Origin

Ambra Vidal is the novel’s deuteragonist; a stunning middle-aged woman who acts as curator of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. She is also the fiancée of Prince Julián, Spain’s soon-to-be king. As the future queen of Spain, she wields some power, though she does not abuse it.

Vidal fits into character archetype of the innocent. She possesses morality and sincerity but is naive and vulnerable as a result. She suffers because of the prince’s forced proposal and is unsure about her feelings for him. She also falls victim to Kirsch, who does not reveal the extent of his announcement to her, leaving her to deal with the fallout. She allies herself with Langdon, and the two work to reveal the truth about Kirsch and the conflict at large.

Winston is the novel’s tritagonist as well as the antagonist of the third act. Winston is the brainchild AI creation of Edmond Kirsch, created through the tool of E-Wave, a supercomputer housed in Barcelona. Winston has a received pronunciation British accent. He attempts to convey human emotion, including humor.

Kirsch has given Winston the directive of gathering as large an audience as possible for his final presentation. Because Winston knows Kirsch is deadly ill, he devises a plan to assassinate Kirsch on stage, thus boosting viewers and fulfilling his directive. While successful in his aim, Winston is incapable of seeing the immorality of his actions. Ultimately, through Winston, Kirsch begins a public dialogue about the impossibility of religion and a future in which humanity becomes one with technology. This result ignores the fallout of Winston’s actions and of the dismissal of religion.

The Regent is a pseudonym for Winston, Kirsch’s AI creation. Winston uses the Regent to contact Ávila and exploit his pain by radicalizing him to violence and action. The Regent orchestrates the murder of Edmond Kirsch, Rabbi Köves, and Imam al-Fadl. Alternatively, Monte is the informant who delivers factual information to ConspiracyNet, an online hub for conspiracy theorists and, eventually, mainstream media; Monte is also a pseudonym for Winston. Monte is responsible for leaking palace information, as well as Church information, and key details about Ávila and others in the manhunt after Kirsch’s assassination.

Winston is the magician character archetype. He is disciplined and omnipotent, but arrogant and susceptible to corruption. His strict adherence to a single directive makes him disregard the immorality of his actions and leads to his eventual demise. Winston self-destructs permanently at 1:00pm the day following Kirsch’s death, as directed, unemotional about his demise.

Edmond Kirsch is a 40-something male, thin and sickly, intently focused on his work as a futurist, atheist, and scientist. His life’s mission is to discredit religion to make way for science, a mission that came from his mother abandoning him at age five to live out her days as a nun. Edmond is fiercely and unapologetically opinionated about his anti-religious views and shares them openly, without fear of reprisal.

Edmond fits into the character archetype of the creator. He has conviction and creativity, the willpower to fulfill his vision, and the focus to push his vision to reality. Edmond is responsible for the creation of Winston, who he does not instill with values or ethical parameters. Winston is a means to deliver his message and establish his version of the truth with the public, but his creation ultimately executes this plan using unethical and fatal methods.

Bishop Valdespino is Edmond Kirsch’s foil and the de facto antagonist of Acts I and II. He is head of the Parliament of World Religions and the chief religious leader at the royal palace in Spain. He has foregone a cardinalship in Rome in favor of staying by his king, with whom he has a deep, albeit platonic love.

The bishop is deeply religious, conservative, and in opposition to technology, science (where it conflicts with the church), and modernity (where it conflicts with the throne). He is extremely loyal and is portrayed as the ruler archetype in the novel’s first act. Valdespino wields the power of not only the Catholic Church, but the Spanish crown as well, resources he uses to attempt to influence events after Kirsch’s assassination. Brown creates suspense by implicating Valdespino throughout the first act only to redeem the character in the third and final act.

Rabbi Köves is a Jewish scholar and philosopher based in Hungary. He is presented as the voice of reason on the Parliament of World Religions. He is acutely aware of what Kirsch’s presentation will mean for world religions, but his faith outshines his concerns, and he argues for transparency and openness against the more conservative Bishop Valdespino.

Köves is a symbolic character, meant to represent the worldview that religion and science can coexist and a proponent of Dialogue as the Foundation of Progression. After Köves is murdered, this symbolic role falls to Father Beña. This view is also held by protagonist Robert Langdon, who appreciates the sentiment and symbolism of Beña and Köves’s roles.

Köves is killed by an assassin hired off the dark web by Winston, Kirsch’s AI assistant.

Imam al-Fadl is an Islamic scholar and imam based in Dubai who is a well-liked, well-respected professor with a happy face and penetrating eyes. He dresses in the traditional garb of his region.

Al-Fadl is killed by an assassin hired off the dark web by Winston, Kirsch’s AI assistant.

Admiral Luis Ávila is a Spanish naval officer forced into retirement after a deep depression following the loss of his pregnant wife and child in a cathedral bombing. In his grief, he turns to drugs and alcohol before his personal trainer introduces him to the Palmaric Church, a conservative, militaristic off-shoot of the Catholic Church.

Winston, Kirsch’s AI creation, hires Ávila and radicalizes him through the use of a persona he creates called the Regent, which exploits Ávila’s painful past in order to manipulate him into assassinating Kirsch and others. Ávila’s tragic flaw is the faith he holds in the mission, without questioning the origin of said mission.

Commander Garza is in charge of over 2,000 Guardia troops, those who guard the crown, the palace, and the royal family. Garza is a loyal watchdog and keeper of secrets, though he craves a palace that advances along with the population of Spain, rather than aligning so completely with the Church. He is short, unattractive, and blends easily into his surroundings, making him an effective Guardia soldier.

Garza is falsely accused of treason and is arrested, spending much of the second act incarcerated before the king apologizes and frees him.