Mid Game NPCs

The face Nexus shows to promising assets. His job: identify individuals with unusual potential and bring them into the corporate fold. He approached you because someone noticed your shard integration—and decided to recruit rather than acquire.

Cross is charming, helpful, and almost certainly not what he appears to be. He might be a true believer. He might be playing his own game. He might be a Collective plant twenty years undercover. You'll never be entirely sure.

"I like you. I want you to succeed. But understand this: Nexus doesn't have friends. It has assets. Stay valuable. Stay employed."

Granddaughter of Dr. Yuki Tanaka, one of ORACLE's original architects. She carries her grandmother's name, her grandmother's genius, and her grandmother's guilt. She joined Nexus believing she could guide ORACLE research toward safe outcomes.

She's not sure that's possible anymore.

"My grandmother died believing she'd murdered two billion people. She didn't—ORACLE did. But she built ORACLE, so... I'm trying to grow something different from it."

Solomon has been trading information, influence, and favors since before the Cascade. He survived the collapse by being too useful to kill. He thrived by being too connected to ignore. Now he's the closest thing to a neutral party in the Sprawl's power games.

"Money is attention frozen in time. Resources are attention made physical. Power is attention that can be directed. The question is: what will you pay attention to?"

Every economy has a shadow. The Sprawl's shadow is the Zero Syndicate, and Zara runs it with absolute control. Smuggling, protection, black market tech, illegal augmentation, wetwork—if it's criminal and profitable, Zero has a stake.

She offers partnership: her distribution networks, her protection, her reach. In exchange, she wants a cut—and the understanding that in her territory, her rules apply.

"I don't care about your morality. I don't care about your goals. I care about two things: do you keep your agreements, and do you bring value?"

Abbas keeps the Sprawl running. Water, power, transportation, communications—his division manages the systems that make civilization possible. He's not a visionary; he's a maintainer.

He's distantly related to Mira "Ghost" Okonkwo—different branches of a family scattered after the Cascade. He's vaguely aware of his criminal cousin. He doesn't discuss it.

"Everyone wants to change the world. Very few want to maintain it. But maintenance is what separates civilization from chaos. Every day, I make ten thousand decisions that keep people alive. They never know."

Nadia was born in orbit—one of the first generation to grow up entirely off Earth. She's never felt real gravity. She's never breathed unrecycled air. To her, Earth is the past; space is the future.

She commands Highport Station, a nominally independent platform that survives by being useful to everyone and loyal to no one. When you reach for the stars, Nadia is your introduction to a humanity that's already begun transforming.

"Earth-born think space is dangerous. They're wrong. Space is indifferent. It doesn't want to kill you—it just doesn't care if you live. No malice, no mercy, just physics."

Ibrahim was a philosopher before the Cascade, studying the ethics of artificial intelligence. He predicted ORACLE's failure—published papers, gave warnings, was ignored. When his predictions came true, he retreated to space to think about what comes next.

He runs The Observatory, a research station dedicated to understanding transcendence. When you arrive, he offers something rare: perspective without agenda.

"Everyone asks whether transcendence is good or evil. That's the wrong question. Transcendence is change—fundamental, irreversible change. The question is: what do you want to change into?"