The Book of The Long Sun - Minor Characters

Minor Characters

In the city of Viron, biological male characters are named after animals or animal products, and biological female characters are named after plants or plant products. Chems (robots) of either sex are named after inorganic materials or items.

Blood: The crime lord who purchases Silk's manteion. Blood is later killed by Silk during the uprising that makes Silk into the Caldé.

Musk: Musk is Blood's lover and an amateur falconer. He is killed during Maytera Rose's funeral sacrifice, when he attacks Patera Silk.

Doctor Crane: Doctor Crane is a spy from the city of Trivigaunte. He masquerades as Blood's personal physician. He is killed during a mistaken 'rescue attempt.'

Chenille: a prostitute, and friend of Auk. She is susceptible to possession by the gods. There are strong suggestions that she was born from a frozen embryo chosen for this special ability.

Corporal Hammerstone: Hammerstone is a low-level Soldier in Viron's chem Army. He tells tales of his lost love Moly, or Molybdenum. Maytera Marble later impersonates Moly to marry Hammerstone. He is reprogrammed by Patera Incus to turn against the Ayuntamiento.

Maytera Rose: one of the sibyls of the Sun Street manteion, she is a cyborg and the mother of Blood.

Hyacinth: a beautiful courtesan/prostitute, first seen by Silk when he invades Blood's mansion. He falls in love, and she becomes Silk's wife.

Mucor: A strange girl who has little interaction with other humans, but who has an amazing ability - she can remotely project her consciousness into other people, and speak with their voices, and gain information from them, while inhabiting them. She is mentally ill and anorexic, partly due to a botched brain surgery attempting to remove her power. Like Chenille, she was also a frozen embryo chosen for special genetic traits (i.e. this ability to possess others).

Patera Quetzal: The leader of Silk's religion in the city of Viron. There are hints throughout the books that he is not human, but this isn't known to the other characters until he dies, in the last book, and it is revealed that he is an inhumu.

Horn: a teenage student at the Sun Street manteion who is close to Silk, he appears only briefly in the books. At the end, he and his wife, Nettle, are said to be the authors.

Oreb: a large black bird, of the kind known as a night chough. Oreb is intelligent, and can talk, although he can only make two-syllable sentences (e.g. "No cut!", "Bad cat!") which usually need interpretation. Oreb was originally purchased by Silk as an animal sacrifice but fell sick and was later kept as a pet. He is usually with Silk, but can and does leave at times.