Major Characters

Grace: Protagonist. Mid 20s. The only child of former farmers and newly successful business owners. A capital-L-liberal. Uninterested in the life being offered to her. Wants more but doesn’t know what that looks like. Struggles to see past the tip of her nose, a little naive and easily trusting. She is led primarily by her feelings. She does her best to avoid feeling, she uses escapism a lot. She learns to question power structures and societal norms, and to rally against them. Functionally a man. Her arc asks the questions: How do power structures act on individuals subconsciously? How rigidly do people perform their assigned social role? Should you continue performing your role if it hurts others? What responsibility do you bear for what your comfort costs? How do you accept that?

Adrian: Co-Protagonist. Mid 20s. The second born son in a poor farming family. The scapegoat. Street-smart, good at reading people, a deeply empathetic and reflective person. Artistic and sensitive. He fantasizes about running away or being invisible but constantly feels trapped and exposed. Adrian is led by his strong desire for logic, he questions rigorously and seeks to understand. Very emotionally intelligent. Does a lot of emotional labour for everyone around him. Functionally a woman. His arc asks the questions: What agency can you grant yourself if others are trying to take it from you? How do you assert yourself in a system that will not recognize you? What must be done to survive in a world designed to crush your humanity? How can you become your own person when your perceived purpose is to be of service to others?

Thomas (Tom): Late 20s. Adrian’s older brother and the first born of his family. Acts as a parental figure to siblings. He is both mother and father. Has “first born/masculine” power but does “lower-born/female” labour. Calm, measured and responsible. Thomas thinks before acting almost to a fault. He is far more concerned with others than with himself. He is anxious but present. Thomas’s main struggle is that he is slowly becoming his father, and he has to grapple with the idea of who he is and who he wants to be or has the potential to become. His arc asks the questions: how can you approach, accept, or ethically hold power when all your models for it are corrupt? How do you weigh “tradition” against who you are or who you feel you must become? How much of yourself should you sacrifice for a perceived greater good?

Supporting Characters

Owen: 55, father of Thomas, Adrian, Hannah, and Caroline. Used to run a whiskey business but has neglected it to the point of near bankruptcy. Depressed, isolated, angry. Acts from a place of fear and sadness, he is clinging to what he fears losing.

Mara: 28, lives in the town. Third born daughter of two lesser borns. Her family has very little, they gave her self determination when she became an adult. She has excellent sales skills and is deeply interested in the world around her. Mara is a leader within the mutual aid network and is a fierce advocate for the rights of lower-borns. She is something of an agitator in the town. Practical, gritty, intellectual, and always up for a challenge. She encourages Thomas to think for himself. Mara is the ideological opposite of every other character. She has found her way within the system but aligns herself outside of it.

Hannah: 14. Understands more than everyone else gives her credit for. Wants to be best friends and sisters with Grace and later Mara. Looks a lot like her mother.

Caroline/Cara/Corey: 9 (almost 10). Idolizes Adrian. Leans masculine. Name is a placeholder for now.

Grace’s Parents: Unnamed as of right now. Highly respected in the community. Wealthy in a way that offends Owen. Suggestion that they had a disagreement of some kind with him, leading to ongoing resentment. They are super focused on their business and are somewhat absent with Grace. Both are coded as non-binary.

Mother (unnamed): A sort of mysterious, undefined figure. A lot of the story is “blamed” on her by Owen. Every negative quality (particularly in Adrian) is attributed to her. That being said, Thomas and Adrian have a lot of positive memories of her that they share with the younger sisters, though there is some gaslighting about the legitimacy of that from Owen.