Valentine Wiggin

Wiggin family

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is the protagonist of the Ender quintet and is present in the Bean quartet. He is enlisted in the International Fleet's Battle School for his strategic ability and leadership skills. He is eventually tricked into leading battles in the war against the Formics, resulting in the almost-complete destruction of that race. He spends most of his life attempting to find absolution for his unknowing act of "xenocide" by becoming a Speaker for the Dead.

Peter Wiggin is Ender's older brother. A sociopath, he takes sadistic pleasure in manipulating and brutalizing other children, especially Ender. Peter is rejected from Battle School ostensibly due to his violence, but it is later revealed that his rejection was due to Graff believing that his men would never love him as a commander. In Ender's Game, he helps end a global war (with Valentine's reluctant assistance). In later books, he becomes Hegemon of the free world and founds the Free People of Earth, the Enderverse's first world government.

Valentine Wiggin is Ender's older sister, being the middle child of the Wiggin family. Rejected from Battle School for being too sensitive, she serves as the intermediary between Ender and Peter during the former's childhood. Later, she helps Peter on his rise to power by becoming "Demosthenes", an essayist whose rabble-rousing demagoguery is contrasted strongly against Peter's statesmanlike essays as "Locke". After the end of the Formic War, she leaves with Ender on an odyssey through time and space, turning Demosthenes into a historian whose essays are considered the definitive word on whatever subject they address. After marrying on the planet Trondheim, she eventually uproots her family to follow Ender to Lusitania, where she helps to defuse the onrushing Lusitania Fleet and save the alien inhabitants from xenocide.

John Paul Wiggin and Theresa Wiggin are Ender's parents. Ender's Game portrays them as being dull and oblivious despite the genius children they raised. However, both characters were expanded upon in later works and revealed to be more intelligent than even their children imagined. John Paul is Catholic and Theresa is Mormon. Furthermore, Colonel Graff revealed that Ender's father was baptized with the surname Wieczorek, hinting at his Polish roots, and was born the seventh of nine children, a serious offense in the Enderverse's overpopulation sanctions, both of which he has cast himself away from. It is also later revealed that John Paul was originally accepted to Battle School, but he declined, causing Graff to move him to America in the hopes that he might marry someone brilliant and foster children worthy of leading the war against the Formics.

Battle School students

Ender's army

Ender's army is a collection of his closest friends at Battle School, particularly those who serve under him in the Dragon Army in Battle School before serving as team leads under his command during the Third Invasion, ending with the destruction of the Formic homeworld. As chronicled in the Bean Quartet, many of them move into positions of international significance during the chaotic years after the end of the Formic War, particularly due to the machinations of Achilles de Flandres. Ender's jeesh is the group that works under Ender in fighting the Formics.

Alai (pronounced ah-lie) is a Muslim of North African descent. In Battle School, he was an exceptional student, adroit in the battle room, and was one of the first children to befriend Ender, with the word "salaam" and a kiss on the cheek. They became the best of friends. He also helped lead the special training sessions Ender conducted, and later, during the Third Invasion, became one of the most trusted members of Ender's jeesh, due to his innate talent. After his return to Earth, he is eventually elected Caliph of a unified Muslim world.

Bean is a student of Greek and Igbo descent from the streets of Rotterdam. Though the smallest and youngest member of the jeesh, he is also the smartest and most fair-minded. Ender initially notes that he isolates Bean as Ender himself was once isolated to force Bean to flourish. Though only a supporting character in Ender's Game, Bean (real name Julian Delphiki II) is the lead character of the parallel storyline book series known as the "Bean Quartet" or "Shadow Quartet", revealing his role as the behind-the-scenes facilitator of most of the main events of that time period (the victory against the Formics, the uniting of Earth under Peter Wiggin, and so on); being "behind the scenes" is a central theme in these works.

Dink Meeker is a Battle School student of Dutch descent. He is portrayed as one of those who refuses to play the teacher's game. He says that he was offered command of an army twice, but refused to play. He was paranoid about the game, convinced that the teachers were the enemy and that the Bugger War was fake so that all children with the ability for command were in the hands of the International Fleet; however, he loved the game, so he stayed as a toon leader. Eventually, he agreed to become a commander in Ender's Shadow.

Carn Carby is an Australian veteran who commands Rabbit Army. In the original short story version of Ender's Game, Ender held a low opinion of him: In the novel, when Bean was transferred into Rabbit Army, Ender says, "How can they put you under an idiot like Carby!", but in the expanded novel, Ender's reply is, "Carby's a good man; I hope he recognizes you for what you're worth." Carby's Rabbit Army was the first to battle Ender's Dragon Army and was beaten badly. When Carby told the other commanders of Ender's new tactics, they didn't believe him, so Carby told Ender "to beat the snot out of them" in battle, as a personal favor. His honest and sympathetic behavior made Ender "mentally [add] him to his private list of people who also qualified as human beings". He is transferred to Command School and serves under Ender during the Third Invasion, one of the few Army members who were never in an army with Ender during Battle School.

Other Battle School students

Achilles de Flandres is the main villain of the Bean Quartet. Like Bean, he grew up in Rotterdam, an orphan on the streets; like Peter, he displays sociopathic tendencies, particularly by murdering anyone who has ever seen or made him helpless. During the years after the Formic War, he takes steps to begin unifying the world under his rule, causing a series of costly wars between India, China, Russia, a united Islam, and large parts of Europe and southeast Asia. He gets assassinated at the end of Shadow Puppets by Bean after he gets tricked by Suriyawong who didn't kill Bean as promised.

Suriyawong is a Battle School grad from Thailand who becomes Bean's friend during the wars caused by Achilles. He was known as "Surly" due to his pugilistic disposition, but during his time with Bean, he develops into a mature and capable commander.

Virlomi is a Battle School grad from India who is instrumental in rousting Achilles from his power base in India. In Shadow Puppets, as the conflict between China and India increases, she returns to rural India to devise and encourage civil disobedience there, where she begins to cultivate a divine image. In Ender in Exile, she becomes governor of an Indian colony on the planet Ganges.

William Bee is a minor character who is primarily notable due to his involvement in one of the more unusual battles in the "Battle Room". In the Battle School's first numerically handicapped battle, Ender Wiggin, commander of Dragon Army, was required to face both Bee's Griffin Army, as well as Talo Momoe's Tiger Army.

Bernard is part of Ender's launch group and treats the precocious Ender with great contempt (mostly because Ender had broken Bernard's arm on the shuttle to the Battle School). Bernard is also seen as a ringleader and the main antagonist in the first few chapters of the book, and he takes great delight in picking on Ender and Shen, a young boy who is also in the launch group. However, his stranglehold on the clique falls apart when Ender and Alai become friends in the battle room, and after Ender manages to hack into the computer system and posts a message saying "Cover your butts, Bernard is watching," signed "God". Later Ender also writes another note, seemingly by Bernard, saying "I love your butt, let me kiss it. - Bernard." Bernard is one of the six students who accompanies Bonzo Madrid when he fights Ender in the bathroom.

International Fleet personnel

Colonel Hyrum Graff is the principal of Battle School, and personally supervised much of Ender's training. After the war he is put on trial for his controversial actions there, but is given a position within the Hegemony as Minister of Colonization, responsible for sending humanity out to colonize the now-deserted worlds formerly held by the Formics. In the film, he is played by Harrison Ford.

Mazer Rackham is the half-Māori captain who singlehandedly stopped the Second Invasion by realizing that the Buggers are a hive mind. Due to his inability to pass on his knowledge, he was forced to spend fifty years at relativistic speeds (eight years for Rackham) so that he could train the next commander, Ender Wiggin. After the end of the war, he joins Graff's crusade to keep the human race from destroying itself. In the film, he is played by Ben Kingsley.

Major Anderson was Graff's second-in-command at Battle School, generally seen in the epistolary conversations from Ender's Game attempting to moderate his superior's unorthodox training of Ender. His passion is the Battle Room; after the war's end, he accepts the post of commissioner for an American football league, and does not appear in the latter three books of either the Ender or Bean quartets. In the film, Major Gwen Anderson is a psychologist who looks after the Battle School students, and is portrayed by Viola Davis.

Admiral Chamrajnagar is the ranking Admiral at Eros, the International Fleet's headquarters, during the final stages of the Formic War; he was not Polemarch during that time, but has assumed that post by the time Achilles de Flandres begins his power plays.

Other Ender's Game characters

The Hive Queen is the physical embodiment of the central consciousness of the Formics.

Victor Delgado is a mechanic born on the free mining ship El Cavador, that mined asteroids in the Kuiper Belt. When the Formic's scout ship was discovered and deemed as a real threat, he was sent on a quick ship to Luna to report the news. On Luna, he was promptly arrested, but freed by Imala. After, he and Imala began teaming up with Lem Jukes to infiltrate the Formic ship and were successful in doing so. They were able to replicate the infiltration mission with a team of MOPs and were successful in destroying the Formic scout ship.

Jane is an AI that exists within the ansible network.

Stilson is a bully in Ender's Game. In the very first chapter of the book, he and three friends gang up on Ender, who decides to win thoroughly. Ender's counterattacks are so effective that Stilson, unbeknownst to Ender, suffers enough injuries to later die in hospital.

Characters introduced in Speaker for the Dead

Characters from the planet Lusitania as introduced in the book Speaker for the Dead.

Figueira family

Pipo Figueira (PEE-po fee-GAY-ra; born João Figueira Alvarez; died 1948) is the first xenologer of Lusitania. He is one of the few people on the planet who treats Novinha as a real person, and becomes her beloved father-figure during her teenage years. He is the first human killed by the piggies, an alien species, and his death prompts Novinha to call for a speaker for the dead.

Conceição Figueira, is Pipo's wife and the archivist of Lusitania.

Libo (LEE-bo; Liberdade Graças a Deus Figueira de Medici; 1931–1965) is Pipo's son and the xenologer after his death. Libo is Novinha's first love. Unfortunately, like his father he is vivisected by the pequeninos. His apprentice, Miro, calls for a speaking of his death, which Ender performs. Libo is the father of Novinha's children.

Pipinho (João) is Libo's sibling.

Maria (d. 1936) was Libo's sibling who died of the Descolada.

Bimba (Abençoada) is Libo's sibling.

Patinha (Isolde) is Libo's sibling.

Rã (Tomãs) is Libo's sibling.

Bruxinha (Portuguese for "little witch"; born Cleopatra Figueira) is Libo's wife.

Ouanda Quenhatta Figueira Mucumbi (b. 1951), is Libo and Bruxinha's eldest child and a xenologer, who falls in love with Miro.

China Figueira is Ouanda's sibling.

Prega Figueira is Ouanda's sibling.

Zinha Figueira is Ouanda's sibling.

Os Venerados family

Gusto (Vladimir Tiago Gussman; d. 1936) was Cida's husband, Novinha's father, and a xenobiologist of Lusitania. He helped cure the Descolada virus before succumbing to it. He and his wife Cida were known as Os Venerados after their beatification.

Cida (Ekaterina Maria Aparecida do Norte von Hesse-Gussman; d 1936) was Gusto's wife, Novinha's mother, and a xenobiologist of Lusitania. She helped cure the Descolada virus before succumbing to it themselves. She and her husband were known as Os Venerados after their beatification.

Novinha (no-VEEN-ya; born Ivanova Santa Catarina von Hesse; b. 1931) is the daughter of Lusitania's xenobiologists. Orphaned, Novinha became distant and formal until finding a scientific sanctuary with Pipo and Libo. Though she and Libo are in love, she refuses to marry and give him legal access to her xenobiology files, which she believes caused Pipo's death. She instead marries the abusive Marcão. Her pain, sorrow, and isolation draws Ender Wiggin to Lusitania, and the two eventually marry. Despite this, Novinha never loses her fragility and fear of losing those dearest to her.

Mingo (d. 1936) was Novinha's sibling who died of the Descolada.

Amado (d. 1936) was Novinha's sibling who died of the Descolada.

Guti (d. 1936) was Novinha's sibling who died of the Descolada.

Marcão (mar-COWNG; born Marcos Maria Ribeira; aka "Big Marcos"; d. 1970), is Novinha's late husband. He is known for his fearsome stature, surly temper, and habit of beating his wife, traits which earned him the epithet "cão", dog; he dies a few weeks before Ender arrives at Lusitania, of a congenital disease which caused his glands to turn to fatty tissues. Among other things, this rendered him sterile, and it is revealed during Ender's speaking of his death that none of Novinha's children are actually his, but rather Libo's; the two agreed to this form of cuckoldry before getting married.

Miro (MIE-roe; Marcos Vladimir Ribeira von Hesse; b. 1951) is Novinha's eldest child. He follows Libo into xenology and falls in love with Ouanda, Libo's firstborn daughter by his (actual) wife. In response to this and other factors, he attempts to cross the nerve-stimulating fence separating the piggies from the human compound, suffering brain damage and becoming crippled. He is sent out into space to greet Valentine Wiggin and her family, and later becomes a key player in the events leading up to the almost-second Xenocide. Miro is later healed by Jane.

Other colonists

Bosquinha (Faria Lima Maria do Bosque) is governor of Lusitania and mayor of the colony Milagre.

Peregrino (Armão Cebola) is the Bishop of the Catholic church of Lusitania.

Dom Cristão (Amai a Tudomundo Para Que Deus Vos Ame, Portuguese for Ye Must Love Everyone So That God Will Love You) is the abbott the Filhos de Mente de Cristo, Children of the Mind of Christ.

Dona Cristã (Detestai o Pecado e Fazei o Direito, Portuguese for Hate Sin and Do the Right) is the principal monk of the order of the Children of the Mind of Christ.

Pequeninos

The Pequeninos (Portuguese for "Little Ones"), also known as Lusitanian Aborigines or piggies, are an alien species in the category ramen, or sentient non-human. They are forest-dwelling and technologically primitive, but incredibly intelligent species able to learn languages extremely quickly. They are given the nickname "piggy" by the colonists of the planet Lusitania where part of the series is set due to their pig-like appearance.

Rooter: One of the first pequeninos introduced in the series, Rooter was the most inquisitive of the piggies and had a strong relationship with Libo before he was abruptly brought into his third life as a father-tree.

Mandachuva: When Pipo discovered that the Descolada virus, which had nearly destroyed the human population of Lusitania, was a part of the pequeninos' normal physiology, he went to share that information with the pequeninos. The pequenino Mandachuva brought that news back to the wives, along with the implication that the humans were not all-powerful and godlike, and that in some respects pequeninos were even more powerful than humans. It was a revelation to be rewarded, but when Pipo was asked to bring Mandachuva to the "third life", Pipo, not understanding the nature of pequenino transformation, thought he was being asked to kill Mandachuva. He refused, preferring to lose his own life in the process. Mandachuva, and the pequeninos in general, thought that they were rewarding Pipo by killing him, bringing him on to his third life, not understanding that no such thing existed for humans. The first crisis in human-pequenino relations occurred with the death of the first xenologer, Pipo Figueira, at the hands of the pequeninos.

Leaf-eater: Seventeen years after the incident involving Pipo and Mandachuva, the new xenologer and Pipo's son, Libo Figueira, suffered a similar fate. The piggy Leaf-eater had convinced the wives to let many more little mothers conceive than normal and then convinced Libo to help them out with the famine that they were sure to face. It was an enormous risk because if Libo refused to help that whole generation of pequeinos would have starved, but the humans did in fact step in and provide assistance. After the first amaranth harvest, Libo was, like Pipo before him, asked to bring Leaf-eater to the third life, and, like his father, refused, thinking that he was saving Leaf-eater's life. Leaf-eater killed Libo, thinking on his part that he was helping Libo achieve his third life even though humans did not have a third life.

Characters introduced in Xenocide

Several of the key characters in the Xenocide novel are from the planet of Path. They include:

Han Fei-tzu is a "godspoken" man from the planet of Path, and a reluctant follower of his religion. His treaty ended a burgeoning rebellion within the Hundred Worlds some three thousand years after Ender's Xenocide. Since then he has been retained as an advisor to Starways Congress.

Han Jiang-qing was the wife of Han Fei-tzu. She was named after an ancient revolutionary leader and was a loving godspoken follower of her religion. She died of a brittle bone disease when Qing-jao was four years old.

Han Qing-jao is the daughter of Han Fei-tzu and Han Jiang-qing, also godspoken like her parents. When confronted with evidence that the godspoken affliction is not a sign of deitic favor but rather a genetic modification, giving her and all other godspoken both genius-level intelligence and obsessive–compulsive disorder, she is unable to cope with the truth and clings to her old traditions, spending the rest of her life doing nothing but carrying out her obsessive-compulsive ritual of tracing grains in wooden floors. Some of the phrases she mutters while doing so were later compiled into a book. Her name means "Gloriously Bright".

Si Wang-mu is Qing-jao's "secret maid", an ambitious and extremely bright commoner whom Qing-jao takes under her wing. She met Qing-Jao after she encountered her working in the rice paddy field after bribing her guard with sex. She is named after the Queen Mother of the West, a powerful figure in Chinese mythology. When the godspoken genes are studied in hopes of retaining the genius-level intellect but removing the OCD, it is discovered that Wang-mu has naturally mutated into such a condition, and her genes are treated as a model of what the revision is intended to do. Later, she accompanies the reborn Peter Wiggin on his quest to stop the destruction of Lusitania, and eventually marries him.

Characters from Ender in Exile

Shakespeare planet

Alessandra Toscano is an Italian girl whose mother encourages her to seduce Ender. Ender rebuffs her attempts, and at the end of Ender in Exile she opts to stay on Shakespeare instead of travelling with her mother.

Sel Menach is a xenobiologist who was involved in numerous discoveries about the ecology of Shakespeare and eventually was honored with a currency named after him. On the flight to Shakespeare, he is alerted to Quincy Morgan's plans to become governor instead of Ender.

Vitaly Denisovitch Kolmogorov is an admiral who alerted Menach to Quincy Morgan's plans.

Ix Tolo

Po

Abra is the boy who Ender was with at the end of Ender's Game, when Ender discovered the cocooned Hive Queen at the End of the World the Buggers built for him. In Ender in Exile, Abra is revealed to be a bright boy of eleven years old who can fix nearly any machine. Abra is not really accepted by the children of his age because he is seen as someone who is at the level of an adult, while the adults mostly see him as a child.

Quincy Morgan is the captain of the ship travelling to Shakespeare. He attempts to usurp Ender as the governor of the colony, but is forced to stay aboard his ship upon landing and leaves the planet thwarted.

Ganges planet

Randall Firth: Originally named Achilles Flanders II, Firth is the missing ninth child of Bean and Petra. Randall was born prematurely and appears to have Anton's Key turned. His mother, Nichelle Firth, also known as Randi, believes Achilles is a hero assassinated by foul enemies. Nichelle allows Achilles to implant an embryo, believing that she would be carrying Achilles' child. To avoid persecution by Peter Wiggin, Randi determines to leave Earth and live in a colony, where she can raise her child and return him to Earth later to become the new Achilles. Nichelle ends up as a part of the colony Ganges led by Virlomi. Randall, called "Achilles" by Nichelle, is raised to see Peter the Hegemon and Julian Delphiki (otherwise known as Bean) as monsters, and to believe that Achilles was a true hero. Randall was one of the first to read "The Hive Queen" and treat it like a holy book, and thus he was also the first to paint Ender in a negative light, as Ender "The Xenocide". When Ender encounters Randall on Ganges, Randall plots to provoke Ender so that Ender will strike out and kill Randall. He thinks if this can be done, the universe will realize that Ender was a dangerous criminal. However, Ender does not strike out and instead tells Randall about his true mother and father: Petra Arkanian and Julian Delphiki. Randall is so enraged by this that he proceeds to brutally beat Ender, but Ender does not retaliate at all. Just before he delivers the final blow, Randall realizes that what Ender has told him is true, and he takes Ender to a doctor immediately. Randall then decides to rename himself Arkanian Delphiki, after his true parents.

Virlomi: see Other Battle School students

Characters introduced in the Ender's Shadow/Bean Quartet series

Anton is a scientist of European descent who discovers two genetic modifications which will allow the human brain unlimited growth, at the cost of unlimited physical growth. This discovery is named "Anton's Key" in his honor. However, research into human genetic engineering was outlawed by the international community, and when the nature of his work was discovered, he was subjected to classical conditioning to make it difficult for him to continue or even discuss his research.

Volescu is an unethical scientist of European descent, and the brother of Bean's father. He stole Bean's parent's embryos and illegally modified all 23, "turning" Anton's Key within them; only one, Bean himself, ever grew to maturity. Volescu was later discovered and had to destroy all his "research," but Bean escaped him by, at the age of 9 months, hiding himself in the tank of a toilet. Volescu was later imprisoned for his crimes.

Poke is an orphan girl from the streets of Rotterdam, the leader of a "crew" of fellow orphans who eventually take in Bean — and Achilles. Poke gave Bean his name, which he was originally unfond of, but later recognizes himself as Bean and ignores Colonel Graff, who tells Bean his true identity as Julian Delphiki. In Rotterdam, Bean, on some instinct, tells Poke to kill Achilles when she has the chance; she refuses, and Achilles later kills her, after kissing her, by stabbing her in the eye and then throwing her in the Rhine. Bean witnessed the kiss in the dark and, after leaving the scene, came to the realization that Poke was unsafe. He rushes back to find Poke already dead; Bean then blames himself for Poke's death. When Bean tells the story of Poke to Ender's jeesh on the journey to Eros, he decides to trust Petra, saying to her, "You cried for Poke, and that makes us friends."

Sergeant is the second in command of Poke's crew, and later Achilles' family. He finds out Achilles killed Poke, but keeps this a secret for his, and everyone else's, protection.

Sister Carlotta is a Catholic nun who works as a recruiter for Battle School. Like Poke, she takes in both Bean and Achilles; however, her battery of psychological tests manage to identify Achilles for who he truly is. Later, when he escapes from a mental institution in Belgium and begins his reign of terror, she and Bean go undercover to oppose him, eventually linking up with Peter Wiggin. She, like Poke, meets her death at Achilles' hands; Bean is never able to forgive himself for these deaths.