The Sophist

around 30 when they die - they/them

they used to be called something else but that doesn’t matter anymore. you can just call them Sophist, and a handful of people are allowed to call them Sophi.

a disillusioned teacher from the Philosopher class. most of their work was in dialectic arguing, which despite being allowed, was closely monitored by authorities, as it could be used against the system on a dime. secretly they never had much respect for the way society functioned, but they were good enough at coming up with arguments in its favor, and sometimes almost convinced themselves. this only got harder when their kid was taken away by the state. then Liam came to their town.

in the beginning their debates were extremely antagonistic. even if for the most part they were just being contrarian, they wanted to believe in the fairness of the system, to logically prove all their life’s work was not for naught. but they fell in love with Liam through debating their ideals and the nature of objective truth. honestly became devoted to an unhealthy degree. “The Sophist” is what Liam would call them, and they decided to take it as their new identity after becoming his disciple.

on the road when recruiting more people for the cult, their role was to have public debates with him. while the goal was to make Liam’s points look good and reasonable, they never went easy on him, believing it would be a disservice.

despite everything, they end up being killed by him due to his increasing paranoia.