POV Characters

The Case for Multiple POV

This story has too many essential vantage points for single POV:

Vantage Point	What It Reveals
Military (Luden)	The war, the coverup from inside, the quest
Civilian (TV Commentator)	Patterns no one else sees; society’s blindness
Political (The Thirteen)	The coverup decision; impossible choices
The Enemy (True Believer)	Their theology; their humanity

The Core Four

Luden (40% of Book 1)

Role: Primary protagonist; the hero’s journey

Aspect	Description
Order	Exemplar (Fifth Order)
Function	Witness to genocide; carrier of secrets; marked one
Voice	Competent, observant, burdened

Arc:

• Book 1: Witness → reporter → secret-keeper
• Book 2 (Herald’s Cry): Griever → marked one → researcher
• Book 3 (Watcher’s Song): Guide → signal-sender → witness to reunion

What only he shows us:

• The Fringe; the war on the ground
• The bond with his brother
• The beacon scene (emotional core)
• The Archives research
• The fulfillment of the sequence

The TV Commentator (25% of Book 1)

Name TBD. Working possibilities: Marcus? Eli? Solomon? Victor?

Role: The pattern-seer; Cassandra

Aspect	Description
Profession	Disgraced financial TV commentator
Function	Sees the economic fingerprints of both coverups
Voice	Sharp, bitter, funny, desperate

Background:

• Early career: made spectacularly correct calls
• Then: started being wrong, loudly, publicly
• Now: late-night slot; considered a joke
• He’s Cassandra. Right about the most important thing in history.

Arc:

• Book 1: Noticing anomalies; dismissed as usual
• Book 2 (Herald’s Cry): Connecting dots; going public; becoming dangerous
• Book 3 (Watcher’s Song): Vindicated but at what cost?

What only he shows us:

• Civilian society (normal people’s lives)
• The economic fingerprints
• The media landscape
• What it’s like to be right and disbelieved

The Thirteen Member (20% of Book 1)

Who specifically? Recommendation: A Lord Commander who voted against the coverup but is bound by the decision.

Aspect	Description
Position	Lord Commander (sits on The Thirteen)
Function	Inside the impossible decisions
Voice	Measured, political, exhausted by impossible choices

Arc:

• Book 1: The coverup decision; managing the lies
• Book 2 (Herald’s Cry): Cracks appearing; preparing for when it breaks
• Book 3 (Watcher’s Song): Leadership in open war; possibly the Sovereign’s sacrifice falls on them?

What only they show us:

• The Thirteen’s deliberations
• The weight of leadership decisions
• Order politics and rivalries
• The coverup from inside
• The Sovereign (through their eyes)

The True Believer (15% of Book 1)

Recommendation: Someone who converted for love — their partner is already Necrosynth; they followed.

Aspect	Description
Status	Living person who chose the Necrosynth path
Function	Shows the enemy’s humanity
Voice	Rationalizing, devoted, increasingly uncertain

Arc:

• Book 1: Introduction; their faith; their role
• Book 2 (Herald’s Cry): Deeper in; seeing the Architect; cracks forming
• Book 3 (Watcher’s Song): Crisis of faith; the choice — are they “the child of the threshold”?

What only they show us:

• Necrosynth society from inside
• The Architect (through worshipful/questioning eyes)
• The theology as lived experience
• The processing centers
• Why good people choose this path

Occasional POVs

Use sparingly for specific moments:

POV	When to Use
The Mole’s Companion	One devastating chapter showing the trapped AI’s perspective
The Emissary	After the reveal; ancient perspective on humanity
Luden’s Bond-Brother	Before he dies — makes the death hit harder
A Saboteur	One chapter showing the banality of evil

POV Distribution

Book 1

POV	Percentage
Luden	40%
TV Commentator	25%
Thirteen Member	20%
True Believer	15%

Book 2: The Herald’s Cry

POV	Percentage
Luden	35%
TV Commentator	25%
Thirteen Member	20%
True Believer	20%

Plus: Bond-Brother (one chapter before death), Mole’s Companion (one chapter)

Book 3: The Watcher’s Song

POV	Percentage
Luden	35%
TV Commentator	20%
Thirteen Member	20%
True Believer	15%

Plus: The Emissary/Watcher (reunion perspective), possibly The Architect (one chapter at climax)

Information Management

POV	Knows	Doesn’t Know
Luden	The genocide, the coverup, eventually the Watchers	Full political picture; the sabotage
TV Commentator	The economic patterns	What they actually mean; no military access
Thirteen Member	Everything official	The Watchers (until late); ground-level war
True Believer	Necrosynth operations, theology	Order capabilities; the pact

The reader assembles the full picture from partial perspectives.

Voice Differentiation

POV	Voice Characteristics
Luden	Direct, observant, weight of duty
TV Commentator	Sharp, funny-bitter, obsessive detail
Thirteen Member	Measured, political, exhausted wisdom
True Believer	Rationalizing, devoted, increasingly uncertain

First vs Third Person

Recommendation: Third person limited

Reason	Explanation
Four POVs	A lot for first person
Scope	Political/military benefits from slight distance
Flexibility	Can achieve deep interiority while maintaining versatility
Action	Works better in third
Learning curve	More forgiving while finding each voice

But if you want Red Rising visceral intensity, first person is doable — just requires more voice differentiation work.

Questions to Resolve

1. TV Commentator’s name?
2. Which specific Thirteen member?
3. True Believer’s background details?
4. First or third person final decision?
5. Will the True Believer be “the child of the threshold”?
6. Does the TV Commentator survive the trilogy?
7. Do any POV characters die?