#inoj

Halek (he/him, other pronouns if you’re close, does not favour she/her): A main character and a rebel. Vaguely-multigender genderqueer trans man (does not explicitly label the other genders).

Jue (ze/hir): A main character and the teenaged Younger Emperor of Rāmia. Jue is either a cis boy using neopronouns- which I would consider to fall broadly under the umbrella of genderqueer anyway- or ze is genderqueer-as-in-not-binary, or maybe ze’s not sure which. (As I write this I am coming to the end of this draft and starting to get into prep work for the next so lots of things have the opportunity to shift. I think I might go with hir not being sure and maybe identifying as genderqueer because of how broad it is, as was once the case for me.)

Sei (she/her to others, they/them to themself): A main character and a princess of Rāmia. Agender on the inside but they don’t want to live as zauzo (Feka third gender/gender category) and being a princess specifically is very important to them so they are okay with everyone else thinking of them as a woman even though they don’t think of themself as one (especially since most of the time they need to be explicitly reminded that other people see things differently than them at all, so they don’t really feel dysphoric about how other people see them; often it feels to them as if everyone knows they’re not really a girl but is playing along, or they forget that “princess” really is linked to “girl” for most people.) Functionally, their gender kind of is “Princess.” Sometimes they describe it as being a woman on the outside but no gender on the inside. It’s a little complicated to explain but Sei is an agender princess and both those words are entirely correct.

Kaelía (she/it): A main character and an Initiate at the Temple of Corysecli. Demigirl.

Zhe’ārani (she/her) for intimates/Ši Arroakhai Kjú (they/them) for everyone else: A main character and an Initiate at the Temple of Corysecli. She’s a girl in a transmasculine way.

Līs/Līsandyr/Līsyka (he/him -> they/he -> they/she -> they/he/she/xe/fae): Zhe’ārani’s friend and Kaelía’s best friend, and another Initiate at the Temple of Corysecli. Undertakes some exploration in the background throughout the course of the trilogy, and goes from identifying (using our terms) as a boy to a demiboy to a demigirl to multigender (demiboy + demigirl + genderless + libraxenic (spacegender; xe does explicitly connect xir gender to outer space even if xe doesn’t use that specific term and as the author I’m saying that xe’s a little bit spacegender)).

Qatriong (she/her to most people, then he/him to most people, always she/he to herself): Zhe’ārani’s best friend and another Initiate at the Temple of Corysecli. Bigender girlboy; initially keeps the boy part private (except for Zhe’ārani), and later when she has to go into hiding and switches how he presents keeps the girl part private, both times because she needs something just for himself and that is a secret that won’t get her killed.

Talí (they/any): Halek’s sibling. Agender kolgirl (“kolgirl” being a mix of/somewhere in between “girl” and the Beri third gender “kolman”).

Abhaonai (she/he): An Initiate at the Temple of Corysecli. Bigender manwoman.

Kjotar (he/they): An Initiate at the Temple of Corysecli. (Probably) A boy but very loosely so.

Miwaanii-Shémelús (gives he/him if asked but he's very apathetic about it): This is multiple people who share the same name and pronouns and all of them pretty much identify as “genderqueer quoiromantic male” (Se-Naskans consider gender to also include sex and orientation as not necessarily the same thing but inherently closely linked).

Ausse (he/she): Daanah’s religious/magical counterpart. Genderfluid.

Ffeira (they/them): One of Ausse’s best friends & companions. Mixed-gender (one of the five Norve gender roles; in Ffeira’s case I think they truly are pretty much androgynous in identity.)

Kéchawaedrii-Orl (ze/hir): Head of Daanah’s religion. Holy-genderless (one of the five Norve gender roles).

Reymud (ze/hir): Divine Scribe. Holy-genderless.

Qeirana (ze/hir at work, he/him at home): A Norvic Senci Scholar who ends up working with Daanah. Holy-genderless in hir role as a scholar and a man in his personal life (in a way that both are true to who ze is in different ways).

Kwsnà (it/its): Halek’s therapist.

Logē (they/them): Divine Soldier at the Temple of Corysecli.

Onarys (they/he): Queng Consort of Rāmia annd Jue’s uncle’s spouse.

Naakiiwé (he/fae): Miwaanii-Shémelús’s brother. Exploring.

Ðiisiun-Awiir (they/them): Miwaanii-Shémelús’s sibling. Nonbinary.

Wnahé (they/she): Halek’s parent. Fem nonbinary.

Ínaenow (they/he): Halek’s step-parent. Masc nonbinary.

Míúren (she/he): Halek’s mother. Bigender woman-man.

Jiremau (she/ze): Candidate to be betrothed to Jue or Sei. Girl and kolman.

Juni (ze/hir): Halek’s grandkether. Kolman.

Inoj (they/them): Candidate to be betrothed to Jue or Sei and a Taqa rebel spy. Nonbinary.

Maaziariitna (ffe/åddå): Halek’s cousin. Firegender and earthgender (the Sarkja gender system is based on their elemental system).

Ystraddø (ly/lyt): Maaziariitna’s parent. Lightgender.

Reeha (they/she): Daanah’s friend and Rovian’s coworker. Demigirl.

Emeeru (ve/ver): Rovian’s coworker.

Méríw (he/they/she): Rovian’s friend.

Luivo (varying between he/him, they/them, and she/her, and combinations thereof): Halek’s (step)cousin. Genderfluid.

Kikkyl (they/them): Halek’s mother’s sibling. Genderqueer.

Iifel (she/they): Halek’s aunt. Nontrinary woman.

Kíkam (they/she): Halek’s cousin. Nontrinary.

Saurikasi (ze/hir): Halek’s cousin. Kolman.

Attendant Ngeh (he/she): Door attendant at the palace. Bigender manwoman.

Ātia Jo (she/they): A Wend-Ki’an spy in the Rāmian government. Genderflux, genderqueer woman.

Eleyk (ey/em): Baby that Daanah and Rovian’s family is fostering for a neighbour. Norve children are assigned the gender of “child,” so Eleyk is not exactly any gender in eir own identity or expression (being, you know, a baby) but ey does not fit into the binary.

Fiya (ey/em): Ailít and Fiyavu Ozast’s (Daanah and Rovian’s sister’s) baby, born during Empires Always Fall. Same situation as Eleyk, with eir gender being explicitly and only “child.”

Juraji (xe/xem): Halek’s queerplatonic partner. Nonbinary with a strong sense of gender distinct from man/woman.

Veisau (ze/hir): Yna’s half-kester- Sei’s new kester-in-law- and a high commander in the Beri military. Kolman.

Representative Swkatsh (ae/aer): the elected representative of Ðíúharlaeslai in the imperial government.

Awlanír (they/them): Rovian’s manager.

Heishun (they/them): Sei’s sibling. Zauzo.

Jēn-Tajanē (they/he/she): Sei’s sibling. Genderqueer and loud about not being simply slotted into the zauzo “other” category but having both a more expansive and more specific gender than that.

Āvolú (they/them) for intimates or Toagh Rrušā Ndi (they/them) for everyone else: Zhe’ārani’s friend from home. Voidgender + neutrois + contigender + astrumgender.

Keha (they/them): Fiitsãn’s friend and possibly crush, whose story role for the upcoming draft I’m not quite sure of yet. May have accompanied Mkera from Kelos and become friends with Fiitsãn or might just be an old school friend.

Amidi (they/them): Halek’s neighbour and friend.

Ektanai (they/it): Halek’s good friend and former cellmate at the Moghrlai Gurodstadit Juvenile Confinement Centre and, by luck, also ends up being one of Rovian’s cellmates when she gets arrested late in (the next draft of) Empires Always Fall.

Lawmí (they/she): Ektanai’s current cellmate and becomes one of Rovian’s cellmates.

Curain (ze/hir): Kulainestainer’s senior priest. Holy-genderless.

Idrom (ze/hir): Kulainestainer’s junior priest. Holy-genderless.

Uoliveg (ze/hir): Halek’s neighbour. Kolman.

Åswså (ffe/ffer): Pilot Maaziariitna knows. Firegender.

The Historian (she/her to most, she/he to her wife): the official (and immortal) historian of the Rāmian empire. Her gender straddles the line between “masculine cis woman” and “transmasculine.”

Tafeet (ffe/ffer): Maaziariitna’s ex. Genderflux & firegender.

Itheo (she/they): Halek’s friend, one of the other international students at his school in Meelasugaado.

Depa (it/its): Lieutenant of the Temple of Corysecli stationed in Moghrlai Gurodstadit, from Gētnyx’s cohort. Its gender is simply “Lieutenant of the Temple of Corysecli.” Where Kaelía first encountered it/its pronouns.

Track List:

All I Want

Movin’ On

Time After Time

Fallin’

Wait For You

Precious Love

I Found Love

Rather Be Alone

What Can I Do

Phone Intro

Freaky

Need To Feel

Can’t Wait

Ring My Bell

Love You Down

My Top Five Picks:

5th Place - Fallin’

4th Place - Love You Down

3rd Place - Movin’ On

2nd Place - Time After Time

1st Place - All I Want