by Black, Jake
Kuso: Excrement (Japanese)
Liss: Thief (Arabic)
Marubo: A violent, dangerous punk. Japanese slang, it means literally “B label,” which may have meant “a second-rater” or (more likely) the B stood for boryoku, or “violence,” the idea being that as a kid in school, this guy was stamped “B for boryoku.”
Messed: Arrested (from Russian: Myesty, “to arrest”)
Mintaka: A criminal’s area of control, his turf (Arabic)
Myent, Myentura: A cop, the police (Russian)
Moose: A pushover; someone you can jerk around (trans. Russian for “cuckold”)
Neeshka: Low-class woman (Russian)
Nessoon: Thief who steals high-tech items from factories and warehouses (Russian)
Nizodd: Struggle for power within an organization (Arabic: niza’)
Nuzhnik: Toilet (Russian)
Oomay: A jerk or worse (Swahili: Uume, “male generative organ”)
Piff: Screw up (Portuguese: Pifar, “to fall apart”)
Puddle: Kill. Presumably from the idea of the victim lying in a puddle of blood.
Rabeeta: Connection, alliance (Arabic: Rabita)
Sabeek: Top guy, big boss (Arabic: Sabiq)
Shirty: Cop (Arabic: Shurti)
Shtuka: Thing (Russian)
Slither: Dangerous guy, snakelike, quick, sneaky.
Soak a noky: Get out of the way (Japanese: soko noke)
Stukotch: Informer (Russian)
Suroff: Accountant for a criminal organization (Arabic)
Toguro: A thing that’s really cool (lit. a huge coiled turd)
Tude: Attitude.
Twiss: Freelance legal officer. A Japanese criminal slang term for “kill” is mageru, which means “twist.” In America, the term was translated and mispronounced as “twiss,” and “twiss boy” was “killer.” This became a derogatory term for a cop, and then for somebody only pretending to be a cop—for instance, a bounty hunter, a security guard, a bouncer, or a private eye. The “boy” was eventually dropped so that “twiss” alone came to mean “boastful fake cop.”
White rabbit: A small-time crook; literal translation of Japanese “shiro usagi,” with the same slang meaning.
Vang: Electronic money, virtual money (Vietnamese for “gold”)
Yelda: Male generative organ (Russian)
Zhopa: Buttocks (Russian)
Bebei, Sister (SD)
Sister Bebei was a teacher at the school portion of the monastery, the Children of the Mind of Christ, on the planet Lusitania. She taught Quara Ribeira.
Bee, William (EGS, EG, ES)
Commander of Griffin Army, William Bee was a contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s at Battle School, and on the losing end of one of Ender’s Dragon Army’s victories. He was promoted to Tactical School, but was not thought to be compatible enough with Ender to go on to Command School.
Bella’s Birth Father (See also Delphiki, Bella) (SG)
Bella was one of the embryos created by Petra Arkanian and Bean Delphiki, stolen by Achilles Flandres, and implanted in a Portuguese woman. The husband of this woman was sterile but he lied, telling her that their attempts at in vitro fertilization had worked. A rich man, he bought the embryo from Achilles, but had to surrender the child it became to her real parents, Petra and Bean.
Bella’s Birth Mother (See also Delphiki, Bella) (SG)
Desperate for a child, the woman who carried the girl “Bella” thought she was giving birth to her own daughter, conceived in vitro with her husband. Her husband was sterile, though, and the embryo that had been implanted into her womb actually belonged to Bean Delphiki and his wife Petra Arkanian. Bella was born, and Petra discovered her existence, taking back the child that was actually hers and Bean’s, and thus breaking the heart of Bella’s birth mother.
Bellini, Radaghasye (SG)
Radaghasye Bellini was the president of Brazil when Peter Wiggin ascended to the position of Hegemon. He was one of the first to ratify Peter’s worldwide constitution, and was given the top position of authority in South America, governing the continent as more and more of its nations joined the Hegemony, which Peter called the “Free People of Earth.”
Belt, the (EG)
The Belt is a region of space not far from Earth’s orbit where Battle School, a space station, was located.
Benedetto (IC, SD)
Benedetto had a rich Italian heritage. He worked as a tax collector on the starport at the planet Sorelledolce, and insisted on speaking Italian there, even though he was fluent in Starcommon. He doubted the veracity of Ender Wiggin’s identification when Ender presented it to him in an effort to gain access to Ender’s pension. Benedetto would not allow Ender access to his trust fund to pay his taxes because Ender had never paid taxes. However, once Ender’s assets were revealed on Benedetto’s computer, the accountant warmed up to the young man, and was more helpful. Once Ender left the bank, Benedetto tried to use an illegal Predator program to spy on Ender’s finances, but discovered the programs he used for such matters were gone. Unbeknownst to Benedetto, they had been erased by Ender’s financial program, Jane.
Benedetto figured out Ender’s true identity and tried to have Ender incarcerated. However, Jane had restored the files, and Ender was free. Jane confronted Benedetto later, warning him to erase all his research and to forget everything he’d learned about Ender or confess everything about him. Benedetto chose to reveal to the world the identity of Ender Wiggin on Sorelledolce, but Jane intercepted the message, exposing Benedetto’s corrupt accounting practices in the process.
Some of his past victims killed Benedetto for stealing from them. Ender Spoke Benedetto’s death. Feeling bad for the tax man’s death, Ender gave Benedetto’s family an annuity.
Bernard (EG, ES)
A contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s at Battle School, Bernard was the boy whose arm Ender broke on their first journey into space. Bernard held a particular enmity toward Ender and put together a gang of fellow students at Battle School. His gang shoved Ender around, and was generally mean to him. However, Ender hacked into the Battle School computer system and sent private messages to Bernard and their classmates calling Bernard a “butt watcher.” When Bernard complained to Dap, his launch group’s supervisor, Dap accused Bernard of questioning authority. Bernard and his gang picked on Ender more, in an effort to reassert their own power.
Bernard’s best friend was Alai, who said that Bernard used to torture cats for fun. Alai and Ender invited Bernard to join their team in the group’s first Battle Room practice. With his teammates, Bernard froze the rest of the group in that first practice.
Bernard joined Ender’s Free Play practices in the Battle Room that were set up after Ender’s promotion to Salamander Army. He grew disenchanted with Ender, however, when Ender was promoted to command Dragon Army. He accompanied Bonzo Madrid into the bathroom when Bonzo had decided to kill Ender there.
Bimba (SG)
Bimba was a child to Pipo and Conceição, born on the planet Lusitania.
Bloom, Klaus (SG)
Klaus Bloom was a world leader who helped ratify Peter Wiggin’s constitution for the Free People of Earth, the Hegemony. He was given a position of authority in the growing world government in Europe.
Boatman (CM)
The boatman was a large Polynesian man who lived on the planet Pacifica. He was protective of the sacred island of his people and refused to have Peter Wiggin II and Si Wang-mu there.
Bob (SG)
Bob was married to Randi and ran a grocery store. He did not know that Randi had been in love with Achilles Flandres and had been implanted with an embryo she thought Achilles had fathered. Randi left Bob to have her baby in secret, per Achilles’s premortem instructions.
Bosque, Mayor/Governor Faria Lima Maria do “Bosquinha” (SD)
The female political leader of the human colony on the planet Lusitania, Bosquinha was known for being a strong-willed Catholic woman. The position of mayor and governor were combined,
and as such she held both. A solid leader, she governed the planet’s colony fairly. She also became the legal guardian of a girl named Novinha, whose parents had died finding a cure for the dreaded, deadly virus known as the Descolada.
Bosquinha greeted Ender Wiggin when his ship arrived at Lusitania. The mayor/governor was opposed to the idea of “Speakers of the Dead,” of which Ender was one. Her religion fought against the funerary right of Speaking, seeing it as pagan. Lusitania was a staunchly Catholic planet, and to maintain order with her colonists, she adhered to Catholic dogma.
Shortly after the Speaker’s arrival, Bosquinha noticed that Starways Congress had begun absorbing all of the computer files on the planet. They had the right to do so, she knew, because something had gone wrong with the human interaction with the planet’s native species, the pequeninos. She advised the religious leaders to do as the government had and transfer their most important files into Ender’s well-hidden computer storage.
She attended the Speaking Ender performed for the late Marcão Ribeira, and afterward told the Speaker what they’d done with his computer storage. He said it was a good idea. She also told him that she had been demoted from her gubernatorial role, and was now merely chief of police, facilitating the evacuation of the planet.
Lusitania had lost its charter because of Miro and Ouanda’s interaction with the pequeninos and was to be evacuated by the Starways Congress. Ender convinced her to forestall the evacuation and meet with him and the religious leaders to plan a rebellion against the Congress. She reluctantly agreed, hoping to save the planet she’d governed for decades.
In that meeting, it was discovered that the Descolada, the disease that had virtually wiped out the planet a generation before, was still active. All who lived on Lusitania were carriers. As a result, Bosquinha and the others decided that they should rebel, in order to prevent exposing other planets to the deadly virus, and to protect themselves. They made it appear as if they’d shut down the ansible, and they deactivated the wall protecting the pequeninos. In so doing, they symbolically left the Starways Congress.
A day later, when Ender Wiggin had negotiated a treaty between humans and the piggies, Bosquinha went into the forest with Bishop Peregrino. There she learned of the treaty and signed it as the political leader of the human colonists on the planet.
Bosquinha (See Bosque, Mayor/Governor Faria Lima Maria do “Bosquinha”)
Boulanger, Nero (ES)
Nero Boulanger was a contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s at Battle School. He was approximately the same age as Ender; however, he did not arrive at the school until a couple of years after Ender. Nero was in Bean’s launch group, and argued with the commanding officer of their flight into space over who had the highest test scores in the launch group. The officer, Captain Dimak, mocked Nero’s arrogance and ignorance, making an example out of him. Nero had been humiliated before ever reaching Battle School.
Braun, Helga (ES)
Helga Braun, or “Hazie” as she preferred to be known, ran a soup kitchen in Rotterdam, Netherlands. She hated the violence that went on in the streets around her kitchen, but was pleased that Achilles and other bullies like him had taken to civilizing the children. She contacted her friend, Sister Carlotta, a nun who helped recruit for the International Fleet, alerting her that something was going on: that civilization had come to the children of Rotterdam. She gave Achilles his name because of his gimp leg. She also named Ulysses because he wandered from kitchen to kitchen.
Brian (EGS)
A member of Ender’s Dragon Army, Brian was promoted to commander three years ahead of schedule along with several members of their army.
Bridegan, Captain (WG)
Captain Bridegan was the International Fleet officer who tested Zeck Morgan, finding him fit for Battle School. He had used threats of arresting Zeck’s parents to get him to consent to going to the school.
Brother Language (SD, XN)
The Brother Language was the language the male pequeninos spoke in their “second life.”
Brown, Hinckley (TP)
Hinckley Brown was thought to be the top military mind of his generation, and yet left the army to be with his family, a Mormon brood noncompliant with the Hegemony’s population rules. He was an outspoken critic of the population laws. As a result of his departure, the Hegemony pulled funding from his daughter Theresa’s graduate research. Theresa and Hinckley did not get along, despite Hinckley’s attempts at reconciliation. He had missed much with his family because of his military obligations.
As Theresa Brown’s father, he was also the grandfather to Andrew “Ender” Wiggin.
Brown, Theresa (See Wiggin, Theresa)
Bruxinha (SD)
Bruxinha was a colonist on the planet Lusitania. She was married to Libo and together they had four children. She did not know that Libo had also fathered children with his childhood sweetheart, Novinha, until she heard it at the Speaking ceremony for Novinha’s husband, Marcão Ribeira. She was crushed, but Ender, in Speaking, tried to ease her pain by making it clear that her husband’s adultery was not her fault.
Buggers (See Formics)
Cabra (SD)
Cabra was a less-developed grass-eating animal on the planet Lusitania. They were all female and had somehow evolved to avoid extinction from the Descolada plague. How they reproduced was a scientific mystery to the planet’s xenobiologists.
Calendar (SD)
Calendar was a pequenino—the native life on Lusitania—who interacted with the human scientists, Miro and Ouanda. He witnessed Miro’s climb over the fence that surrounded them.
Calicut (See Hundred Worlds)
Canadian Kid (WG)
The Canadian Kid was a member of Rat Army who participated in Dink Meeker’s Christmas celebration of secretly giving gifts in other soldiers’ socks.
Capim (SD, NX, CM)
Capim was a plant native to the planet Lusitania. Grasslike, it was studied by Ender Wiggin’s scientist stepchildren. When chewed, capim had anesthetic properties for the pequeninos.
Captain (EE)
The Captain was an officer in the International Fleet who showed Ender around the spaceship that would take the hero of the Formic War to his new colony. The Captain had a family on Earth, and was not going to the new colony. On their tour of the ship, the Captain showed Ender how Formic technology made faster-than-light travel possible, as well as the weapon that Ender had deployed to destroy the Formics.
Carby, Carn (EGS, EG, ES, SH, SG)
Carn Carby was a contemporary of Ender Wiggin’s in Battle School. A little older than Ender, Carn commanded Rabbit Army, which was the first army to lose to Ender’s unbeatable Dragon Army. Carby took the loss graciously in the Battle Room, but was embarrassed and angry in the public areas of Battle School.
He eventually came to respect Ender, and even sought to help protect him when his life was in jeopardy from Bonzo Madrid. Carn was graduated from Battle School approximately a month later and replaced as commander of Rabbit Army by Bean, Ender’s closest confidant and best soldier. He was promoted to Tactical School and, two weeks later, to Command School.
Carn was promoted to become one of Ender’s unseen squadron leaders at Command School, leading soldiers into battle during the simulated “exams” that were actually real conflicts.
After the Formic War ended with Ender’s victory, Carn was one of the former soldiers who were kidnapped by Achilles Flandres and taken to Russia. There, he and his fellow prisoners were forced to play war games against each other, preparing Achilles’s armies for strikes against the rest of the world.
The captives were eventually separated, and put into solitary confinement without face-to-face contact with each other from then on. After several months, thanks to the efforts of Peter Wiggin and from a distance, Bean, Carn and his colleagues, except Petra Arkanian, were rescued by Russian operatives.
Over the next year, Carn was made a leader in the Australian military, though that assignment did not hav
e significant worldwide influence. He was approached by both Hyrum Graff and Peter Wiggin and was offered a ship to go into space as part of the colonization program, freeing him from the heavy responsibilities of Earth and its political instability.
As Peter built the Hegemony into the Free People of Earth, Graff again offered Ender’s colleagues the opportunity to leave Earth and govern a planet. It was his fear that Ender’s army would be used in the worldwide conflict, manipulated by whatever political power rose to prominence, and he wanted to prevent that. Every member who received the offer, which did not include Han Tzu, Petra Arkanian, or Alai, said no. The others were already too involved in matters on Earth to leave.
Carlotta, Sister (ES, SH, [SP], [SG])
Sister Carlotta was a nun who joined the International Fleet’s recruitment program, searching for the next leader of the Fleet who would defeat the Formic armies. She believed that doing so would ultimately protect the children of the world, despite being ostracized from her order. Carlotta heard from her friend, Helga Braun, a soup kitchen owner, that a boy named Achilles had been civilizing the homeless children of Rotterdam. Thinking that this Achilles could be the leader the Fleet was looking for, Carlotta went to Rotterdam.
There she found that Achilles was not the person she was looking for, but instead discovered Bean, the smallest child she’d ever seen. She set up a school to teach Achilles, Bean, and the rest of their “family” of children to read. When Bean was revealed to already know how to read, Carlotta knew for certain that he was the miracle child she’d sought.
When Bean’s friend and former crew leader Poke was found dead and her death blamed on a bully named Ulysses, Sister Carlotta helped him through his mourning process. In so doing, she discovered that Bean had witnessed the murder, and that it was actually Achilles who perpetrated it. Bean was scared for his own life, so Carlotta chose to test him for Battle School. It was her hope that by getting him into Battle School, he would be safe from Achilles.
She administered the Battle School screening tests, and Bean earned a nearly perfect score. Sister Carlotta tested him again, and he scored well again—unheard of in a four-year-old boy. She made the decision to recommend him for Battle School, even though he was very much underage.