Characters appearing in Seep

Morning Glory and Ingina are the most serious about healing the timelines, and they create a dance to reach the Seep guided by meaningful tones and graceful movements.

Riemis came up with the idea of Seeping because he believes the Empire is host to some underlying evil that causes grief on multiple timelines. This source of their troubles will only be visible in the Deep. Despite his belief in their cause, he and his wife, Quixa, are too wrapped up in government duties to find much time for dancing.

Katora, the most powerful female mindsea in the galaxy, has striven through teaching at the Mindsea Academy to direct the Empire on a path toward illumination, and has met only frustration, as well as disappointment in love. She decides create an alternate timeline of her own in which her goals will be achieved.

Serpenlino, one of Morning Glory's great-grandsons, feels that the Tones of her dance are an invitation to evil. He devises an alternate dance form, which seems to Morning Glory to consist of nothing but loud noises and stomping.

Tara is a set of memories that has surfaced in many lives from prehuman days to imperial times. Riemis calls upon her to help guide the dancers.

Shell is a daughter whom Katora had with mindsea-emperor Quintillion, a man both Katora and Serpenlino now fear may be the source of the Empire's evil. Shell isn't interested in healing timeslines. She seeks her own goal, which is to unite with Rathax, a long-dead mindsea-emperor who sought to rule the multiverse.

Vedina teaches at the Mindsea Academy of Lal. She too has been unhappy in love. Once she was married to Quintillion, and his insistence on total pacifism led to tragedy for her and her son Torm.

Orgmorgan is Morning Glory's husband. He doesn't take tragic histories to heart the way she does, but he dances with her and makes sure that they have a floating bar on hand whenever they need to take a break.

Puflet was murdered in the Poba-verse, but her other self is discussing an important cross-timeline issure with their officials when the Seep takes place. As a crusader against evil in all its forms, she of course joins in.

Thermeon no longer lives in the Poba-verse. But the Deep-level mind-space of the Seep contains his other selves, as well as instances of the woman he believes to be his goddess-star.

Thermeon believes Lorlue is his goddess-star. Their interactions have sent cataclysmic shockwaves through multiple timelines, yet he continues to believe that she has promised him everlasting life and eternal dominion.

She denies making such promises.

Morning Glory never thought much of Horl's son Fleomis, who peddled arms during the Empire's wars. But he has come into his own on other timelines, and he promises to help combat the Empire's evil.

Kahee is the father of Quintillion and Morning Glory's great-great-grandfather. She created her timeline in an effort to save him from self-sacrifice, but he reviled her gift and insisted on finding other means of suffering. Serpenlino suspects him of being the source of the Empire's evil.

Both Vedina and Katora had unhappy marriages to Quintillion. Can they find closure in the Seep?

Serpenlino and Shell are the children he rejected.

"Father, tell me why, you did nothing but deny?" Shell once sang to him.

Serpenlino suspects that he may be the source of the Empire's evil.

Rathax purposely shattered the Thirtieth-Millennium empire onto countless timelines by destroying Attequol's soul-gem. Shell admires his ambitious plan to rule the multiverse, but few others find it admirable.

The Seep puts dancers in touch with godlike beings who have acted through many lives across timelines throughout history. Two of these beings are Kazandar, god of Thought, and Salomano, god of the Nanders.

Stripey is Tara's pet cat, a small reminder of the sabertooth she once bonded with.

The two flies are Shell's pets. They are mindsea flies, which means they have mindpowers, but these powers are directed by fly thoughts and fly desires.

The fish live in Riemis and Quixa's suite in the imperial palace. Their pond is edged by flagstones of lapis lazuli and overlooked by a grove of black bamboo. Their role is to provide a calming influence when the responsibilities of political office prove overwhelming.

The monster is a manifestation of Puflet's mindpowers. It is contained in the black splinter that was passed down to Kahee from his mother, to Quintillion from Kahee, and to Puflet from Quintillion. Serpenlino thinks it should have gone to him, and not to Puflet, but he also suspects it may be the source of the Empire's evil.

Puflet contends that the monster in not evil. It has potential to power good or bad actions, and she uses it for good.

It takes the form of a dinosaur in the Deep because it was a dinosaur before the splinter enfolded it. Perhaps its dinosaur memories caused Quintillion's unhappiness, but Puflet can live with them.

This is the timeline Poba discovered when she descended the Stairway of Ice as The Fly, the winged wonder. She made herself empress and goddess in her universe. But devastating news will reach her at the time of the Seep.

On the timeline Poba fled, Morning Glory died in a terrible cataclysm, but emdolded her essence into a soul-gem that was later found by her daughter Kweenk. Before the Seep, a transway was built connecting the Poba-verse and the Kweenk-verse.

In the timeline Morning Glory discovered when she tried to void Kahee's sacrifice, Maxuas, son of Thermeon and the Code Empress, has become ascendant. Morning Glory feels this must be changed.

On a timeline discovered during the Seep, an alternate history began during the time when Thermeon still lived as a slave in the Valley. He conceived the Juggernaut as a means of winning his freedom.

Torm is the son of Vedina and stepson of Quintillion. Vedina has long grieved his sad fate, and determined to find a better future for him.