Xenocide characters

Also known as Andrew Wiggin, The Speaker

Appears from the start

The man once known as Ender Wiggin, who as a child destroyed an alien species and has spent millennia atoning as a Speaker for the Dead. Now settled permanently on the colony world of Lusitania as Andrew Wiggin, husband to the xenobiologist Novinha, he is guardian of the last hive queen he planted there and a mediator among humans, the native pequeninos, and the reborn Formics as a grave crisis closes in.

Also known as Demosthenes

Appears from the start

Ender's sister, a historian and his lifelong ally, who leaves her old life behind to travel toward Lusitania with her family and stand with him in the coming crisis. Wise and steady, she remains the voice he trusts most.

Appears from the start

The self-aware intelligence living in the interstellar computer network, secretly bonded to Ender through the jewel in his ear. After defying Starways Congress to save Lusitania, she is now hunted by the authorities she crossed, and her very survival is in doubt as she works to protect those she loves.

Appears from the start

The Lusitanian xenobiologist, now Ender's wife. Still haunted and controlling, she works amid her grown scientist children to understand the deadly Descolada virus that shapes all life on the planet, her guardedness a lifelong habit she cannot easily set aside.

Appears from the start

Novinha's eldest son, left brain-damaged and physically impaired after an old injury. Bitter over his broken body yet still brilliant, he longs for a way back to wholeness and to the life and love that his crippling took from him.

Appears from the start

Novinha's practical, determined daughter, a dedicated xenobiologist leading the desperate effort to tame or cure the Descolada without destroying the pequeninos, whose life cycle depends on the very virus that threatens everyone.

Also known as Father Estevao

First appears in chapter 2

One of Novinha's sons, a devout Catholic who becomes a missionary priest and carries his faith to the pequeninos, seeking to bring them the gospel. Earnest and unshakable in his belief, he ventures among native factions whose intentions are not all peaceful.

First appears in chapter 2

Another of Novinha's sons, a gifted but volatile young physicist whose fierce temper and passions can turn a crowd dangerous. His scientific brilliance is matched by an anger that makes him a spark waiting to catch.

Also known as piggies, Little Ones

Appears from the start

The tree-linked native people of Lusitania, now living in an uneasy treaty with the human colony. Most seek partnership and knowledge, but some factions among them grow restless and dangerous as the crisis deepens.

Appears from the start

The last Formic queen, reestablished on Lusitania by Ender. Quietly rebuilding her species in the forest, she lends her ancient, group-minded insight to the humans' struggle for survival, a mind unlike any other on the planet.

Also known as Qing-jao

First appears in chapter 2

A brilliant young woman on the distant world of Path, one of the godspoken whose compulsive rituals are revered as communion with the gods. Devoted, gifted, and proud, she is set the task of hunting down whoever crippled the interstellar network, a mission she pursues with total faith.

First appears in chapter 2

Qing-jao's father, a revered statesman of the world of Path and one of the most honored of the godspoken. Wise and burdened, he loves his daughter deeply even as their faith and their duty pull them toward conflict.

First appears in chapter 3

A sharp, ambitious servant girl on Path who becomes Qing-jao's secret maid and confidante. Clever far beyond her low station, she hungers to learn and to rise, and her quick mind soon reaches past the limits her world would set for her.