Grady Dennison
- Role
- Archivist Project Lead, Anti-Chronometer Inventor
Background: Grady is a brilliant inventor from a rich family. He learns from a young age that his family's wealth and performative attitude leaves little room for happiness. When he learns about how much of human history is just 'lost', he empties his trust fund into developing the Anti-Chronometer device. His mission: recover lost human history and deliver it to researchers either through planted primary sources or unquestionable proof. When developing his business model, he is caught by James who, rather than wanting to exploit the most consequential secret in human history, says he wants in. This turns James, a random stranger and threat to Grady's mission, into his closest friend he's ever had.
"Grady is a unique character, kind of modeled off my own personality. For example, he has my nerdiness and love of 80's and 90's pop culture. He's a little more anxious than I am, but he begins to grow out of that into a confident caretaker of time travel."
James Callahan
- Role
- Archivist Project field specialist
Background: James was supposed to be on his gap year from college, exploring the world while he was young with no wife and kids. While catching lunch in Pompeii, he sees the strangest thing: a man disappears into thin air and then moments later, returns, covered in ash. When he confronts the man, he discovers Grady's secret. Time travel? He knows as soon as the words leave Grady's lips, he wants in. Together, they create the Archivist Project and all the rules surrounding it. He then breaks them when he saves Celeste Banfield from falling debris in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Traveling through time with her, they fall in love and he asks her to marry him from the Eiffel Tower
"James was written as if he were my fictional grandson. He has a similar relationship with his grandfather to what I had and it shapes who he is heavily. He's not a superhero, and has to grapple with some powerful experiences making him into anohter example of my "normal people" rule. His mom and grandmother are direct clones of my youngest daughter and my wife. His dad...he's fictional."
Celeste Banfield
- Role
- Archivist Operative, time refugee from 1906.
Background: was originally destined to perish in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. She encountered James injured from quake debris and saved his life. When the event that was supposed to kill her occurred, James was there to save her, pulling her away from that fate. She has demonstrated high-level adaptation to 2056 technology while retaining her Victorian/Edwardian observational lens. She functions as the "observational heart" of the core team, and has proven to be valuable asset. Celeste views her continued existence as a "gift" rather than a right. Her ethics are defined by a sense of moral obligation to improve the world she now inhabits, balancing her original era's prejudices against her new world. Marries James in 2057.
"I wanted to write a strong female character who didn't need the men in the story to be powerful. I wanted her to be a stereotype breaker, a capable woman who chooses to follow values, but knows when to modernize. She also loves pockets."
Gabriel Franklin
- Role
- CEO, Hollister Industrial Technologies
Background: Franklin represents a lineage of "servant sons to Hollister sons." He identifies the late Edward Hollister as an "Ahab" figure, and displaces the Hollister family to seize corporate control of Hollister Industrial Technologies when Hollister's white whale consumes him. Franklin views time as a resource for market dominance and was directly responsible for [REDACTED] to secure his own standing in a divergent 2056. He is currently the only person outside of The Archivist Project who knows about the Anti-Chronometer. Franklin's ethics are entirely transactional and so can be capable of 'good' when it serves his purposes.
"He is supposed to represent the absurdity of 'corporate greed'. He's driven, callous, and only worried about himself. But he is a human being and doesn't do evil things for the sake of being evil. And when called to it, he actually becomes an ally, if only because it benefits him in the end."
Jonathan Greywolf
- Role
- Pathwalker, Tammeenokan Silent Path
Background: A Pathwalker for the "Silent Path," Greywolf serves as an administrator of Tammeenoka's state security. He experiences profound internal conflict as he realizes that his nation's greatness is merely a "polished veneer". His realization is that his nation's greatness is a result of cheating the timeline, that every bad thing that could ever happen to his people is avoided when information from the future is brought back to the past. This forces a choice between national loyalty and the objective truth of his entire existence.
"Jonathan shares a name with one of my best friends (at least in sound). He's our main view of a modern Native American culture and is an example of how, over time, modern thinking with a reluctance to abandon the "old ways" combine to make for a strong character who wants to do right, even at a personal cost."
Reinhardt Zeitler
- Role
- Owner, TransWerk Deutschland, Presidential Assassin
Background: In 1974, Reinhardt's ancestors, Red Army Faction operatives and devout socialists, are killed after a failed assassination attempt. Their newborn child is thurst into the real world tragedies found in the West German foster care system, inspired by the real world experiements of Helmut Kentler. Her abuses bred new abuses before leaving Reinhardt's father Erik a shell of a man. Reinhardt is determined to erase his families generations of tragedy when an Anti-Chronometer appears in one of his autonomous delivery trucks. How does he plan on carrying out his mission? Get Leon Trotsky to the United States and turn the western world socialist. And the only way to do that is destabilize America at it's most vulnerable.
"First, Reinhardt is the name of my model skull I have in my classroom. I thought it was a ridiculous name for a human skull, but as I drafted the character, it was not a terrible name for a German character. At any rate, everything about Reinhardt is fueled by his family's tragedies. He's a socialist because of them, but he's really only worried about himself. But again, he's a normal human being and when pushed, he acts in his best interest; both with violence and logical thought."
Cintala
- Role
- Spirit of Cahokia
Background: Cintala's earliest life is lost to history. She is in the care of Tamenopah when a mysterious man who calls himself Grey Wolf arrives in the Mississippian city of Cahokia. She is taught the mysteries of time travel and before Grey Wolf's arrival, she was destined to turn the city of Cahokia into the nation of Tammeenoka. She is fiercely protective of her people, willing to go to the ends of the Earth to find ways to defeat Tammeenoka's enemies. She is a brilliant battlefield leader, inspiring those around her to follow her into battle. Short in stature, her presence alone dwarfs those around her. She is a relentless as the wind and dangerous as a coiled snake.
"Cintala's my favorite. Just gonna say it. Spoiler alert, I've written more about her in an upcoming release, and she's been my favorite conflicted character. She, like Celeste, is meant to break stereotypes. She's small, like 5'3" and appears weak. But she's capable of immense violence if the safety of her people requires it. She's deeply complex, and I can't wait to share her full story."