#heishun

Halek: he/him (they + neos allowed if you’re close friends), genderqueer intersex* alloaro-mspec* trans man. (*relevant to how he understands his gender- he's part Se-Naskan and they don't really separate those things.) He is of the main characters, a revolutionary.

Daanah: she/her, trans girl in both our context- based on the body parts she was born with- and hers- in which children are not assigned gender and instead grow into it, but she is ‘supposed’ to be genderless as a religious figure and is insistently not. She is of the main characters, a powerful divine magic user.

*Zhe’ārani (if you know her well)/Ši Arroakhai Kjú (if you’re not intimate): she/her (if you’re intimate) or they/them (if you’re not), transmasc girl taking testosterone for gender reasons, used to identify as a binary trans boy in her tween years but no longer does. She is of the main characters, an Initiate at a powerful Temple she doesn’t believe in but owes a debt to.

*Jue: (Jue doesn’t identify as trans- if pressed ze will identify as a cis boy- but ze uses ze/hir pronouns instead of the expected he/him, so. Fairly trans-adjacent in my opinion as someone who uses those pronouns and *is* trans.) Ze is one of the main characters, the Younger Emperor of Rāmia (under a regency).

Kaelía: she/it, demigirl. It is one of the other Initiates at the same Temple as Zhe’ārani and they are close friends.

Talí: they/them (expands to include more pronouns if you’re close), agender kolgirl (combination between a girl and a kolman, which is the Beri third gender, at a very weak intensity. This is a nontrinary identity). They are Daanah’s best friend, Jue’s new friend, and Halek’s younger sibling.

Līs/Līsandyr/Līsyka: he/him -> he/they -> she/they -> he/they/she/xe/fae, demiboy + demigirl + genderless + libraxenic spacegender. They are another Initiate at the Temple and one of Zhe’ārani’s close friends.

Guodei: she/her, trans woman. She is one of the other Initiates, Zhe’ārani’s direct superior, they’ve got a… complicated relationship.

Miwaanii-Shémelús: he/him, quoiromantic* genderqueer male* (relevant to how he and others see his gender as he's Se-Naskan), the specifics of his gender are fairly unknowable to him and also it’s complicated with plurality in the mix making unique details harder to pin down. He is Daanah’s… partner, situationship, something, of some kind, complicatedly, in a way that is neither romantic nor platonic.

Fiyavu Ozast: she/her, trans woman. She is Daanah’s older sister.

Retmiq: he/him, trans man. He is another Initiate.

Logē: they/them, nonbinary. They are a Divine Soldier at the Temple and Zhe’ārani’s superior.

Réswn: she/her, trans woman. She is Halek’s fathers’ and parent’s headmate and he considers her his aunt.

Wnahé: they/she, nonbinary. They are Halek’s parent.

Ínaenow: they/he, nonbinary. They are Halek’s fathers’ and parent’s headmate; his step-parent.

Ausse: she/he, bigender manwoman. She is powerful divine magic user and revolutionary, and considered to be Daanah’s counterpart magically.

Maaziariitna: ffe/ffer/ffes & åddå/åddår/åddås, bigender, genders are associated with fire and air and are specific to åddås culture, which has six ‘standard’ elementally-related genders. Ffe is Halek’s cousin.

Ystraddø: ly/lyt/lys, trans, gender is associated with light. Ly is Halek’s maternal uncle’s spouse (Maaziariitna’s lightparent).

Ngionah: she/her, trans woman. She is Jue’s primary guard.

Onarys: they/he, transmasc nonbinary. They are Jue’s uncle’s spouse.

Suinak: she/her, trans girl. She is one of Jue & Sei’s betrothal candidates.

Inoj: they/them, nonbinary. They are one of Jue & Sei’s betrothal candidates.

Neesa: she/her, trans woman. She is Halek’s friend.

*Chiishé-Faindh: he/him, cis in that he is a man who was AMAB but trans in that he is taking estrogen and seeking vaginoplasty to be more comfortable in his body, in a complicated GNC maybe-multigender sort of way. He is Halek’s uncle.

Diihse: he/him, trans man. He is one of Halek’s best friends.

Juraji: xe/xem, nonbinary & aporagender, solidly gendered in a way that is firmly and explicitly outside the binary. Xe is Halek’s queerplatonic partner.

Ektanai: they/it, nonbinary. They are Halek’s former cellmate at the Moghrlai Gurodstadit Juvenile Detention Facility and still his good friend.

Juni: ze/hir, kolman. Ze is Halek’s grandkether (kolman grandparent).

Āvolú: they/them, gendervoid. They are one of Zhe’ārani’s best friends from before the Temple.

Ghurvi’airra: she/her, trans girl. She is one of Zhe’ārani’s best friends from before the Temple.

Reeha: they/she, transfem nonbinary. They are Daanah’s good friend.

Okpa: she/her, trans woman. She is Fiitsãn’s mother.

Sinquisok: he/they, trans man. He is Fiitsãn’s father.

Xāqesqua: she/her, trans woman. She is also Fiitsãn’s mother.

*Yna: she/her. So, trans-wise, Yna’s a bit of a complicated case; in our cultural context she would be a cis woman, however, in hers she would have been re-assigned to the third category of kolman as a visibly severely disabled young child and then transitioned back to girlhood probably in her early teens. She is one of Jue and Sei’s betrothal candidates and developing a serious relationship with Sei, and going to be very important in the second book.

*Jiremau: she/her; similar situation to her cousin Yna, born visibly disabled and assigned kolman because of it and thus occupying a trans position in her home culture. (In the next draft I wonder about making her a kolgirl, or bigender kolman and girl as two separate coexisting genders, nontrinary, like Talí? With both she/her and ze/hir pronouns. I think that would be interesting.) She is also one of the betrothal candidates.

Luivo: pronouns variously include he, they, and she; genderfluid between various genders on the boy-girl-other-none spectrum. He is Halek’s step-cousin (Maaziariitna’s stepsibling).

Iifel: she/they, nonbinary woman. She is Halek’s maternal aunt who thinks he is a bad influence on her children.

Kíkam: they/she, nonbinary. They are Halek’s cousin (Iifel’s child).

Uoliveg: ze/hir, kolman. Ze is Halek’s neighbour.

Saurikasi: ze/hir, kolman. Ze is Halek’s cousin.

Amadi: they/them, nontrinary. They are Halek’s neighbour.

Elèrí: he/him, transmasc. He is the ðíúfai- water spirit- associated with Halek’s family.

*Veisau: ze/hir, kolman. Ze is Yna’s half-kester.

Trais: To all appearances, ze/hir and holy genderless as expected of Norvic Senci holy people, but in her heart she's a closeted-to-everyone-maybe-even-herself transfem. She is Daanah’s colleague.

*Reymud: Ze/hir, holy genderless (as expected of hir). Ze is Daanah’s colleague.

*The Historian Royale: she/her to most and she/he to her wife, trans-ish likely-androgyne butch lesbian. She is the Rāmian Empire’s immortal official historian.

Ãye: She/her, trans woman. She is Halek’s friend.

Itheo: She/they, nonbinary. She is Halek’s friend.

Heishun: they/them, Feka third gender. They are Jue’s cousin.

Jēn-Tajanē: they/he/she, Feka third gender. They are Jue’s cousin.

Kikkyl: they/them, nonbinary. They are Halek’s mother’s sibling.

Attendant Ngeh: he/she, bigender man + woman. She is a low-level doorman at the imperial palace.

*Kéchawaedrii-Orl: ze/hir, holy genderless (as expected of hir). Ze is the highest authority of Daanah’s religion.

Elected Representative Swkatsh: ae/aer, nonbinary. Ae is the elected representative of Ðíúharlaeslai and acts as an advisor to the imperial government on matters concerning that province.

Ffeira: they/them, nonbinary. They are Ausse’s best friend.

Ðiisiun-Awiir: they/them, sapphic* female* nonbinary (*also Se-Naskan). They are Miwaanii-Shémelús’s sibling.

Naakiiwé: he/fae, thought he was just a man (& male* & not really attracted to anyone in any way*, *Se-Naskan as well) but there might be more to it than that now the he really has time to think about it. Miwaanii-Shémelús's brother*.

*Kjotar: he/they, doesn't think deeply about his gender 'cause boy is adequate enough and he's for sure his brother's brother but he's also fairly confident about the he/they thing. Another Initiate.