a wealthy trader. His faith in the Oversoul and its plans is unshakeable. Though it leads him to seemingly irrational actions early on, they are justified by the time the group sets out on his journey. Eventually it is only Volemak's authority that keeps Nafai's supporters and Elemak's supporters from outright conflict. Volemak is patterned on Lehi from the Book of Mormon. Shedemei A brilliant geneticist, and one of Rasa's nieces, she joins the expedition not because of any strong connections to the party but because she has the equipment and the expertise to manage the flora and fauna on the possibly ravaged Earth. She and Zdorab are the last unpaired couple, and she resents the idea of marrying him until she gets to know him, at which point they become among the closest pairs in the company. She was the Oversoul's second choice to don the cloak of the starmaster if Nafai refused it. After they build a community on Earth, Nafai eventually does give her the cloak, at which point she returns to the orbiting spaceship to watch over the planet like a garden. She spends much of her time in suspended animation, with the Oversoul her only company on waking. Five hundred years later, known on the planet as The One Who Was Never Buried, she returns to start a school and avert a political tragedy. Zdorab A servant, picked up apparently by accident on retrieving the Index. The only gay character in the novels, he is a wallflower, keeping quietly out of the way and handling menial tasks so fluidly that the others begin to take it for granted that they are his job. On the other hand, he is the most adept at navigating the Index, using back doors to avoid loops and blocks in the Oversoul's programming. Shedemei is disdainful of him until she confronts him about their inevitable marriage and learns that his uncomplaining servitude is a survival mechanism for being homosexual on a fairly bigoted planet. Shedemei revises her opinion of Zdorab, and the two become very close. When Shedemei retreats to the ship, Zdorab goes with her; without the cloak of the starmaster, he dies before she does, but (thanks to suspended animation) long after the rest of the company. Zdorab is patterned on Zoram from the Book of Mormon. Eiadh One of Rasa's beautiful nieces. Nafai is in love with