MaeProtagonist
Village fashion expert turned Air technologist; conducting a secret affair with Mr Ken, estranged from Joe, and host to Mrs Tung's persisting consciousness; experiences prophetic flood visions.
Chung MaeMrs Chung-ma'amMadam OwlMadam DeathMrs ChungMrs Chung MaeAdventuressUnexpected FlowerMadam ChungMrs DisruptionWeather TalentMae-in-Air
Mrs TungDeceased elder / internal presence
Deceased elder whose consciousness persists inside Mae; speaks as an interior voice offering wisdom, comfort, and historical memory; addresses Teacher Shen through Mae in the courtyard confrontation.
Granny TungOld Mrs TungGrannyYoung Miss HuAi-lingMrs Yuksel
Mr KenLove interest
Mae's lover who helps rescue his own mother during the flood and afterwards lives with Mae and Siao, enduring Mae's displacement by Mrs Tung's consciousness.
Ken KueiKuei
KwanMae's closest ally
Mae's closest friend who leads the intervention to stop Mae's flood warnings and force abortion; later becomes Mae's primary carer after the flood, visiting daily and confronting Mrs Tung at the funeral.
Wing's-wifeMrs WingMrs Wing Kwan
SunniCreditor / antagonist
Village woman who joins Kwan in the intervention against Mae; hosts a fashion session under Party of Progress; her husband Faysal Haseem slept through the flood.
Ms HaseemSunni HaseemSunni-ma'amSunni's-man
Teacher Shenopponent-turned-neutral
Village schoolteacher who confronts Mae furiously over her leaflet and nearly discovers her affair; leads the armed faction against the TV; is reduced to tears by Mrs Tung speaking through Mae.
Mr ShenShenShen Yoh
Joeopponent-turned-helper
Mae's estranged husband who has left Balshang in despair; unexpectedly appears during the flood rescue, helping Siao and Ken pull Old Mrs Ken to safety.
Chung Joe
Mr WingVillage figure / host
Four-farm owner who hosts the winter party; politically articulate about Eloi suppression; allows the Taking Wing business to operate from his machine.
Wing
AnMinor village youth
Young village woman recruited by Mae as research assistant for the Question Map interviews; diligent, quickly becomes capable of dual roles in fieldwork.
Kai-hui's daughterHan An
Sezenabsent figure
Wild village woman and Mae's confidante; attends the TV lesson with her unpleasant tattooed boyfriend; identified by Mae as harbouring 'Info Lust' and a surrogate-mother longing.
Miss Ozdemirwild girl
Mr OzGovernment operative / helper
Young government official touring villages after the Test; lodges at Mr Ken's house; reads Mae's Question Map with admiration; learns the Kru was not supposed to persist.
the Central ManCentral Bureau of Information Technology manCentral Mangovernment man
Mr Macksecondary
Village's token Westerner and Christian; enthusiastic about Air; loud and socially marginalised; provides contrast in the survey interviews.
Musa Mack
MariamVillage woman
Mr Mack's wife; speaks at sincere length about fashion desires — three dresses in white, colour, and dignified blue-and-white — and is noted as lonely.
Mrs Mack
Pin Xisecondary
Patriarch of the large Pin mechanic family; survived a shooting by the blacksmith Atakoloo; lives with his own and his brother's wife and their combined households.
Mr Pin
Shen Suloisecondary
Teacher Shen's Eloi wife; has secretly collaborated with Kwan to build Eloi cultural screens on the internet without telling Mae.
SuloiMrs Shen
Mr Tunchsecondary
Urbanite official who debates Mae over the nature of Air via audio files, dismisses her bargain, then concedes the n-constant software; Mae calls him a Foolish Gangster trying to weaponise Air.
Hikmet TunchWisdom BronzeBronzeWise GangsterGodfatherFoolish Gangstertunch@kn
Fatimah Akurgalopponent
Doctor-researcher who examines Mae in the city, delivers the pregnancy news compassionately, and acknowledges Mae is a first-of-a-kind case.
Fatimah
The Sharkopponent
Sharp-suited, sharp-eyed man at the forum whom Mrs Tung attacks; perceived by the possessing consciousness as a devil destroying her world.
Mr Pakanopponent
Condescending male researcher who implies Mae's sexuality was shaped by Formatting; Mae physically ejects him from the room.
Mr Real Man
The Talentother
TV news presenter who chairs the chaotic city forum on Air technology; professionally composed under sustained audience hostility.
Miss Sooother
Disabled seamstress whose shop is now boarded up; left to be with her boyfriend in Balshang and found work there; admired by Mae.
LungMae's son
Army lieutenant who visits for the winter party; reveals he sent the encryption code and diplomatically pressures Kwan's site toward pro-government content to protect his career.
Lieutenant Chung Lungchungl@arm
BugsyOutside journalist contact
Journalist ally who wrote a second article against corporate Air ownership; contacts Mae through Air at the moment of the second broadcast.
bugs@nouvellesbugsy@nouvelles
SiaoMae's brother-in-law (Joe's brother)
Mae's brother-in-law who buys family insurance, helps rescue Old Mrs Ken during the flood, and afterwards lives with Mae and Ken in their ruined house.
Ju-meiMae's brother
Mae's brother who reconciles with her and champions the insurance demonstration; loses his city clothes in the flood but personally distributes insurance payouts to villagers.
Old Mrs WangMae's mother
Retreats behind Ju-mei at the party, miserably complaining that Mae's disgrace puts the family on show.
Mama
Old Mrs Kenhelper
Ken's elderly mother, trapped in her house by flood mud, rescued through her broken kitchen window by Ken, Siao, Joe, and Mae using a plywood raft.
Mr Atakolooother
Village blacksmith who leads post-flood rebuilding, advocating prefabricated metal shelters in debate with Mr Wing.
Kalafabsent figure
Mrs Tung's wartime lover, father of her unborn child; killed in battle; his death is experienced through Mrs Tung's embedded memory.