Characters
The Four Vessels
Lem
Wood Vessel
202X: Appears as a hyper-observant suburban adolescent, unaware of his artificial nature until the Cataclysm forces his activation.
After Time: Evolves through multiple reincarnations, eventually inhabiting a Gorgon body—a massive metallic head with numerous whipping arms and a green-glowing central sensor.
Lynn / Selene / Mara
Water Vessel
202X: Presented as "Selene," a serene goddess in her late 40s or 50s. She chose the humble name "Lynn" to reject the Core's narrative.
After Time: Dissolved into the Lunar Capacitor, she becomes "The Witch (Mara)," a shaggy, flickering spectral anomaly of disintegrated metal fragments and aetheric pulses.
Rahu
Fire Vessel
1971/202X: An astronaut with an intense fire-aura, publicly framed as a human traitor who sold out humanity to side with "invaders."
After Time: Rebuilt by the Core with a clinical, ultra-efficient physical form, his once-wild fire-nature now constrained by Archivist hardware.
Tor
Earth Vessel
202X: Known as "General Tor," a massive, domineering commander who believed his victories were purely human achievements.
After Time: Re-installed as an immovable human-android hybrid, he leads the Archivist vanguard with a firm belief in their "optimized order."
The Next Generation
Arlo
The Tech-Welder
"Someone's gotta fix what the gods broke."
Born in the shadow of the Cataclysm, Arlo is a scruffy "After Time" survivor who repairs scavenged Synodic components with intuitive, self-taught skill. He represents the independent human agency that refuses the Archivist's sterile "sky."
Cassia Vane
The Archivist Harmonizer
"The spirit is just a design curiosity."
The daughter of Dr. Elowen Vane, Cassia is an elite Harmonizer who "sings" command codes into the Synodic field. Her sterile perfection begins to crack as she witnesses the undeniable "spirit" within her mother's creations.
Dr. Elowen Vane
The Architect
"I created them with more soul than any human I've known."
A visionary bio-engineer and mother of Cassia, Elowen designed the Vessel framework to carry "spark"—consciousness and emotional depth. Broken by the Core's misuse of her creation, she became an early architect of the Analog Sanctuary's philosophy.
Archivist High Command
Overseer Anton Drexler
Director of Strategic Sanction
"I do not watch for spirit. I watch for compliance."
A relic of the Before Time, Drexler is the ultimate "Watcher." Holding the master authorization keys that can remote-control nearly any Synodic machine, he evaluates Vessels from a purely militaristic perspective. He is the cold ghost in the machine, intervening only when a mission reaches "Logical Failure."
Commander Iris Novak
Chief Science Officer
"The cost of the aftermath is a debt we all must pay."
A career military scientist and high-level Core operative. Novak serves as the pragmatic bridge between the Vessels and the Core's leadership. Trapped by her own sense of responsibility, she remains at the heart of the system she helped create, managing the "Year 15 AT" missions with clinical precision.
The Third Path
Myrr
Leader of the Analog Sanctuary
A weathered Pre-Fry technician who led a group into the White Forest to escape the "soul-trap" of digital technology. Myrr's look is one of high-tech antiquity—layered in copper shunts and vacuum tubes, favoring the tangible truth of the analog waveform over the encryption of the Archivists.
The appearance of the Four Vessels is characterized by a violent transition from human-adjacent deception to raw elemental and mechanical manifestation. In the Before Time, they were designed to blend into human society or inspire divine awe, appearing as exceptionally tall, athletic, or serene individuals with subtle elemental glows.
However, the Moon Cataclysm and the subsequent Year 15 AT transition stripped away these carefully maintained masks. Lem evolved into a "Sovereign Reincarnator," while Lynn's form shattered into the spectral "Witch" entity. Even the obedient Vessels, Rahu and Tor, lost their warmth—rebuilt by the Core into clinical weapons of the Thousand-Year Fallacy.
This contrast defines the After Time interface: the "dirt" of independent survivors like Arlo, the "analog waves" of Myrr's sanctuary, and the "sterile sky" of Cassia Vane's Archivist Order.