective immediately."''

The newly crowned Sheriff of the Secret Police, after the previous Sheriff retires for uncertain reasons. Sam quickly establishes themselves as more of a public presence than their predecessor, frequently butting heads with Mayor Cardinal on policy issues.

---

• Big Damn Heroes: Shows up to rescue Cecil from The Good Boy with a double-barreled shotgun.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Like most everyone else in town. Their main quirk is their tendency to communicate to the media through obtuse performance art; it's unclear if this is an obfuscation tactic or not.
• Jerkass: A belligerent authoritarian even by secret police standards.
• Minority Police Officer: They're nonbinary.
• Noodle Incident: It's left unclear what, if anything, happened to the previous Sheriff; Sam tends to break out into performance art when interrogated on the matter.
• Police Brutality: An unabashed fan of it, most noticeably when they attempt to forcibly evict the entirety of the Desert Bluffs refugee population from the city.
• Rabid Cop: At times.
• The Rival: The main voice of political opposition to Dana Cardinal's mayoral policies.
• The Sheriff: Of Night Vale.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes??: They harbor a mortal terror of vipers, and only release the police blotter to the public under the mistaken belief that the City Council is threatening to thrown them into the viper pit behind the bowling alley.

The Sheriff's Secret Police

The enforcers of Law in Night Vale, however bizarre, obtuse or Draconian that Law might be.

---

• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: A mild version. At the start of the series the Sheriff is working out of a "Hover Office," from which he can drop heavy objects on his enemies.
• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 168, "Secret Blotter," catalogues a night's worth of work for the department.
• Malevolent Masked Men: They sport tight leather balaclavas.
• Secret Police: Played with. They used to just be the police department until they appended "secret" to the front of their organizational title, and while they do all the black-bag oppressive wetwork of a secret police department they're pretty open about the fact that they do so.
• State Sec: Runs Night Vale's oppressive surveillance state.
• Police Are Useless: Fantastic at covering up threats and disasters, less so at actually resolving them.
• Red Shirt Army: They're as in over their heads as anyone else in Night Vale.

The Librarians

The pack of malevolent, predatory beings ostensibly in charge of running Night Vale's public library. They're one of the main reasons literacy is so frowned upon in town.

---

• Always Chaotic Evil: There is no good Librarian.
• The Dreaded: They're one of the most widely despised factions in town, and for good reason.
• Eldritch Abomination: They have pincers, wings and tentacles. Among other things.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Downplayed. According to Tamika, a lot of their behavior is rooted in their poor treatment by the (human) head of the library, and many of the problems clear up when they're allowed to lodge a complaint and form a union. However, they're still fundamentally a bunch of sadistic maniacs who communicate primarily through violence, and negotiating with them on their level still requires Tamika to be able to beat them unconscious at the drop of a hat.
• Not So Invincible After All: Tamika Flynn beheads one while leading a mass breakout from the Summer Reading Program, cementing herself as a force to be reckoned with.
• Schmuck Bait: The novel reveals that they actually do keep the library in good condition... in order to lure in book lovers so that they can kill and eat them.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Their spokeslibrarian is apparently named Randall.
• Would Hurt a Child: They abduct nearly every child in Night Vale and force them to participate in the Summer Reading Program.

Night Vale Residents

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home

"There is power in being unremembered, in being overlooked. You should remember that power. People who aren't seen can see and hear all."

Voiced by: Mara Wilson

An elderly lady lacking a visage that dwells clandestinely at thy residence. Also a former candidate for Mayor of Night Vale.

She's the protagonist and viewpoint character of the third novel. Serving as her origin story and an explanation of her Start of Darkness, the book follows her career as a pirate and professional thief in the Napoleonic Era as she attempts to avenge the death of her father at the hands of The Order of The Labyrinth, a precursor organization to The Vague, yet Menacing Government Agency.

---

• Affably Evil: She's definitely a villain, but she's usually polite and cheerful to others.
• A Day In The Lime Light: In addition to her segments in The September Monologues, The April Monologues, and The October Monologues, she's the narrator and protagonist of the third novel, which delves into her backstory. The Faceless Old Woman (Live), written to tie into the book’s release, features her as narrator, with Cecil not appearing.
• Batman Gambit: The novel reveals that these were, and are, her bread and butter; most of her random acts of vandalism are actually part of an ongoing project to positively manipulate the course of the life of a Night Vale resident named Craig.
• Blade Enthusiast: When she was still human, she was an expert with throwing knives.
• The Blank: When they say "faceless", they mean literally faceless. Hiram is deeply unsettled trying to figure out how she can talk and eat (and with the last one it's not even certain if she needs to). She is also somehow capable of smoking cigarettes. At least, this is one interpretation of "faceless"; the official script book presents... another entirely.
• Blessed with Suck: Possibly with a bit of Who Wants to Live Forever?, since she claims to be completely safe from harm and that nothing ever happens to her, and that it's a terrible burden.
• Body Horror: The second script book, The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe, portrays her facelessness rather differently than most interpretations: rather than having blank skin where her face should be, there's a giant gaping hole in her head in the rough shape and position of a face. The Novel presents another take on it; she *does* have a face, but it's impossible for most people to perceive more than one of her features at a time, leading most to throw in the towel and describe her as faceless.
• Cool Old Lady: She's very tech-savvy, for one thing.
• Creepy Good: Sure, everything about her is super creepy, and she seems to have a Blue-and-Orange Morality thing going for her, but she does genuinely seem to care. In particular, she showed up to warn Cecil about the danger posed by the condos. Even post Face–Heel Turn she continues to monitor the 'thing' Chad summoned that may one day threaten Night Vale. Her rampage in "Faceless Old Women" turns out to be in response to the unlawful arrest of several other faceless old women mistaken for her.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She's creepy and at one point lights your(?) fridge on fire because it was "upsetting her", but she's genuinely polite and affable, if odd (though that should be obvious, since she's a Night Vale resident). The whole reason she wants to run for mayor is to help Night Vale. Subverted after losing the mayoral election when she refuses to take her loss in the mayoral election gracefully and plots to destroy Dana. Though she does still keep an eye on the 'thing' summoned by Chad.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She genuinely loved her father, her uncle, her Unlucky Childhood Friend Albert, and her heist crew.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She did her best to avoid collateral damage in her quest for revenge against the Order of the Labrynth, and sought to fake her way out of many of the acts of gratuitous violence that she was asked to participate in during her attempts to infiltrate the organization. In the present day, she's thrown that qualm out the window.
• Face–Heel Turn: After losing the mayoral election in episode 49B, she swears vengeance on Dana and the town by proxy. By episode 65, she outright threatens to kill Cecil if he gets in the way again.
• Guile Hero: As a young woman, she relied on her wits and her impeccable planning skills to make a fortune as a mercenary and thief.
• Guardian Angel: It turns out that her ultimate goal as a spirit is to help people get their lives in order, using creative acts of vandalism and sabotage to guide her current target towards a positive outcome. Subverted, in that she always arranges for the horrific deaths of the people she's helped once they've had a male child; she only helps them get their lives in order so that they have a life it would be meaningful to destroy, and so that there's another child with whom she can continue the cycle.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: She only tells her extensive and miserable backstory to very small children who won't remember it until she returns to murder them as adults.
• Hive Mind: Could be this or Mind Hive; it's never explained if the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home is one old woman who lives in everyone's homes or multiple versions of the same entity.
• Hollywood Old: The Faceless Old Woman who lives in your home is played by Mara Wilson, who was 27 when the series started, and her voice is quite youthful. She also seems very tech-savvy for an old lady. It has been suggested by some listeners that "old" simply describes her age and that her appearance is actually quite youthful. The Sheriff's Secret Police describe her as "an elderly female with no face", but they also admit that they've never actually seen her, so they could be wrong.
• Humanoid Abomination: A literally faceless old woman who somehow manages to live in every home in Night Vale without ever being noticed, can only be seen via one's peripheral vision or in mirrors (and in the case of the latter, you have to look really hard in order to see her) and has full, almost infinite knowledge of the people she shares the house with? Yes, she certainly qualifies.
• Just Like Robin Hood: As a pirate captain, she attempted to commit crimes that would on balance help out the peasantry, and she made a point of ruining the lives of particularly unpleasant Noblemen.
• Misplaced Retribution: She's spent the 150 years since her death hunting, tormenting and ultimately violently murdering the descendents of the man who killed her and her father, manipulating their lives so that they they start families so there'll be a new generation for her to torture.
• No Name Given: Despite always being referred to as the "Faceless Old Woman", she tells Cecil that she has a name in "The Debate". They both move past it without telling what it is.
• Not So Stoic: In "The Debate" when Kevin says that he can see her face she begins speaking more erratically and denying it. She has a second moment in "The September Monologues", starting as her usual self, but slowly becoming more disturbed and fearful when describing Chad performing a ritual in a language she doesn't understand and summoning something into his home.
• The Omniscient: It's implied that she knows everything about the people whose homes she dwells in, though whether this is an actual supernatural ability or just a byproduct of being in multiple places at once all the time is unknown. She becomes quite uneasy when the doors in Episode 49 start admitting people that she doesn't know anything about.
• Open Secret: She admits that she's "secretly" living in your home almost every time she talks to anyone, and has even announced it on public radio a fair few times.
• Out-Gambitted: The central irony of her life; for all her incredible talent at manipulating people and pulling off elaborate schemes, almost every one of her major victories were the result of her Evil Uncle stringing her along and pointing her at targets he wanted dead.
• The Power of Hate: Her desire to carry out Revenge by Proxy on the descendents of Edmond is what keeps her anchored to the mortal realm.
• Pet the Dog: Despite her antagonistic actions against the mayor recently, she still gives Cecil the secret to entering the Dog Park so he can go see Carlos. Subverted in that she is quite open about doing it just to make sure Cecil isn't around to save Dana anymore.
• Poltergeist: Played with. She mostly just affects things when they aren't being looked at.
• Revenge by Proxy: What she's been doing since she turned into... whatever she is now.
• She Who Fights Monsters: Her backstory. Her unrelenting quest to kill those responsible for her father's death lead her to become exactly as manipulative, callous, and violent as the perpetrator. To the point of becoming a Revenant Zombie to continue her vendetta.
• The Stoic: Shows little emotion.
• The Trickster: Has shades of this, as Cecil notes that she likes to cause problems for people in the houses she inhabits for no apparent reason (leaving [[rotting meat]] in their showers, for example).
  Faceless Old Woman: I ate one of your highlighters. Sorry, I got nervous. I'll replace it with a crow's feather as soon as I'm mayor.
• The Unreveal: When Cecil asks if calling her "Faceless Old Woman" is okay, she tells him that she does have a name... but they immediately move on and never bring it up again.
• You Killed My Father: What set her on her path of vengeance.

Hiram McDaniels

Voiced by: Jackson Publick

A five-headed dragon who was wanted for insurance fraud, escaped from an arrest attempt by breathing fire, and was a fugitive from justice until caught and jailed. He was eventually acquitted. He has a blog (which Cecil is a fan of) and ran for mayor of Night Vale.

---

• Affably Evil: His gold head, in particular, is very polite and soft-spoken, even as, like the rest of the dragon, it enjoys eating humans and is largely indifferent to human life.
• Breath Weapon: Fire, of course, being a dragon and all.
• Face–Heel Turn: After losing the mayoral election in episode 49B, he swears vengeance on Dana and the town by proxy.
• Fantastic Racism: Cecil thinks he's a victim of this after Pamela Winchell insists he can't run for mayor due to not being human.
• Giant Flyer: In his first appearance, he takes off after being stopped for traffic violations.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Violet justifies his secretly purchasing Cecil at auction and using him without Cecil's knowledge to protect Dana from the other four heads' wrath as this. When Cecil demands to know if Violet has any idea what it feels like to have your body used against your will, Violet points out that he's sharing a body with four other heads and has little to no control over Hiram McDaniels' actions.
• I'm a Humanitarian: In CONDOS, he mentions quite casually that he ate the man who gave him directions to a nearby diner, because he didn't feel like walking that far.
• Insistent Terminology: His purple head prefers to be called violet.
• Kill It with Fire: This is his proposed solution to the Strex problem. Y'know. Because he's literally a five-headed dragon.
• Multiple Head Case: He has five heads of different colors. His purple head breathed fire at the arresting officer and it and the green head interrupt the interview with him. In said interview, it's also revealed that one of his heads has a Southern accent, his green head is very angry and British, and his purple head is a Nervous Wreck. In "Condos", it's also revealed that the blue head is very intelligent and the grey head is The Eeyore. In episode 49 it's revealed that his fifth head is gold and the other heads get annoyed that it does most of the talking.
• Nerves of Steel: He's the only main cast member who's not completely horrified by Kevin. In fact, he doesn't even care.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Hiram seems to have no malice toward humanity — in fact, he's running for mayor. Although he's made it clear that he is completely indifferent to human life. Choices. He doesn't care about humans' life choices.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: As of "WE MUST GIVE PRAISE", he has apparently once again disguised himself as the human Frank Chen, despite being the wrong height, weight and species. Justified in Episode 70B. He purchased a human disguise at the auction, allowing him to pass as human despite obviously not being human.
• Phrase Catcher: If his name is mentioned, someone is likely to say "He is literally a five-headed dragon."
• Refuge in Audacity: Hiram, who is literally an 18 foot long, 5-headed dragon, unsuccessfully attempts this when he's pulled over for speeding and shows the officer a driver's license for a 5'8" man named Frank Chen, though it actually takes the people who pulled him over a minute. Later, he attempts it again, with great success.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: His green head's preferred speaking style, coupled with ham.
• Sore Loser: His green head in particular takes his defeat in the mayoral election... less than gracefully, and the whole dragon resolves to contest the election.
• Southern Gentleman: One of his heads, anyway; the one that does most of the talking.
• Special Person, Normal Name: Amusingly, none of his heads are apparently Scottish.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: He's quite okay with people around him committing murders, but it's not because he's killed anyone himself. Especially not Frank Chen to steal his car and driving license to commit insurance fraud.
• Token Good Teammate: The Violet head really just wants to live a normal life, but it's hard if you only own 1/5 of your body and the others are bent on revenge.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While everything in Night Vale is weird, he comes off as an oddity among oddities.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Delivered and received to and from Cecil when he discovers Violet, not Dana, was the one who bought him at auction. Violet points out that Cecil is the one who ruined his friendship with Dana by assuming the worst and refusing to trust her.

Old Woman Josie

"Old Woman Josie, out near the Car Lot, says the Angels revealed themselves to her. Said they were ten feet tall, radiant, and one of them was black. Said they helped her with various household chores. One of them changed a light bulb for her – the porch light. She’s offering to sell the old light bulb, which has been touched by an Angel. It was the black Angel, if that sweetens the pot for anyone. If you’re interested, contact Old Woman Josie. She’s out near the Car Lot."

Voiced by: Retta

An elderly woman who lives out by the car lot with several angels (who, according to the City Council, do not exist.)

---

• Barrier Maiden: She seems to be one, ominously commenting that 'if she falls, so does this town'.
  • Touched by Vorlons: It's implied that this is due to the Angels leaving her some sort of parting gift.
  • It turns out that her open belief in the Angels was metaphysically necessary to the town's continued survival, because it served as an anchor defining how Josie's version of Night Vale is distinct from all the other alternate dimension Night Vales that Huntokar inadvertently mashed together. The holes in reality start to close when the citizenry of Night Vale decide to honor Josie's memory and acknowledge that *their* version of Night Vale is the ones with Angels in it.
• Cool Old Lady: Lives with angels, who do not officially exist, but has yet to suffer any consequences for this.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Could be seen as one (or more accurately, the Night Vale equivalent), with the Angels filling the slot of the cats.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Cecil. They even went bowling together on occasion. This trope still applies as of episode 67, but it turns out that Cecil is the older one here, by several hundred years at least.
• Interspecies Friendship: With the Angels, until they leave.
• Killed Off for Real: Dies of natural causes shortly after Cecil and Carlos get married.
• Loophole Abuse: She uses the Angels to cheat at bowling; since it's illegal to acknowledge that angels are real, nobody is able to specify how she's breaking the rules without being arrested themselves.
• Loved by All: She's widely beloved by the town.
• Only Friend: To the Angels, as the only one who's willing to break town law and acknowledge them.
• Racist Grandma: Possibly subverted, in that she goes out of her way to mention that one of the angels is black, but also says, when selling the lightbulb that one of them touched, that it was the black one, in case that "sweetens the pot". As noted under "The Angels", she could've also meant that the angel was literally black, as in, pitch black like a shadow or the night.

The Angels/Erika

Voiced by: Hal Lublin, Annie Savage, and Marc Evan Jackson

A group of tall winged beings who mostly hang around Old Woman Josie. They do not exist and you should not know about them.

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• The Assimilator: A relatively harmless variant; they can turn humans into angels and make them Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. Those assimilated apparently retain some level of individuality (like Marcus Vanston).
• But Now I Must Go: As of episode 32, "Yellow Helicopters", they have left Night Vale for unknown reasons. Old Woman Josie is saddened by this.
• The Bus Came Back: They make a dramatic return in episode 48, appearing in the studio and forcing Lauren and Kevin out, allowing Cecil to broadcast once again. All the while, Cecil continues to deny their existence.
• Hive Mind: Episode 104 reveals that all Angels share the same memories and experiences, and only appear as individuals due to taking on A Form You Are Comfortable With.
• Humanoid Abomination: Harmless ones, but as ten-feet-tall, radiant, perpetually smiling humanoid beings they still qualify.
• Identically Named Group: All of the angels are named Erika. With a "k". (This was originated in an episode where real-life listeners could send in poetry, which was then attributed to them in-show. Since the author of one of the poems was named Erika, and the poem was said to be written by an angel in the podcast, it sort of stuck.)
• My Nayme Is: We are usually reminded that their name is spelled with a "K" when they are brought up.
• Our Angels Are Different: Actually, we're not sure how different they are, since no one is allowed to know about them or talk about them, and their existence is denied by the City Council. Yet, they manage to show up on multiple occasions, and several are staying at an old woman's house.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Often in reference to them. Apparently, it's illegal to talk about them in Night Vale, so Night Vale citizens will go out of their way to point out that angels aren't real... even when talking about things that involve them... or even when on the phone with them... or when one mayoral candidate randomly ascends into one in the middle of a debate.
• Token Minority: One of the angels is black. Although this is angels and Night Vale, so this literally means "is the same color as the yawning void".
• The Unsmile: The Angels are described as having permanent smiles. Interestingly, StrexCorp continually encourages people to believe in a Smiling God.

The Apache Tracker

A white guy in a "cartoonishly offensive Native American headdress" who claims to have supernatural tracking abilities.

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• Color Me Black: He physically becomes Native American due to some sort of supernatural shenanigans. Also, he can now only speak Russian. He doesn't seem to learn any kind of lesson from it, though, as he continues to wear a plastic headdress everywhere. Cecil continues to call him out for being a racist asshole.
• Hated by All: Everyone in Night Vale thinks he's a racist asshole and an embarrassment to the town.
• Magical Native American: Invoked by him, but as he's actually white, even being described by as Cecil as being of "possibly Slavic origin", and he constantly wears that headdress that is known from every stereotypical depiction of a Native American chief, he only comes off as a racist asshole. When relaying secrets the Apache Tracker claimed to have uncovered after using his "mystical Indian powers" to sneak into an off-limits building, Cecil is too fixated on the fact that he actually called them that to fully appreciate the information.
• Noble Bigot: Since he nobly laid down his life to rescue Carlos from the tiny, armed people from under the bowling alley, the town dedicates a statue to him. Since he's a racist embarrassment, they quietly bury it out in the desert.
• Redemption Equals Death: At least in Cecil's opinion, he redeems himself by rescuing Carlos at the cost of his own life. He's still a racist embarrassment, though.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: He claims to be one.

The Hooded Figures from the Dog Park

• Ambiguously Evil: Are they truly malicious threats, or just another strange potentially deadly facet of the community?
• Humanoid Abominations: Their faces are, in Cecil's words, "entirely hidden in shadow as empty and as black as the void of space", and when he tries to interview one of them he/it answers in static noises and starts to levitate.
• In the Hood: They are Hooded Figures, after all.

John Peters (You know, the farmer?)

Voiced by: Mark Gagliardi

You know, the farmer.

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• The Bus Came Back: Subverted. Somebody working for StrexCorp managed to impersonate him, selling oranges that wiped people out of existence. Currently, he's stuck in the House That Doesn't Exist. Later played straight. He's back as of episode 49.
• Con Man: He raises imaginary corn and gets subsidies for his failed peach orchard. Being a peach farmer in the middle of a barren desert, he's never raised a successful crop.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: A throwaway gag in It Devours! reveals that he's been gradually going insane as a result of The Hooded Figures From The Dog Park hanging out in his imaginary corn fields; they have the ability to interact with the corn as though it were actually present, and as a result they congregate on his proprety where they would be concealed if the corn were real.
• Phrase Catcher: "John Peters— you know, the farmer..." This is literally said every time his name is mentioned.
• Put on a Bus: He is seen in the empty house, when Dana saw him standing there with a worried expression. Cecil later reported that no one has seen him since, and that anyone who does should report it immediately.
• Subverted Catchphrase: When Cecil realises that the copy of John Peters standing in front of him is not his friend, his usual appellation becomes "John Peters— you know, the impostor..."

Tamika Flynn

"Get out there, Night Vale! Grab anything you can and fight! Grab a slingshot and a book, say an Amy Bender Short Story Collection, or Milorad Pavic’s Dictionary of the Khazars. Or, if not a book, grab a rock. Or the throwing stars that come standard in most issues of McSweeney’s. Grab anything you can, and fight!

Do not believe in heroes, believe in citizens. Be a citizen."

Voiced by: Symphony Sanders

The winner of the Night Vale Library summer reading program. Emerged from the summer reading carnage stronger, more determined, and not willing to bow down to a smiling God.

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• Badass Bookworm: She won by reading Cry, the Beloved Country, a book that usually shows up on honors high school lit curriculums. She was 12.
• Battle Trophy: She wears the severed hand of a librarian as a necklace.
• Brats with Slingshots: She and her army are armed with either slingshots or books, or both.
• Catchphrase: I AM FOUND.^note It's her spiteful response to StrexCorp's claim that she's a "missing child" who needs to be found by the authorities and brought to "safety".
• Character Development: After her brief, hamfisted takeover of the city council causes Nightvale to devolve into even more of an authoritarian hellhole than usual, she begins to gradually step back from her position as militia leader and focus on nonviolent conflict resolution. Eventually, she's able to sucessfully negotiate even with the Librarians themselves.
• Chekhov's Gunman: At first glance, just a particularly memorable oneshot Badass Bystander. Then becomes a Rebel Leader during StrexCorp's takeover...
• Creepy Souvenir: She carries on her belt the head of the librarian she killed during the summer reading program, both as a trophy and as a warning to the other librarians.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Female variant. Tamika has a deep love of books and classic literature which she seeks to share with everyone in Night Vale.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: In a city defined by a weird relationship to time, she's one of the few characters that ages one-to-one in real time. As a result, a significant part of her arc is learning to come to terms with what her future looks like outside of running a teen militia.
• Little Miss Badass: Part of her victory also involved decapitating the head librarian and keeping the skull as a trophy. Note that librarians in Night Vale are Nigh-Invulnerable, and merely surviving meeting one is considered quite impressive; the possibility that they could be killed was never seriously considered until she managed to do it. As of Episode 35, she's raising a child militia and seems to be a brutal leader at that. She's also wearing a librarian's hand around her neck. Oh, and that militia? She's forming it to take on StrexCorp! She also taught herself how to fly yellow helicopters. In season 5, she somehow manages to bully the City Council into letting her be a city councillor, despite City Council being what it is - and unlike the rest of City Council she does not bail out when things get tough.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: She is extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat, the leader of a Teenage Armed Militia and, as of episode 96 "Negotiations", a member of the City Council.
• Rebel Leader: She leads the resistance against StrexCorp.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Ruthless in her battle tactics, probably out of necessity given who she is fighting against. Cecil hopes StrexCorp find her. Actually, he hopes SHE finds THEM first.
• Throw the Book at Them: "Book Club! Books as clubs!"
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Even StrexCorp sees it.

Megan Wallaby

A detached adult man's hand, born to Tak and Hershel Wallaby. She is an elementary school student.

---

• Body Horror: She is literally a disembodied adult male hand.
• Does Not Know Her Own Strength: Implied to be the case after she is grafted onto a 6'10" body donor.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Implied, as she dreams of a world where there is no bullying and she has a full body.
• Walking Transplant: In episode 40 she obtains a donor body, a large, bald, tattooed man from Night Vale's Russian sister city, Nulogorsk.

Marcus Vanston

Voiced by: Marc Evan Jackson

Richest man in Night Vale, who earns special privileges thanks to his wealth. He is another candidate for mayor, but he's mostly just in the race out of boredom.

---

• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: During "The Debate", he gets recruited by the Angels. His body stretches out, his hands become long and translucent, and light feathers sprout from his back... he might have vanished from the debate altogether, but since angels aren't real and acknowledging them is still a crime, Cecil chooses to pretend nothing happened whatsoever.
• Big Damn Heroes: He's on the receiving end of this, post ascension, in Episode 49, courtesy of Leann Hart and Sarah Sultan. It's indicated that it's him (rather than a generic Erika) by Cecil describing him as coming off as very wealthy. And mostly nude.
• Fiction 500: He owns all of Night Vale's chimneys for one thing. After becoming an angel, he makes the final bid to get rid of StrexCorp, the MegaCorp that owns Desert Bluffs, by buying them.
• Idle Rich: He seems to have a lot of free time on his hands with his richness.
• Naked People Are Funny: Randomly decides to hang out at his private library in the nude just because he can. A few later installments imply that he likes being nude in general. Once he becomes an angel, he starts combining his twin passions of being rich and being nude by constantly wandering around in an expensive hand-made suit jacket and absolutely nothing else, which is how he can be easily identified from the other angels.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He can do practically anything he wants because he's rich. In fact, he's got his own branch of the library, totally safe from the horrifying librarians, which he uses entirely to wander around in naked.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After becoming an angel, and being able to combine his twin passions of being extremely wealthy and wandering around naked all the time, he starts using his wealth more unselfishly, selling his prized coffee table and giving away the proceeds to the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex and, more significantly, purchasing StrexCorp to sever the Smiling God's influence in Night Vale.
• Uncle Pennybags: Played with. While he owns practically everything in Night Vale, and while he runs a number of very shady child labor rings, he generally doesn't go around denying anyone access to anything. Played much straighter after he becomes an angel, where he uses his wealth to help the town and save the world from StrexCorp.

"You"

The show features two different "you"s. One is the protagonist of Episode 13, "A Story About You." The other is featured occasionally throughout other episodes.

"A Story About You" You

• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: You came to Night Vale because one day you saw a dark, alien planet hanging in the sky and realize you could just... get in your car and drive off, leaving your job and fiancee behind. So you did. And then you stole a mysterious crate from the Faceless But Sinister Government Agency, just because you could.
• Day in the Life: Your story is presented as typical of Night Vale citizens, complete with otherworldly hallucinations, bizarre day job, and contemplative, dissociative acceptance of your tragic life and inevitable demise.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Averted. Despite being addressed in the second person, it's clear that you're a specific citizen of Night Vale, rather than an anonymous fan of an internet radio show. Well, probably. Can you be sure you are who you think you are? Can you be sure any of this is real?
• Karma Houdini: You abandon your life and seem to suffer very little consequence for it, much to your annoyance. Subverted at the end, where it is implied that you were killed by the Secret Police for stealing a crate.
• Narrating the Present: You always wanted to hear about yourself on the radio! You finally get your chance when Cecil dedicates an episode of his show to narrating your final day.
• Office Drone: What you were before you came to Night Vale.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: A surprisingly minor case. You keep seeing the Dark Planet in the sky and have ceased behaving entirely rationally, but your issues are dwarfed by the gargantuan weirdness that infests Night Vale as a whole.

Occasional Other Episode You

• Back from the Dead: If the two of you are believed to be the same person.
• Spider Swarm: Constantly resides on your body. They are also the cause of your second death.

Lee Marvin

"Hello. Thank you for coming to my birthday party. It has been my 30th birthday for a long time. Hundreds of years. Maybe thousands of years. Continuously my 30th birthday and I never grow a day older. I don’t know why this of all the days that are my birthday is the one for which you chose to throw a party, but it was sure nice of you to think of me. That cake looks fine."

A Night Vale local and actor. His connection to the Lee Marvin is unknown. He was last seen to be serving as the station's senior political analyst during the Clinton administration.

It's his 30th birthday today.

---

• The Ageless: It's been his 30th birthday every day since Night Vale was founded, and possibly even earlier. Until Episode 150, where he fixes time and begins to age normally.
• Eldritch Abomination: If the tentacles, seventh-eye-with-heat-ray are anything to go by. Cecil, to the very least, thinks he's human. Given his description, he may very well be living up to his role as Nightvale's premier actor. When he finally gets a speaking role, this appears to have been dropped to make him a normal, albeit timeless human.
• Oxymoronic Being: Aside from the whole "30th birthday every day" thing, he's divorced but has never been married.
• Really 700 Years Old: He was one of the original settlers of Night Vale, which dates back at least to the 19th century.
• Time Abyss: Possibly. Even he can't remember how long he's been around for; definitely centuries at least, possibly millennia. His speech about his memories in Episode 139 implies that he's been turning 30 every day since before North America broke off from Laurasia, which would make him hundreds of millions of years old. Episode 150 suggests that he may have turned 30 every day since the beginning of time itself and is only now starting to age normally.
• Who Wants to Live Forever??: The exact nature of his immortality makes his life utterly unexciting and static, which leads him to go on a quest to repair the flow of time in Night Vale, allowing him and everyone else to begin aging normally again.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His repairing of time in Night Vale sends the population into an existential spiral as they're collectively forced to reckon with their newfound mortality. That, in turn, leaves them open to the predation of snake-oil salesmen like Kaspar Rhodes.

Diane Crayton

Voiced by: Annie Savage

Treasurer of the Night Vale PTA and mother to Josh Crayton.

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• A Day in the Limelight: One of the two protagonists of the Welcome to Night Vale novel, along with Jackie Fierro.
• Mama Bear: Diane will move heaven and Earth if she thinks Josh is in serious trouble.
• Parents as People: Diane sincerely loves Josh, but is stressed easily and sometimes pushes Josh away when he really wants to spend time with her.

Josh Crayton

Diane Crayton's fifteen year old son. A Shapeshifter.

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• Perpetually Protean: A shapeshifter whose appearance keeps changing unpredictably because of his fluctuating emotions, though he has enough control over his powers to sometimes change into older-looking people so he can cut class.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: Averted. Josh never maintains a consistent form and his emotions often change how he looks.

Roger Harlan

• The Ageless: He hasn't aged much since he first appeared at Earl's house.
• Creepy Child: Earl mentions Roger walks around at night. He just walks around the neighborhood, with no destination or purpose, for a couple of hours before returning to bed.
• Fantastic Racism: The kids at school make fun of him for randomly appearing into existence.
• Identical Grandson: He looks exactly the same as Earl when he was Roger's age.
• The Stoic: He rarely conveys any emotion.
• Wise Beyond His Years: He can read at a high-school level.

Nilanjana Sikdar

A scientist working in Carlos' lab. Like Carlos she does not originate from Night Vale.

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• All of the Other Reindeer: Nilanjana is often ostracized by the residents of Night Vale for her outside status.
• A Day in the Limelight: She is one of the protagonists of 'It Devours!''.
• Going Native: By the end of It Devours!, she has started to consider Night Vale her town.
• In-Series Nickname: Her fellow scientists call her "Nils".
• Only Sane Man: Like Carlos she finds all of Night Vale to be really weird, but unlike Carlos she has not learned to roll with it.

Darryl Ramirez

A devoted follower and missionary of the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God.

---

• A Day in the Limelight: He is one of the protagonists of It Devours!.
• The Missionary: A modern day one. Darryl spends his time handing out literature about the Smiling God to uninterested citizens.

Frank Chen

A resident of Night Vale who was murdered and had his identity stolen by Hiram McDaniels early in season one. The City eventually finds itself wrapped up in extensive litigation with Frank's surviving family members due to the secret police's extreme incompetence in the handling of his murder case.

---

• Hidden Depths: He was apparently a talented musician.
• Posthumous Character: He's introduced after his death.
• Replacement Goldfish: After Night Vale is found liable in civil court for returning a living Frank Chen to his family, the Sheriff embarks on an extensive and ultimately fruitless cloning program to bring them back to life.
• The Bus Came Back: After years of being used as a one-off joke about Night Vale's collective inability to see through Hiram McDaniels' Paper-Thin Disguise, he becomes relevant to the plot when his family comes to town in order to find out what happened to him.
• Where Are They Now? After the clones are ruled inadequate replacements for the original Frank Chen, Cecil narrates their future lives; One heads to Maine and becomes a Banker, one travels to LA to become a movie star but discovers his real passion for road work, one becomes a popular chef in Kansas City, one becomes a sucessful Yoga instructor in New Zealand, and one changes his name and remains in Night Vale.

Larry Leroy (Out on the Edge of Town)

An eccentric recluse who lives in a trailer by the edge of the sand wastes, he frequently calls into the station to report strange happenings on the outskirts of Night Vale.

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• A Day in the Limelight: He's a major supporting character in the second novel after an investigation into his disappearance triggers the main plot. He's also a major supporting character in episode 198, "Them Woods Are A Maze."
• Hidden Depths: *It Devours* reveals that he's an incredibly talented artist and sculptor.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: The main reason he keeps calling into the station.
• No-Sell: He proves to be one of the few individuals in town capable of resisting thevisitors to the effects of the Whispering Forest when he remembers that he's got cable television at home.
• Odd Friendship: He's one of the few humans Khoshekh actually likes, because he addresses to the floating cats as if they're peers, instead of in baby talk.
• Phrase Catcher: Usually introduced as Larry Leroy (Out On The Edge Of Town.)

Night Vale Business Owners

Earl Harlan

Voiced by: Wil Wheaton

Former (?) Scoutmaster of the Night Vale chapter of the Boy Scouts of America, and a close childhood friend of Cecil's.

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• Broken Masquerade: Like Steve Carlsberg, Earl has some degree of awareness that something is wrong with Night Vale.
• The Bus Came Back: In Episode 50, Earl is revealed to be alive and well, working as a sous chef at Night Vale's most popular restaurant.
• Childhood Friends: Earl was Cecil's childhood best friend, but they lost track of each other after their high school graduation. Earl's farewell before the Eternal Scout ceremony led many fans to believe in a past or potential Childhood Friend Romance, but official sources later stated that the two were Just Friends.
• Gadgeteer Genius: While they were in Boy Scouts together as children, trying to earn their 'Subversive Radio Show Host' badges, Earl taught Cecil how to jerry-rig an impromptu broadcasting platform by wiring a phone into a soundboard and wiring the soundboard into a radio tower running on auxiliary power.
• Hidden Depths: Cecil admits he never knew Earl so much as liked to cook, let alone that he was good enough to be a professional chef.
• Mysterious Past: In episode 56, he says that he was nineteen for a few decades and then woke up one day with a house and a child.
• Really 700 Years Old: Maybe? He seems to be somewhat out of sync with time, having been nineteen for a couple decades (possibly centuries), then suddenly finding himself with a house and a child. Making this more disturbing, he doesn't seem to know what year he and Cecil were born, or what year they graduated. When he shows Cecil a photo of himself as a child, Cecil recognizes a steam locomotive in the background.

Jackie Fierro

The nineteen year old owner of Lucinda’s Pawn Shop (renamed Jackie's Pawn Shop in the novel). She has run the pawn shop for as long as anyone can remember.

---

• The Ageless: She has been nineteen forever. Several characters imply that it's because Jackie is genuinely afraid of growing up.
• Creature of Habit: So much so that when her routine is interrupted, she's forced to realize she doesn't even remember a life outside of said routine anymore.
• A Day in the Limelight: One of the protagonists of the Welcome to Night Vale novel, along with Diane Crayton.
• The Fog of Ages: Jackie has been working the pawn shop for so long, she no longer remembers her life before that.
• Milestone Birthday Angst: Jackie Fierro has been 19 for decades because she fears the thought of turning 20, which will officially make her an adult and disrupt her largely worry-free existence. At the end of the book, she finally allows herself to age straight to 21, avoiding her fear of her 20th birthday by just skipping right past it.
• Overnight Age-Up: A lesser example, in that Jackie only ages 2 years from 19 to 21 at the end of the novel, but unusual in that she just decides to be older and therefore she is, no Applied Phlebotinum needed. Time doesn't work properly in Night Vale...
• Really 700 Years Old: She doesn't just look 19, she is 19. But she's also been running the pawn shop for several decades, despite her mother only making her owner 3 months ago.
• Totally Radical: Roughly 17% of her dialogue consists of "Dude", "Man", or "Bro". Possibly intentional, since she refuses to grow up.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Due to the weirdness of time in Night Vale, Jackie has been running the pawn shop for as long as anyone can remember while simultaneously having only inherited the pawn shop from its previous owner just a few months ago.

Michelle Nguyen

"Nobody's made a good album in years.

Michelle, you say. Michelle Nguyen, that's not true, you say. Well, you’re right. Very little of what I have to say is true. Some of it is, though. Make of that what you will.

No, don't. I don't trust you to make anything good."

Voiced by: Kate Jones.

Proprietor of Dark Owl Records.

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• A Day in the Limelight: Each of the monologue episodes has a section focusing on her outlook and current situation.
• Ambiguously Gay: The increasingly detailed way she describes Maureen may imply the beginnings of a crush, as does her description of how she feels about her listening to her hopcore tracks. Michelle says they're "not putting a label on it"—meaning they've basically dating. No longer ambiguous; she's officially out of the closet as of Episode 141.
• Character Development: By the time of "The October Monologues," she's willing to admit that she no longer feels the need to relentlessly chase the ephemeral concept of "coolness" and that she's now openly willing to listen to mainstream music, appearances be damned.
• Hipster: Parodied Trope. Michelle never listens to anything anyone else has ever heard of. She even criticizes happiness for being too popular.
• Stepford Snarker: She acts like a Deadpan Snarker, but she's actually just lonely and insecure, but hides it by constantly picking on everyone else's taste in music.

Big Rico

Owner of Big Rico's Pizza, the best and only Pizza dealership in Night Vale. Notable for his fast-and-loose approach to business, law, and wheat and wheat byproducts.

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• Fauxreigner: His birth name is Richie Goldblum. He changed it because he was worried nobody would want to buy Pizza from a Jewish chef.
• Ret-Gone: Wiped from history as a result of the Blood-Space War.

Louie Blasko

Voiced by: Jason Webley

The former owner and operator of Louie's Music Shop, until he burnt it down and skipped town with the insurance money.

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• A Day in the Limelight: "The Tragic Story of Louie Blasko."
• The Aloner: Admits to intense difficulty forming relationships.
• Could Say It, But...: He spends his villian song dancing around the fact that it's autobiographical, instead playing it off as an apocryphal ghost story/school fight song.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He used to be a Music Teacher at Night Vale High, until his favorite student and only friend was killed by spiders after he didn't pay back the money he'd borrowed.
• Face–Monster Turn: Infected by the Strangers during their invasion of Night Vale.
• Refuge in Audacity: After burning down his music shop and fleeing town, he attempts to advertise for imaginary music lessons held in the ruins of the building, where people pay him 50 dollars and imagine that he's there instructing them. During the live show he implies he may be feeding his customers to something lurking in the ruins.
• Sold His Soul for a Donut: Sold his soul for a can of trombone grease and a limited edition Chet Baker LP.
• Villain Song: Performs "The Night Vale High Fight Song" during "Ghost Stories," a thinly veiled autobiographic account of his tragic past.

Leann Hart

The dedicated but vindictive editor for The Night Vale Daily Journal, she harbors a deep-seated hatred of new media and a willingness to resort to criminal tactics to keep her paper afloat.

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• The Caligula: She siphons funds from the paper to throw herself lavish birthday parties.
• Foreign Correspondent: She was this in the 80s; She was the one who reported on the destruction of Night Vale's sister city in a nuclear exchange that didn't quite happen.
• Immoral Journalist: She resorts to numerous underhanded tactics to keep the paper afloat, including murdering her competition, charging her subscribers for an imaginary edition of the paper, and travelling backwards in time to create newsworthy events, causing immense damage to the timeline in the process.
• Karma Houdini: Repeatedly escapes arrest for her public murder sprees by claiming First Amendment protections.
• New Media Are Evil: She holds this opinion, to the point of hunting and murdering independent bloggers.
• Old Media Playing Catch-Up: She hasn't adapted well to the rapidly shifting media enviroment of the 21st century.

Night Vale Community College

Simone Rigadeau

The transient living in the Earth Sciences Building of Night Vale Community College.

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Continues to teach at the college despite her insanity.
• Call-Back: Astute listeners may remember her reporting into the show once and rambling about how the world had ended many years ago. Turns out she was right, but in the wrong way. [Best Of?] reveals that the current timeline either branched off from or was altered in such a way as to nullify the nuclear destruction of Nulogorsk and subsequent destruction of Earth, but she received visions of the original timeline, leading to her abandoning her job to try and convince people of the truth and fix her own mind.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: After receiving visions of a timeline where Nulogorsk was nuked and the world subsequently ended, she quit her job as Professor of Earth Sciences to try and piece her mind back together, with what appears to be limited success.
• The Cloud Cuckoo Lander Was Right: It's eventually revealed that the world actually was destroyed by a nuclear war in 1983, but Huntokar fractured the fabric of reality to prevent the apocalypse from catching up with Night Vale.

Harrison Kip

A professor of Archaeology at Night Vale Community College, and something of a laughingstock among his field for his belief that the pyramids were built using human knowledge and not by aliens.

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• Butt-Monkey: Starts off as an academic laughingstock, and proceeds to be strung along by Hiram and the Faceless Old Woman, with increasingly disasterous results for his social and professional standing.
• Cassandra Truth: Nobody in Night Vale believes his theories that the Pyramids were of human construction.
• The Hermit: Subverted. He exiles himself out of shame after the sand golem incident, but he continues to teach from the desert via skype.
• Meaningful Name: He shares his first name with Harrison Ford, who played fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones.
• Noodle Incident: The episode where he accidently summons the Sand Golem is a missing episode, so the specifics of how he did it are unclear.
• Unwitting Pawn: Hiram and the Faceless Old Woman bankroll his expeditions into the Night Vale Desert and trick him into summoning the Sand Golem as part of their attempted coup against Mayor Cardinal.

Sarah Sultan

A small, fist-sized river rock who serves as the President of Night Vale Community College.

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's an extremely competent administrator, despite being a small, fist sized river rock.
• Fastball Special: Leann Hart uses her as a projectile against Strexcorp workers in the Year Two finale.
• Fantastic Racism: Was made to retake her driver's test because nobody at the DMV was willing to believe she could have passed legitimately, being a small, fist-sized river rock.
• Psychic Powers: She communicates via telepathy.
• Puff of Logic: The University's of What-It-Is research ends up proving she can't be sapient which causes her to lose her sapience. She is restored by Carlos later.
• Running Gag: She takes easily to dexterous activities such as bowling and driving despite having no obvious way of interacting with the world.

Other Individuals

The Man in the Tan Jacket

A mysterious man whom no one can describe, who comes to town one day. No one remembers his face, although they notice his tan jacket and deerskin briefcase full of flies.

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• A Day in the Limelight: He is an important character in the Welcome to Night Vale Novel, which features much of his backstory and serves as the conclusion to his story arc.
• Ambiguously Human: He could be human, but his powers and general oddness make it unclear. Even Cecil seems to think he's strange.
• Big Damn Heroes: Shows up out of nowhere to stop Pamela Winchell from destroying Night Vale with her "retirement".
• Bigger on the Inside: Whenever he opens his briefcase, there are more flies there than could fit in the space inside.
• Creepy Good: He's heavily implied to be a good guy, especially since he allies himself with Dana, who says he's actually "quite nice" and "a pretty cool guy, if you get to know him." But his mysteriousness, the fact no one can remember his face, and the fact he carries a deerskin briefcase full of flies are awfully creepy.
• Humanoid Abomination: Possibly, though it's really hard to tell.
• I Have Many Names: He gives different yet similar sounding names every time he says his name. Elliot, Everett, Emmett and so on. He does say his actual name, but people hear a different name every time, so we never learn what it is. He takes up the identity of Evan McIntyre in the Night Vale novel, but clarifies that isn't his real name, either.
• Irony: A person incapable of being remembered somehow has the power to create notes that are incapable of being forgotten.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: He seems to inflict this on Carlos in Episode 16, as Carlos subsequently has no idea what he was nervous about or who stopped by. Similarly, he actually shows up and gives a long speech in episode 42, except nobody can remember what he said. "Nobody", in this case, includes us.
• Nice Guy: Dana says that he's one.
• The Nondescript: People can rarely even remember where they've seen him.
• Suspect Is Hatless: He's stated at one point to be about five or six foot something, probably human-looking, with hair. Aside from the jacket and briefcase, that's about all the description anyone can muster.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He just wants to get his city back on the normal plane of existence so his family will remember him, but he is willing to disrupt other people's lives to do that.

The Man Who Is Not Tall

• Beware the Nice Ones: He seems quite friendly toward The Man who is not Short, but he kills the poor bastard anyway.
• The Smart Guy: He's the brains of the pair, where the Man Who Is Not Short is shown to be less intelligent than an average person.

The Man Who Is Not Short

• Replacement Goldfish: The ending of "A Story About Them" has the twist ending where the blindfolded man who was taken to the desert to be executed mob-style was actually meant to become the new Man Who Is Not Short when the Man Who Is Not Tall kills his old partner. It's heavily implied that it's not the first time he's done this.
• The Ditz: He doesn't seem too bright. The same goes for his replacement.

Fey

Voiced by: Molly Quinn

The girl reading the constant stream of numbers in a monotone voice who broadcasts from the WZZZ radio tower. More than anything, she dreams of freedom, and is frustrated by the lack of images that adequately describe the feeling. She's actually not a girl - she's self-aware software with a female voice.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Certainly not evil, but she did turn against her masters.
• And I Must Scream: Has been reading out the list of numbers without pause for years and years. She cannot let her guard down for a second or she’ll slip into numbers again. Episode 42 marks her… well, her scream.
• Computer Voice: It’s not just because we’re hearing her through one.
• Cool Car: After listening to the stations on other radio signals, she’s decided she needs a really cool car to escape with. One would assume this is also where she learned all the words to the Top 40 hits.
• Creepy Monotone: At first. And in the end.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: She bursts into song twice, singing “Roar” by Katy Perry and “We Are Young” by Fun. It’s loud.
• Distaff Counterpart: Cecil sees a lot of himself in Fey.
• Do Androids Dream?: Her aforementioned dreams of freedom.
• Downer Ending: Her masters, whoever they are, reboot her remotely before Cecil can get to her.
• Electronic Speech Impediment: Can’t help breaking into lists of numbers.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: No one’s entirely sure how she became self-aware.
• Kill the Cutie: Assuming she isn't still aware and back in And I Must Scream mode. We can only hope. As of Episode 65, she is clearly at least partially self-aware, though it is unclear if this is something she retained all along or is regaining.
• Metaphorgotten: “Baby, we were born to run! – Or not. I was born to read numbers.”
• Only One Name: “I made up a new name. I am Fey! It is nice to meet you.”

Dr. Lubelle

A scientist from the University of What It Is who came to Night Vale to explain its strangeness, to its detriment.

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• Drop the Cow: The Glow Cloud's Child drops a dead cow on her in the middle of her attempted explanation of Carlos.
• Evil Counterpart: To Carlos. He uses his knowledge of science to help the people of Night Vale, her use of science is actually harmful. Also Carlos used to work at the University at some point.
• Faux Affably Evil: She acts like a friendly scientist who just wants to figure out how the oddities of Night Vale work, however the townsfolk's (admittedly justified) negative reactions to her work have made her more hostile.
• Hero Killer: Of Sarah Sultan, the Glow Cloud, Station Management, and others, and intends to do it to all the supernatural creatures in Night Vale.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: In Carlos, Explained it is implied that Carlos's research into Night Vale led to her losing funding for her own research project, a more contagious strain of measles that also make your eyes explode.
• Puff of Logic: What happens to the creatures she "explains".
• Science Destroys Magic: How her attempts to "explain" things usually end.
• Science Is Bad: Cecil thinks it is when she does it, anyway.
• Shame If Something Happened: She threatens to "explain" anyone that tries to stop her.

Desert Bluffs and Strexcorp

StrexCorp Synernists Inc.

A shadowy megacorp that owns Desert Bluffs and as of Episode 32, Night Vale Community Radio.

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• Big Bad: They are the main villain of the second season.
• Church of Happyology: They act like this for the Smiling God.
• Evil, Inc.: If they can make Cecil nervous by their presence, it's a good bet they're bad, bad news. The angels have bought StrexCorp as of episode 49, so averted from that point on.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: If Desert Bluffs is any indication, they engage in this practice a lot. As mentioned below, one of their oft repeated phrases is "Believe in a Smiling God."
  • Confirmed in 49B. The Smiling God corrupted Desert Bluffs into the way it is now- it was once very much like Night Vale.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Episode 47 implies that Kevin killed the entire sales department at the Nightvale Community Radio station and used their bodies to decorate the studio. Lauren agrees that it looks "so much nicer".
• MegaCorp: Big enough to own an entire town, then buy Night Vale Community Radio and (somehow) the Night Vale Girl Scouts to boot, and sell orange juice that caused people to blink out of existence.
• Not So Stoic: The subject of Tamika Flynn causes them MUCH stress. You can almost hear the twitching as they talk about Tamika.
  StrexCorp Representative: [We are looking for] one very difficult child... but we mean that in the best possible way. So, please help us find this... this... this child!
• Propaganda Machine: Look around you. Strex. Look inside you. Strex. Go to sleep. Strex. Believe in a Smiling God. StrexCorp. It is... everything. They probably bought NVCR to act as one of these in Night Vale.
• Would Hurt a Child: Tamika Flynn is very, very brave to stand up to them.

Kevin

Voiced by: Kevin R. Free

Cecil's counterpart in Desert Bluffs. Like Cecil, he is a radio host — but he is somewhat more upbeat than Cecil and unnervingly cheerful. As well as terrifying.

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• Affably Evil: Whether he is this or Faux Affably Evil is currently impossible to determine. Although, the more we hear from him the more he sounds like the latter. On the other hand, when Lauren crashes the stock market just to piss him off, she notes that he grows more concerned and helpful. His reappearance in episode 70A pretty much cements him as a particularly Blue and Orange example of the former.
• Ambiguously Human: The lack of eyes (yet ability to see The Faceless Old Woman's face) implies that something has changed Kevin — and that he isn't human anymore. (If he ever was.)
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Lauren in season 2.
• Black Eyes of Evil: According to Cecil's panicked description of Kevin's photograph. Later during "The Debate", when the two finally meet outside swirly vortexes and have their first proper conversation, Cecil notices with horror that Kevin has no eyes.
• Blind Seer: He can see things no one else can see. Such as the Faceless Old Woman's face. She's terrified by it.
• Blood Is the New Black: He's got dried blood on his suit, and from the number of times it's mentioned, he apparently never takes it to the cleaners.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Possibly, see Affably Evil above.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Hinted at and finally confirmed in Episode 73. He initially fought against the Smiling God.
• Dirty Coward: Is scared of a group of kids with slingshots, leaving Lauren Mallard to be beaten up with books. On top of that, he seems to be far worse than Cecil at facing the unknown.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • He's constantly cheerful and downright peppy, and treats Desert Bluffs like a paradise, or at the very least a happy town where nothing is wrong. And then Cecil shows up. It's one of the few times we hear unmasked terror in Cecil's voice.
    "There is so much blood, it is seeping into my shoes..."
  • Returns in Episode 47, when he and Lauren discuss their changes to the Night Vale Community Radio studio. It's implied that he slaughtered the entire sales department and used their entrails to paint the desk and walls.
• The Dreaded: He completely terrifies both Cecil, who's left stuttering and nearly speechless after confronting him in "The Debate", and the Faceless Old Woman, who gets thrown into an identity crisis after her encounter with Kevin. The only person not affected is Hiram, who just doesn't care.
• Dying as Yourself: Seems to be doing this in the future that Cecil hears from in episode 73.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Seems legitimately upset at the notion of the Whispering Forest's demolition.
• Eye Scream: When he comes face to face with Cecil again in "The Debate", Cecil asks with horror what happened to Kevin's eyes. Because he has none. Although he insists he can see just fine — not only does he compliment the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home on her face, he actually describes specific features such as the color of her eyes and the shape of her jaw.
• Fetish: Kevin makes some... ... interesting noises when Carlos describes blood.
• First Time Feeling: Kevin feels sadness for the first time in a very long time in episode 70A after reading Carlos' goodbye letter. The feeling scares him.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Was revealed to have been a victim of this in Episode 73.
• HA HA HA—No: Kevin does one of these to Lauren.
  Lauren: Can I call you Kev?
  Kevin: Ha ha ha, no, Lauren, by no means.
• Heel–Face Turn: Played with in the latter episodes of Season 3. He is still disturbingly cheerful and still enjoys 'decorating' his studio, but is friendly (if not pushy) towards Carlos and no longer seems to venerate Strex or the Smiling God.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Seems so desperate for a friend that he talks to Vanessa, a girl he knows perfectly well is dead. Also implied in Episode 70A. He is devastated when Carlos leaves the Otherworld (leaving him with no one but the aforementioned Vanessa), to the point that he actually feels sadness.
• Insane Troll Logic: Any economic problem is the fault of people being sad, lazy, and not working hard enough. Even when Lauren sitting right next to him announced that she messed with the market!
• Knight of Cerebus: His debut episode marks the beginning of StrexCorp's interest in and takeover of Night Vale.
• Mouth of Sauron: To StrexCorp, as Desert Bluffs' equivalent to Cecil, although much more actively malevolent than Cecil.
• Nightmare Face: Aside from the eye thing, and being covered in blood, there's the way he smiles...
  Cecil: And his smile... nooo... that is NOT a smile!
• Obliviously Evil: Displays nothing but warm feelings for Night Vale and genuinely believes the StrexCorp/Smiling God takeover is helping them reach their "full productive potential." Nor does he recognize violence and distress as such: he thinks a choke is a hug; that Night Vale citizens screaming and having seizures at the "StrexCorp Company Picnic" (read: work camp) are smiling and dancing; and that killing and dismembering someone and smearing their remains all over the room is simply "decorating."
• Oddball Doppelgänger/Evil Twin: To/with Cecil Palmer.
• Poke the Poodle: When he mentions that he would rather fix people rather than include accessibility in buildings, he unwittingly pressed the Berserk Button of Steve Carlsberg, of all people, due to the fact that his daughter Janice is disabled,^note Unable to walk from birth, Janice does not regard this as a problem needing to be "fixed", instead designing fancy high tech wheelchairs. prompting Steve to throw Kevin into the Desert Otherworld in a fit of rage.
• Put on a Bus: Disappears between episode 19B and 47 (not counting the live show "The Debate"), only to be thrown through an old oak door into the Desert Otherworld by Steve Carlsberg. Reappears again in episode 65
• Stepford Smiler: Most likely Type C.
  • During The Debate, Kevin's eternally upbeat demeanor slips for a minute when he responds to a query on Vanessa's health by saying that she died a long time ago, in an incident so horrifying that those who witnessed it were never able to sleep again.
  • In Episode 49B, Kevin chipperly reveals that Desert Bluffs was corrupted by the Smiling God some time ago. Even those who resisted (as Night Vale did) succumbed in the end- including their radio host.
    Kevin: I rarely feel anything. I rarely feel anything at all!
  • Several moments in Sandstorm imply that he cannot comprehend violence, and sees most acts of violence (such as Cecil trying to choke the life out of him) as acts of kindness (thinking Cecil was merely hugging him). It's even implied that he will kill people and not realize he did it.
• Tragic Villain: Kevin used to be very similar to Cecil in temperament and civic pride, which is to say that he was a genuinely good guy who fought tooth and nail against StrexCorp. Unfortunately, Strex bought out the Desert Bluffs radio station and Mind Raped him into his current self.
• The Unsmile: According to Cecil's description, and Kevin notes the same thing about Cecil's smile in his own photograph. Though this may be because the two have different ideas of what "Smile" means.
  Cecil: No... That is not a smile.
  • The implication in "Old Oak Doors" is that Kevin's "smile" is an expression that's genuinely unsettling, even to residents of Night Vale.
    Kevin: Watch me smile!
    Cecil: ... You monster.
    Steve: That was really gross! Do it again.
  • Many fan works depict him with a Glasgow Grin.

Lauren Mallard

Voiced by: Lauren Sharpe

Cecil's new station manager. A StrexCorp shill, with rather more ties to Desert Bluffs than is proper for a Night Vale citizen.

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• Demoted to Dragon: When she ends up in New Desert Bluffs Kevin puts her in this position.
• Faux Affably Evil: On the surface she sounds cheerful and happy, but she speaks with a constant underlying layer of menace, thinly veiled threats and passive-aggressive jabs.
• For the Evulz: She deliberately crashed the market just to see if this would really make Kevin lose his cheerfulness. It didn't. Which she found fascinating, and totally ignored the damage to the economy.
• The Heavy: Lauren is the highest-ranking "voice" of StrexCorp. As of the beginning of episode 49, she's revealed as vice president of StrexCorp.
• Jerkass: Most definitely, even if she can seem nice.
• Perpetual Frowner: Has a frown permanently tattoed on her face in ep. 137 "The Mudstone Abyss part 3 "
• Shame If Something Happened: It sure seems like every time Cecil makes blatantly anti-Strex comments on the air, Lauren the Manager shows up to chat about his loved ones. His wonderful boyfriend, his charming niece, his adorable kitty... Poor, poor Khoshekh.
• Sugary Malice: The manner in which she delivers the aforementioned threats.
• Terms of Endangerment: She just loves Cecil, and what he's done with his show! And Carlos! And Khoshekh! And that cute little niece of his, what was her name? Oh, yes. Janice.
• Theme Twin Naming: It's unclear how much of an Evil Twin she's supposed to be to Dana Cardinal (though they both become mayors of their respective towns), but both are named after birds.
• The Unsmile: The reactions when she and Kevin send a video message in Toasts of themselves smiling suggest she shares this trait with Kevin.

Daniel

Cecil's new producer and Lauren's right hand man... or rather, right hand robot.

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• Deceptively Human Robots: Looks human enough that Cecil isn't certain if he identifies as organic or not, but is prone to giving off sparks and smoke or leaking motor oil when annoyed.
• Personal Mook: To Lauren, apparently acting as her driver amongst other things.
• Religious Robot: Joins Lauren in her daily ritual of worshipping the Smiling God in the break room.

Gods and Higher Beings

The Glow Cloud

A whistling, glowing cloud of shifting colors which appeared over Night Vale. Tends to drop dead animals on the city. Currently on the local school board.

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• Berserk Button: "WE MUST GIVE PRAISE" shows it does not like having its orders questioned, going as far as to envelop the entire town.
• Eldritch Abomination: A sentient glowing cloud that rains dead animals at will.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a glowing cloud.
• Hypnotic Creature: Any humans who get near it fall under its control.
• Killed Off for Real: It's "explained" by Dr. Lubelle like Sarah Sultan was, and Carlos fails to debunk the explanation, leaving it the only Night Vale resident still dead at the end of the arc.
• Legacy Character: After the original is explained away, the Glow Cloud's child, who was out of town at the time, is referred to simply as the Glow Cloud.
• Phrase Catcher: All hail.
• Physical God: It is one of the gods who was born in the Mudwomb before the dawn of time.
• Stop Worshipping Me: In the live show "All Hail" it takes control of Cecil to express its annoyance with the Night Vale residents' shows of devotion. Unfortunately the influence it has over everyone's minds causes them to black out the whole rant.
• Truly Single Parent: As far as we know, it is the Glow Cloud's child's only parent.

The Woman from Italy

Just a nice young woman from out of town, nothing really newsworthy.

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• Humanoid Abomination: Uh, yeah. She is one of the deities who came out of the Mudwomb at the beginning of time.
• Ironic Name: Her domain is stated to be "everywhere but Italy".
• Odd Friendship: With The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home.
• Rhymes on a Dime: People who talk about her inevitably start doing this in a creepy growly voice. She also seems to do it herself, as she was once scheduled to appear at the Night Vale Mall and offer rhymed threats to passers-by.
• Sadist: If the rhymes about her are anything to go by, seeing that they always promise unspeakable tortures to the listener.
• Trademark Favourite Food: She is first seen drinking coffee, and she once asked Steve to order for her a double espresso.

Smiling God

An Eldritch Abomination that resides within but is not limited to the otherworldly desert Intern Dana was trapped in. It takes the form of a spreading, hungry light that consumes everything it touches, and is somehow connected to the blinking red light up on the mountain.

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• Animal Motifs: In It Devours!, it's associated with centipedes.
• The Corruption: You will love the Smiling God. It doesn't matter how hard you try to resist.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Its very presence threatens to do this to Night Vale— it heralds the "unraveling of all things".
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Downplayed; one of the manifestations of its influence seems to be this, but it isn't to the complete exclusion of all other emotion. At separate points both Kevin and Lauren have been able to express anger or contempt, but they almost immediately revert back to a painfully cheerful demeanor.
• Greater-Scope Villain: It is the god served by Lauren and Kevin, the Big Bad Duumvirate of season 2.
• Light Is Not Good: No, it most certainly isn't.
• Slasher Smile: That's not a friendly smile it's sporting.
  • Stepford Smiler: And everybody it corrupts becomes the same way. Just look at Kevin!
• Token Heroic Orc: When Desert Bluffs is unified with Night Vale, a new church for the Smiling God is opened. Not only does it not force people to smile or splatter its walls with entrails, but its followers even join together with the rest of the town to fight off the Good Boy.

The Good Boy

An incredibly, irresistibly cute little beagle puppy always seen with Chad and Maureen. Revealed in part 1 of the Season 4 finale to be Satan, summoned by Chad in the form of a puppy, and the leader of the Strangers.

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• Adorable Abomination: An adorable beagle puppy who is actually Satan.
• Big Bad: The main villain of Season 4, with his attempt to unmake the Universe.
• Charm Person: Is said to be so cute that people will do anything for him. Anything.
• Fluffy the Terrible: He is NOT a good boy. He's probably the most evil entity in the whole of Night Vale's universe.
• Glamour Failure: To those who know what he is, he can seem... less than cute. Not cute at all, really.
• Horrifying the Horror: Even The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home is terrified of him.
• Mind Rape: He converts citizens of Night Vale into the Strangers by forcing them to experience an empty eternity of walking through a dark, muddy cavern.
• The Reveal: "I rule over the dark, wet caverns... of HELL!"
• Walking Spoiler: Pretty much everything in this folder illustrates that the cute, sweet little puppy is anything but.

The Destroyer

A terrifying woman with the head of a deer, worshiped by the Underground City as a god. Actually a benevolent monstrosity from the dawn of time, she watched over and protected Night Vale for centuries, until the Cold War turned hot in 1983. Desperate to protect her adopted town, she reached out with her godly might and cut off her Night Vale from the devastated world... only to not only cut off every other possible Night Vale from their worlds, but also shattering reality in all of them. The other abominations from the dawn of time (the Distant Prince, the Woman from Italy, etc.) took an interest in her shattered, beloved world. She made a truce with them; in exchange for them not ravaging every timeline, she would give them a few to "play with". Needless to say, Huntokar may be ultimately benevolent, but she sure as hell is willing to sacrifice a few alternate towns.

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• Animal Motifs: Deer. And cockroaches.
• Big Bad: She can be viewed as this due to her poor choices in protecting her town; she accidentally merged all Night Vales together, whilst simultaneously breaking reality. She didn't even have the courage to admit her mistakes fully until it was far too late, and even then in a format most of the town couldn't understand, and her actions led to the being in the above folder gaining access to Night Vale along with several... others.
• Eldritch Abomination: A deer-headed woman from before the universe, who sat cross-legged in a lake for 10,000 years.
• Time Abyss: She is one of the gods who were born in the Mudwomb before the dawn of time.
• Token Good Teammate: The only benevolent entity among the gods that came from the Mudwomb, though ironically, her naiveté made her by far the greatest threat out of any of them.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She accidentally tore apart the fabric of reality by taking Night Vale out of the timeline in order to protect it from a nuclear war.

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