Xenocide

Valentine Wiggin is the middle child in the Wiggin family. Although she was born over 3,000 years ago in terms of objective time, she is only in her fifties due to spending significant time traveling in space. Because time slows down as one approaches the speed of light, she ages relatively little while eons pass for the galaxy that surrounds her. She prioritizes her work over everything else, writing sociopolitical essays under the penname Demosthenes, and she also criticizes her own parenting skills. Her aloof parenting style is reflected in the fact that, while her children—Ro, Varsam, Syfte, and Syfte’s husband Lars—travel to Lusitania with her, they do not appear directly in the story.

Overall, Valentine is a relatively flat character who acts primarily as an observer and recorder of history. Her traits include intelligence, compassion, and patience, and, like Ender, she has a strong desire to help others. Her primary methods of helping people are through her political writings and through healing interactions. She has strong communication skills and a deep understanding of human nature, and she uses these traits to help people feel more at ease. Her intelligence and compassion enable her to write powerful political essays that impact the readers, as seen in Wang-mu’s admiration for Demosthenes.

Jane is a form of intelligent life that Ender unknowingly called into existence; she evolved from an interactive computer program that was designed to reflect Ender’s deepest fears and secrets during his time at Battle School in Ender’s Game. During his training at Battle School, Ender formed a deep obsession with the Fantasy Game, which was an interactive game he played on a tablet. While playing, he unwittingly called forth Jane’s aiúa (or “will”) from Outspace, and she eventually became an independent living entity: the very connecting entity that allowed the hive queen to communicate with Ender.

Jane is a protagonist and a dynamic character. When she is first introduced, Jane knows very little about herself. She does not know where she physically exists, and she is insecure about her status as a living sentient being. She feels a will to live and to act with independence, but she differs greatly from other forms of sentient life in that she has access to all the knowledge entered into the computers on the ansible network and in that she communicates via computers and other forms of technology. These characteristics lead some characters, like Qing-jao, to believe that Jane is merely an advanced but non-sentient computer program. Jane develops a stronger sense of self-awareness as the novel progresses, and her character traits intensify. She is depicted as compassionate and altruistic, and she risks her life to protect both Lusitania and Qing-jao. Doing good is more important to Jane than saving herself.

Miro Rebeira is the oldest Rebeira child, but due to his time in space, he becomes the youngest and is only 20 years old when he returns to Lusitania, while his siblings have aged by 30 years. Before the time setting of the novel, Miro had fought to gain the right for humans and Pequeninos to communicate and work together, and in doing so, he broke laws established by Starways Congress. In the process of fighting for these rights, Miro touched the protective fence surrounding Milagre and consequently experienced significant brain damage that resulted in physical disabilities.

Miro is a protagonist and a dynamic character. His brain damage occurs one month before the beginning of the novel, and he has not yet grown accustomed to it. He finds solace in his relationship with Jane because he can subvocalize to talk with her, making communication much easier. Miro resents the obvious pity his family shows him, but when Valentine is direct with him about his attitude, he becomes offended. Miro’s defining qualities are his compassion and goodness; however, he often displays anger, bitterness, and self-pity due to the process of adjusting to his disabilities. After Miro creates a new body while in Outspace, his temperament changes. He no longer pities himself. He is happy and proud of his new body, but he grows “distant” and “brooding,” suggesting that he has become cold rather than compassionate.

Novinha is the matriarch of the Rebeira family. She has been married twice—first to Marcos, an abusive man with an alcohol addiction, then to Ender. Libo was her lover and the father of her children, and he was killed by the Pequeninos before the peace treaty was established between the two species. Novinha is portrayed as manipulative and controlling. These characteristics likely developed from the intense trauma in her past. Ela is Novinha’s daughter. She is highly educated and skilled scientist, and she is a martyr.

Both she and Novinha are xenobiologists, meaning that they study alien life. Together, they search for ways to overcome the descolada virus. Novinha has a mental crisis after Quim’s death, and she seeks solace in a convent for married couples—the Children of the Mind of Christ—where she finds help in managing her emotional traumas. Once Novinha is out of the lab, Ela, with the help of others, is able to make significant breakthroughs. The advancements the character makes after Novinha joins the convent suggest that Novinha had a negative and constricting influence on her children.

Grego and Quara are the youngest Rebeira children. Quara is a xenobiologist, and Grego is a physicist. Both are flat characters, and their main roles are to develop the plot and intensify the various conflicts. Quara advances the plot by telling laboratory secrets to the fathertrees, which results in Warmaker’s extremist views. Grego incites violence among the inhabitants of Milagre after Quim dies. He is thrilled by the power by loses control of the crowd, resulting in the massacre of Pequeninos and the death of their mothertree in the neighboring forest. His actions lead more Pequeninos to side with Warmaker.

Quara and Grego are both hot-headed and arrogant. They do not listen to others, and they move forward on their own despite what others advise them to do. Grego’s primary traits are his aggression and his love of power. He retains these traits even after the incident with the mob, and he is drawn to Peter, who, like Grego, craves power and is not afraid of violence.

Quara is described as a contrarian. She goes against her family at every opportunity and refuses to back down. She visits Planter knowing that he will convince her to share her information on the descolada, which demonstrates that she understands that she was wrong to hide her research. It also demonstrates that she is not comfortable admitting fault and showing vulnerability to her family.

Han Qing-jao is the daughter of Han Fei-tzu and Jiang-qing. Jiang-qing died when Qing-jao was a young child, and Han Fei-tzu promised to raise Qing-jao to obey the gods. Qing-jao is a godspoken person on Path. She feels intense urges to purify herself by tracing woodgrains in the floor, and these urges are believed to be messages from the gods.

Qing-jao is a dynamic character who begins the story seemingly as a protagonist but develops into an antagonistic force. She is skeptical of the gods and Congress and bitter about the purifications she must complete until her father teaches her that the gods control everything but that they do so through disguises. Once she believes this, Qing-jao suppresses her skeptical nature and devotes herself entirely to Starways Congress and the gods. She tells Congress of Jane’s presence, which puts Jane at risk of being killed and also allows Starways Congress to reestablish communications between themselves and the Lusitania fleet. Although her OCD is reversed, Qing-jao denies the idea that her peculiarities were not god-sent; consequently, she spends the rest of her life tracing woodgrains in the hopes that the gods will speak to her again. She is desperate to reaffirm her original worldview and regain the connection with the gods that she spent years resenting.