Main Characters
Eva Nine
The young hero of the story, who wishes to leave her Sanctuary and explore the surface world.
- Action Girl: When pushed into a corner, she will fight back to protect herself, and uses her wits to escape her foes.
- The Aloner: Eva after chapter 4 of Search, where she is made to survive above ground by herself. When she meets Rovender and Otto, however, she stops being one.
- The Beastmaster: In the last third of Battle, Eva reaches mastery over her empathy powers and commands an army of wildlife to fight against the airships and warbots of Solas' borders.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Eva's one desire at the start of Search is to explore the outside world. She gets her wish when the Sanctuary is destroyed and she has to escape to the outside world.
- The Empath: Once outside her Sanctuary, Eva discovers she has the ability to feel the emotions of creatures and Planimals, and communicate with them. Although it's painted as telepathy, Eva describes it not as speaking, but "feeling very hard."
- Going Native: Downplayed; While Eva never rejects her own species, she does come to prefer the aliens' food and culture over humanity's processed foodstuffs and dependency on technology.
- Fish out of Water:
- Eva at first, when her Omnipod proves close to useless in identifying literally anything about the outside world. MUTHR takes this role too when Eva manages to convince the Sanctuary to let her exit.
- Eva takes the role again in the second book, where she finally meets other humans, but doesn't form a human connection with any of them due to the other humans not believing her stories (which we know to be true).
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Eva has long blonde hair in the first two books and is very innocent to her new world.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Her ability to feel the emotions of other animals makes her an important peacekeeper in the later books.
- The Hero
- Intergenerational Friendship: Eva forms one with Rovender. Eva is twelve, while Rovender is "almost eight trilustralis," or at the very least old enough to have had a family.
- The Last Of Her Kind: Subverted. Eva is set up to be the last known human in existence, but another one shows up at the end of the first book.
- Locked into Strangeness: After meeting with the heart of the forest, she gets "reborn" and her hair has permanently turned white.
- Magical Computer: Eva's Omnipod, which is sort of like what you'd get if you gave Siri her own independent device and heavily upgraded her abilities. Too bad it's damn near useless outside of the Sanctuary.
- Raised by Robots: True to her name, Muthr is Eva's mother in all but blood. Although they may not always see eye-to-eye, Eva loves her very much and vice versa.
- Ship Tease: With Hailey. They eventually hook up in the epilogue to the final book.
- You Are Number 6: The closest our heroine has to a last name is "Nine". It is not until the second book that Eva learns she is the ninth Eva from of brood of test tube babies.
Rovender
A Cærulean that Eva comes across on the surface. At first, he agrees to accompany Eva for a short distance, but soon decides to stay by her side.
- Affectionate Nickname: Eva starts calling Rovender "Rovee" after getting to know him.
- Berserk Button: Rovender does not take being compared to Besteel very kindly.
- The Drifter: Rovender. He mentions having traveled up and down the continent, yet claims early on that his home is "far from here." 'Here', in this case, meaning the forest Eva meets him in.
- The Lost Lenore: While never discussed in depth until the second book, a passage early on all but states it (and Outliving One's Offspring) happened to Rovender."Do you have a family back home, Rovender?"
"A family?" He took a drink, swallowing audibly. "No family. Not anymore." Rovender's voice sounded distant. Lonely. - Mr. Exposition: Rovender is set up to be one, but doesn't actually give much exposition in the story proper, meaning Eva has to find out everything for herself.
- Parental Substitute: Becomes this for Eva once Muthr is killed at the end of the first book. Eva soon considers him part of her family.
- Rebel Prince: Hero reveals Rovender is the son of the Cæruleans' patriarch, Antiquus. His decision to roam Orbona's wilderness was taken for abandonment of his people, for which his father kept a grudge. Eva helps the two reconcile.
- Walking the Earth: Rovender has taken to a nomadic lifestyle as a means of cleansing his grief over losing his mate and child.
Muthr
The robot mother who takes care of Eva down in the Sanctuary, and is a little over protective of her daughter.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Has a hard time processing all of the new information Orbona has to offer, mainly because it's so different than what she was coded with.
- Fun with Acronyms: MUTHR = Multi-Utility Task Help Robot.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Muthr takes an energy blast from Besteel’s boom rod meant for Eva.
- Last Words: After shielding Eva from one of Besteels blast, Muthr begins to shut down, and tells Eva how proud of her she is.
- My Beloved Smother: Eva feels this way towards Muthr, who's always either telling her what to do, or what to avoid.
- Raised by Robots: Muthr, in this case, is the child-raising robot given a personality.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Being a robot parent, she's literally programmed to behave like a real mother. It leads to some genuinely heartwarming moments in the later chapters of the first book.
Orbona Inhabitants
Queen Ojo
The current ruler of Orbona, and cares for the other inhabitants of the planet, although she doesn't seem to know about Orbona once being earth.
- Large and in Charge: Easily towers over most of the Orbona inhabitants.
Otto
A young water bear that Eva saves from Besteel and forms a telepathic bond with the creature.
- Bond Creatures: Rovender points out that these creatures can create bonds with others, although he didn't believe it until Eva proves her connection to the water bear.
- But Now I Must Go: Otto at the end of Search. He returns in Hero, though.
- One-Word Vocabulary: Otto rarely speaks a full sentence for Eva, usually getting a few words in when communicating with her.
Besteel
The main villain of the first book, who chases Eva and the others around Orbona trying to capture them and bring them to the Queen.
A Dorcean that Eva mistakes for Besteel come back from the dead. However, he reveals himself to be Besteel's brother, and is more honorable than his deceased sibling.
- Big Brother Instinct: Surprisingly, after he and Redimus got drunk, he told his brother to prove that he could have been the better hunter, causing Redimus to go and kill all of Queen Ojo's animals in her museum. To save his brother, Besteel begged to make up for the mistake and was sent on a mission to collect one of every creature out in Orbona. Once that was completed, his brother would be freed.
- Cold Sniper: Besteel, the marauder responsible for destroying Eva's sanctuary, uses a long-range beamrod as his weapon of choice, often from long distances. He's also a complete jerk, even with his Freudian Excuse of wanting to free his brother.
- Disney Villain Death: Besteel's fate at the end of Search is to be eaten alive by sand snipers and dragged underground.
- The Dreaded: Many shrink in fear at the mere mention of Besteel.
- Funetik Aksent: His way of speaking sounds less clear than Rovenders.
- Impossible Task: He was tasked to collect one of every creature for Queen Ojo's museum in order to free his brother for killing all of her creatures.
A Dorcean that Eva mistakes for Besteel come back from the dead. However, he reveals himself to be Besteel's brother, and is more honorable than his deceased sibling.
- Electronic Eye: One of his defining features.
- Funetik Aksent: Speaks in the same Dorcean accent as his brother.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Shows Eva the scars he got from the mistakes he's made in his life.
- White Sheep: Although he was good at the things his brother was, he refuses to hunt and kill for the sport of it. This earns the disdain of his brother and father.
Zin
Arius' brother, who seeks the knowledge of everything on Orbona. Eva Nine piques his interest, especially when he sees that his sister, who he presumed was dead leave a mark on the human girl.
- Seeker Archetype: He wants to have knowledge on just about everything in Orbona.
Loroc
The brother of Arius, and Zin. The most intimidating of his four siblings, a creature who lusts for power and serves as Cadmus' advisor at New Attica.
- Ambition Is Evil: He's always felt insignificant compared to his siblings, according to Zin, and plans on gaining enough power to rule Orbona unchallenged.
- Big Bad: Towards the end of "Hero", he's revealed to be the true villain, pulling the strings of Cadmus and Queen Ojo.
- Cannibalism Superpower: His species has a taboo ritual called "consumption," which involves swallowing the dead whole to absorb their memories and abilities. Loroc, unfortunately, does not wait for his food to die. He eats his sister Darius, who is only ever mentioned in passing, and then goes to consume Arius and Zin, gaining both of their powers.
- Evil Chancellor: To Cadmus, always looming behind him.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: The use of his Cannibalism Superpower makes him bigger and grows him more eyes and tentacles.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Loroc's goal and power source was eating people. He is defeated by Eva when she tricks him into eating himself.
- Playing Both Sides: He tricks Cadmus into making an army, claiming that it was the only way for the humans to regain their land on Orbona, but he eventually turns them onto New Attica. He then tells Ojo that he helped to destroy the humans, which would then allow him to take out Ojo later and then become "king".
- Treacherous Advisor: Turns Cadmus' army against New Attica in order to destroy it, so not only can he get rid of all the humans, but eventually take down Queen Ojo so he can become "king".
The Taxidermist
Queen Ojo's royal taxidermist, who takes all of Betseel's catches and stuffs them for Queen Ojo's museum to be displayed. He takes great pride in his work.
- Disney Villain Death: He gets dragged off by a sand sniper.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He has no given name, only referred to by his work title.
- Taxidermy Is Creepy: He taxidermies the animals of Orbona for his own sick amusement. In the third book, Eva delivers a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech, condemning his callous attitude towards other life.
New Attica
Cadmus Pryde
The leader of New Attica, and was the one who proposed that they incubate test tube babies underground in "Sanctuaries" in order to help preserve their species on Earth since it's incredibly polluted.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's a bigoted authoritarian leader, but when New Attica is under attack, his primary concern is the safety of his daughter.
- Fantastic Racism: He despises the aliens and future evolutionary descendants and wants humans to retake the whole planet from them.
- Older Than They Look: Has lived in New Attica for over at least a few hundred years.
- President Evil: He practically uses propaganda to keep his people under his control and have them believe they're living a peaceful life. But he looses everything after Loroc orders his army to destroy New Attica along with its inhabitants.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His motivation is ensuring the survival of humanity and maintaining the cultures of the old world, but he resorts to authoritarian tactics do this and is willing to sacrifice the aliens and newly evolved creatures to fulfill his goal.
- Wizard Beard: Has a long beard that looks like a wizard.
Gen
Gen is introduced to Eva when she enters New Attica through her father and shows her around. She and her friends look so alike they're all called "The Gens".
- Alpha Bitch: Gen and her friends make fun of another girl who they think looks like a monkey. Eva quietly says that she actually likes how the other girl looks.
- Daddy's Girl: Gen adores her father, and refuses to leave him behind as New Attica is being burnt down.
- The Fashionista: Gen and her friends adore fashion, even dressing up Eva to look like them when she joins New Attica.
- Girl Posse: The Gens.
Hailey Turner "Evan Seven"
A self-proclaimed "retriever". He finds Eva and Rovender at the end of the first book and takes them to New Attica.
- It's What I Do: When he hands Eva over to Cadmus in exchange for ship parts that he needs, Eva becomes furious that he would just leave her like that.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Shoots the others in a pod out of his ship and flies his Bijou away to draw off the New Attica airships.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Eva constantly reminds him of how he betrayed them by turning the group over to Cadmus. Eva swears to never forgive him, and to an extent, he understands why.
Eva Eight
Eva's "sister" who left the Sanctuary before her, and had been waiting for her arrival in New Attica. She's the one who tells Eva not to trust Cadmus.
- Anti-Hero: Sure, she alerts Eva to a major threat in Cadmus' Orwellian settlement and helps Eva escape from it, but she also badmouths MUTHR, suggests ditching Rovender (who has by this point grown to be one of Eva's True Companions), and only wants to get her hands on the main life-generator to spite Cadmus, the latter of which is brought up when she's confronted on it.
- Older Than They Look: She tells Eva that she's been waiting for her in New Attica for over a hundred years.
- One-Steve Limit: Eva Nine is the main character, but Eva Eight becomes a major character in Hero. To get around this, the former is referred to simply as "Eva", while the latter as "Eight".
- Strong Family Resemblance: Looks like an older version of Eva, with shorter hair.
- Transflormation: After meeting with the heart of the forest, she gets "evolved" into a tree which puts her at peace.
