The Fifth Season

Alabaster is a middle-aged orogene born and raised at the Fulcrum; he is a tall but thin man with “skin so black it’s almost blue” and “dense, tight-curled hair” (68). Despite his relatively young age and (by Sanzed standards) physically unimposing appearance, Alabaster is currently the only orogene who has earned 10 rings. This status affords him some privileges; he has a suite of rooms to himself and can travel without a Guardian. Nevertheless, the Fulcrum expects him to pass his abilities on to children, which is how he first meets Syenite: He is assigned to her as a “mentor,” ostensibly to supervise her work in Allia, but really to impregnate her.

The forced and dehumanizing nature of their relationship causes Alabaster and Syen to get off to a rocky start; it eventually emerges that Alabaster is also largely—if not entirely—attracted to men, making their sex all the more awkward. For her part, Syen finds Alabaster's demeanor abrasive; he is deeply cynical and rebuffs Syen’s attempts to show him respect and professional deference. Over time, however, the two warm to one another as Syen comes to understand the reasons for Alabaster’s jadedness: She learns, for instance, that several of his previous children have more or less been lobotomized to serve as node maintainers, and that a Guardian killed his former lover in front of him.

The birth of Syen and Alabaster’s son Coru and their shared relationship with Innon cements their bond. Although Alabaster remains traumatized by his past, the time he spends on Meov reveals a gentler and happier side to his personality. He takes particular delight in his role as Coru’s father, and the death of his son undoubtedly plays a role in his eventual decision to open a continental rift, destroying the Fulcrum in the process. At one point, he tells Syen all he’s ever wanted is the peace of a loving family life; his decision to destroy Sanze presumably stems partly from a desire for revenge against the society that killed Coru and put an end to the happiest period of his life.

Hoa is a stone eater who joins Essun on her journey, because he’s drawn to her in some mysterious way. Essun doesn’t immediately realize what Hoa is; he’s better able to conceal his nature than most stone eaters and appears to simply be a child of eight or nine. Nevertheless, Hoa looks strange by human standards, as Essun realizes the first time he cleans himself:

[H]is hair is ashblow-coarse, that perfect weatherproof texture the Sanzed value so much, already beginning to stiffen and pouf up as it dries. […] But it is white, not the normal gray. And his skin is white, not just pale; not even Antarctic people are ever quite that colorless, not that you’ve seen. His eyebrows are white, above his icewhite eyes (111).

Hoa often speaks and acts the way a young boy would, as when he turns the kirkhusa to stone and responds like a guilty child. His apparent insecurity about his own nature resonates with Essun, who develops motherly feelings for him as the novel progresses. However, Hoa is at least several centuries old, and often surprises Essun with his powers—including the ability to sense Nassun and other orogenes. The revelation that Hoa is narrating the novel is another hint that he’s far wiser than his youthful appearance and mannerisms suggest.

Schaffa fetches Damaya from her parents’ home when her orogeny makes itself known, becoming her personal Guardian. He’s a tall, imposing man with pale skin and “long flat hair, which together with the skin might mark him as an Arctic, though the color of it—a deep heavy black, like the soil near an old blow—doesn’t fit” (29); he also has icewhite eyes which are traditionally seen as an “ill omen” (29).

Schaffa’s behavior towards Damaya is as ambiguous as his appearance. He pleasantly speaks with her and shows her tenderness and affection that sometimes appear to be genuine; when he urges her to pass her first ring test, for example, he embraces her, telling her, “I need you to live […] My compassionate one. My life is so full of death. Please; pass this test for me” (330). However, from the moment he breaks Damaya’s hand, Schaffa also demonstrates that he’s capable of great violence, and will not hesitate to use it to control her. Despite her fear of Schaffa and her awareness that his treatment of her is wrong, Damaya initially clings to him because she has no one else. It’s only after experiencing genuine love with Innon and Alabaster that Damaya (now Syen) gains the courage to stand up to Schaffa.

Tonkee is a transgender woman Essun encounters in an abandoned roadhouse. Because of her appearance, Essun assumes Tonkee is commless: “The woman’s hair is matted, not in clean, well-groomed locks like [Essun’s] but from sheer neglect; it hangs in moldy, uneven clumps from her head” (178). However, Tonkee is surprisingly knowledgeable on scientific matters, and eventually admits that she’s a geomest who has been keeping an eye on the obelisks converging on Tirimo. By this point, Essun has realized that Tonkee is in fact Binof: a child of the Leadership caste Essun (then Damaya) met as a girl.

As a child, Binof was stubborn, curious, and outspoken; fascinated by Sanze’s obelisks, she snuck into the Fulcrum and persuaded Damaya to help her find her way to the hidden chamber containing the “socket” used for making obelisks. Tonkee’s family considered her scientific interests strange, and that this—combined with her social awkwardness and her gender identity—eventually led her parents to cut ties with her: “Thus Tonkee’s family buried her in the Stillness’s finest center of learning, giving her a new persona and a false use-caste, and quietly disowned her without all the fuss and bother of a scandal” (391). In this way, Tonkee serves as a reminder of the harm Sanze’s rigid hierarchy causes even to those who aren’t orogenes.

Innon is a “big man, black-skinned […] built more like a Strongback than a Resistant with personality enough to outshine any Yumenescene Leader” (349). Although an orogene, Innon was born and raised on Meov and now serves as the town’s second in command; he is a bold, outgoing, and charismatic man who captains the community’s periodic raids on coastal settlements.

When he meets Syenite and Alabaster, Innon makes it clear he is romantically interested in them both. Despite his “ridiculous, loud, vulgar” demeanor (351), Innon is deeply empathic, sensing both Alabaster’s vulnerability and Syen’s relative strength; the three eventually enter into a polyamorous relationship. Innon serves as a second father to Alabaster and Syen’s son Coru. Eventually, however, Innon’s affection for his lovers and his desire to indulge them proves to be his undoing; against his better judgement, he allows Syen to come with him on a raid and then agrees to take her to see the ruins of Allia. While there, a Guardian spots her, and the Fulcrum sends a fleet of ships to Meov to capture her and Alabaster. Innon dies in the ensuing battle when a Guardian uses his abilities to turn Innon’s orogeny inwards, breaking him into pieces. 

Coru is Syenite’s son by Alabaster. Although conceived on the orders of the Fulcrum, Coru is born on Meov and raised by both his parents and their shared lover, Innon. Coru physically resembles Syen, but is at least as powerful an orogene as his father is; at only a year old, he instinctively begins quelling the island’s microshakes. The assumption is that Coru will eventually take on Innon’s role as Meov’s protector. Long before this can happen, however, the Guardians discover Syen and Alabaster’s location, and Syen kills Coru to prevent him from falling into the hands of the Fulcrum.

Jija is a stoneknapper and Essun’s husband. He grew up in Tirimo and is a respected and well-liked member of the community; he appears equally kind and easygoing in private, playing with his son Uche and generally embracing his role as a husband and father. Nevertheless, the bias against orogenes is so ingrained in Sanzed culture that even Jija—a man with no history of domestic abuse and who previously expressed disapproval of the slur “rogga”—murders Uche when he discovers what he is. He then kidnaps Uche’s older sister Nassun, sparking Essun’s quest to find her daughter and avenge her son.

Uche and Nassun are Essun’s children with Jija; Uche is a “bright, giggly boy” of three (24), and Nassun is a girl of nine. Both have inherited their mother’s orogenic abilities, and it is Uche’s accidental use of orogeny that sets Essun’s story in motion, as she returns home to find that Jija has murdered Uche and kidnapped Nassun. 

Lerna is a gentle and soft-spoken young doctor from Tirimo—a “bog-standard mid latter […] Cebaki long nose, Sanded shoulders and coloring, Westcoaster lips […] too multiracial for Equatorial comm tastes, but by Somidlats standards he’s a looker” (406). Essun suspects Lerna, as a boy, had a crush on her, and he remains affectionate towards her as an adult, caring for her in the immediate aftermath of Uche’s murder. Perhaps because of his deeply compassionate nature, he is one of the few non-orogenes in the novel who doesn’t seem to harbor any bias towards orogenes. In fact, he even expresses outrage over the prejudice orogenes face: “Half of [Tirimo] are appalled, but the rest are glad Jija did it. Because of course a three-year-old has the power to start shakes a thousand miles away in Yumenes” (23). Lerna’s sympathy for orogenes makes him a potential target in Tirimo, and he flees shortly after Essun, eventually resurfacing in Castrima.

Ykka is an orogene serving as the leader of the comm at Castrima. Here, she uses orogeny in a variety of ways that Essun didn’t realize possible—running the air and water mechanisms, attracting other orogenes to the area, etc. Her comfort with her nature also makes her unusual by Sanze’s standards, which may be one reason Essun finds her “intimidating”:

It has nothing to do with her looks. Those are just Sanzed: the expected pouf of slate-gray hair and the expected deep brown skin and the expected size and visible strength of build […] It’s the steadiness that you recognize, finally, from seeing it a few times before: confidence (267).

She remains an enigmatic and morally ambiguous figure as the novel ends, refusing to allow Essun to leave Castrima.

Rask is the headman of Tirimo. He is a capable leader who, as the novel opens, has responded quickly and prudently to the possibility of a Season. Unbeknownst to anyone in Tirimo, Rask’s sister was murdered for being an orogene, predisposing him to sympathize with Essun and her children’s plight. Nevertheless, he dies as an inadvertent result of Essun’s actions when one of the gate-minders tries to shoot her.

Crack is one of Damaya’s fellow grits, whose nickname reflects her lack of self-control: “Her orogeny is a precarious, pent thing, a dagger constantly poised to plunge into the earth—and training has only made it worse, because now the knife is sharper” (203). Because Crack is a fellow outcast, Damaya seeks her help when she begins to be bullied. Eventually, however, Damaya learns that Crack was in on the plot to disgrace her in the hopes of deflecting attention from her own failings. Crack disappears after this, and her implied “icing” (i.e. execution) at the Fulcrum’s hands is one of many examples of the oppression orogenes face. Crack’s betrayal also marks a turning point in Damaya’s character development, since it persuades her that friendship is too dangerous for an orogene.

Maxixe is a handsome and talkative older grit who unexpectedly strikes up a conversation with Damaya. It soon becomes clear, however, that Maxixe is involved in the attempts to disgrace Damaya, so Damaya retaliates by framing him for misbehavior. Maxixe is so severely punished for his part in the conspiracy that his entire demeanor changes: “Maxixe returns with broken hands and haunted eyes; he never speaks to Damaya again” (211).

Jasper is a “thin and pale” grit who arrives at the Fulcrum shortly before Damaya (205). He and Crack give Damaya’s shoes to a Fulcrum cleaner in exchange for the alcohol they later slip to Damaya. Crack also reveals that the cleaner was extorting sexual favors from Jasper, who was lonely and desperate to communicate with his family: “‘[The letter] was from my mother!’ Jasper’s definitely crying now. ‘I didn’t want him to, to, but I couldn’t…they wouldn’t let me write to her…’” (208). After the truth surfaces, the Fulcrum sends Jasper to a satellite facility, ostensibly to allow him space to heal but more likely to avoid scandal. Jasper, in other words, is another victim of the Fulcrum’s treatment of orogenes.

Feldspar is an elderly orogene at the Fulcrum. She is Syenite’s immediate senior, and conducts herself with the unfailing politeness expected of orogenes even while scolding Syen: “Feldspar would never be so improper as to use a slur like the stills—but that is why Feldspar is a senior and has been given supervisory responsibilities” (63). Syenite hopes to one day have Feldspar’s job.

Asael is a deputy governor in Allia. She is openly disdainful of orogenes, and this—combined with the implied insult of being received by a “minor bureaucrat” (156)—leads Alabaster and later Syen to quarrel with her.

Heresmith is the lieutenant governor of Allia. She is a plainspoken and courteous woman who apologizes for Asael’s behavior and takes the well-being of her community seriously.

Edki is a Guardian who attempts to assassinate Alabaster and Syen after the latter raises the broken obelisk from Allia’s harbor. He’s naked to the waist when he approaches Alabaster and Syen, which marks him as one of the class of Guardians sent to “track down the most powerful rogue orogenes” (260), whom they can kill with skin-to-skin contact.

Timay is a Guardian who catches Binof and Damaya at the socket in the central room of Main. She speaks to Damaya at length about a force or being associated with the socket, wanting to know if Damaya heard its “call” (324). Timay dies when Schaffa removes an implant from the base of her skull, which he claims was malfunctioning and causing her strange behavior.