PaPa LaBas
The main protagonist of the novel is a middle-aged, Black private ("astro") detective on a quest to locate a secret sacred Text that matches and bolsters the power of Jes Grew. Mythical origin stories have spread around him, and people are in awe of his powers; he is a "noonday HooDoo, fugitive-hermit, obeah-man, botanist, animal impersonator, 2-headed man" (45) and is in excellent health. He attributes this health and power to his "Knockings" and respect for the loa. His headquarters is the Mumbo Jumbo Kathedral, where he works to uncover the conspiracy to prevent Jes Grew from spreading. In his role as a detective, he is looking for Jes Grew's text, trying to subvert the Order, looking for the "White Host," and generally endeavoring to make Black culture visible, protected, and expansionary. He does not succeed in procuring the Text but is successful using other metrics. At the end of the novel, it is the 1970s and he is 100 years old, delighting in the return of Jes Grew via funk.
Hinckle Von Vampton
The novel’s antagonist is an indeterminate age, but certainly the fact that he was actually a member of the Knights Templar is indicative of just long he has been around. He is an unctuous, grotesque but elegant man who puts on the guise of a "Negrophile" as he endeavors to "save" Western Civilization from the Black influence. He is thus on a quest to locate the sacred Text, but for a completely different reason than PaPa. He works for the Sun, but only to get the Wallflower Order's attention by releasing a story of Haiti. When this results in a meeting with the Hierophant 1, he announces his plan to restore the reputation of the Templars, since eroded, by ending Jes Grew. While Jes Grew fails for other reasons, Hinckle is exposed and apprehended by PaPa and Black Herman and sent to Battraville for justice.
Abdul Hamid
The traitorous editor of a magazine devoted to the Black Muslim; he takes it upon himself to destroy the Text for what seem to be very good reasons, in his mind: the religion contained within imposes the same kind of authoritarian order as its Judaic and Christian counterparts that overwhelmed it in history. He is zealous, conservative, and, as Reed paints him, misguided. Hinckle and Gould kill him when he tells them he no longer is in possession of the sacred Text, which came to him (as we later learn) through Buddy Jackson.
Biff Musclewhite
Biff's day job is curating the Center of Art Detention, but in fact, he is a killer for hire in the employ of the Wallflower Order. He takes out Berbelang and Charlotte, and he convinces Thor Wintergreen to betray his friends. He is racist, selfish, prideful, and indelibly committed to the Atonist cause.
Berbelang
One-time member of the Mumbo Jumbo Kathedral working in concert with PaPa LaBas, Berbelang becomes the leader of an art-napping organization called the Mu’tafikah, which steals from the Center of Art Detention museums with the purpose of returning non-Western, looted art to the representatives of their rightful owners. He is killed by Biff Musclewhite.
Hubert "Safecracker" Gould
A white undercover agent in the service of Von Vampton. He adopts the cultural abomination of blackface to become the Talking Android, and he is given over to Battraville for justice at the end of the novel.
Earline
A young, pretty Black woman who works at the Kathedral. She is originally skeptical of Jes Grew but comes to believe its power after she is possessed by the loa Erzulie.
Charlotte
A young, pretty Black woman who works for the Kathedral but leaves to take a job on the stage. She thinks she can bring in some of what she learned at the Kathedral but PaPa counsels her against using the Mysteries. She entertains rich white clientele such as Biff, who ends up killing her when he learns of her connection to PaPa.
T Malice
PaPa's friendly and tough chauffeur.
Buddy Jackson
A Harlem gangster known for his flashy dressing and high manner of living. He tries to keep White gangsters out of Harlem, especially the Sarge. It is Jackson who sends the pieces of Jes Grew to Abdul so he can translate them.
Woodrow Wilson Jefferson
A young Black man who moves from the country to New York City. He is an avid fan of Marx and Engels and even thinks they are still alive until Hinckle tells him otherwise. He is intelligent but kind of a rube, and he is happy to serve as the "Negro Viewpoint" for Hinckle's Benign Monster. He is about to be the Talking Android when his father fetches him home.
Thor Wintergreen
A rich, white son of a tycoon. Wintergreen joins the Mu'tafikah, ardently believing in its cause, but he eventually turns against it when Biff Musclewhite convinces him the group is going to destroy all the greatness of Western civilization. Thor commits suicide at the end of the novel.
Yellow Jack, Jose Fuentes
Members of the Mu'tafikah.
The Hierophant 1
The bearded leader of the Wallflower Order in New York, the Hierophant is leading the war effort in Haiti and trying to destroy Jes Grew. He begrudgingly allows the Templars to have power again when Hinckle forces himself into the Hierophant's purview. He also negotiates with Walter Mellon to bring about the Great Depression to preclude Jes Grew's spread.
Warren Harding
The real-life president, Harding is depicted here as probably Black to a degree. The Atonists were behind his election but they quickly become disenchanted with him and have him taken out.
Black Herman
A noted occultist visiting New York whom PaPa meets at a party. The two recognize kindred spirits and begin to work together to find the Text and defeat the Wallflower Order. Herman is the one who is able to cast Erzulie out of Earline, and he provides good counsel to PaPa on being less rigid in his approach to Jes Grew.
Harry M. Daughterty
Harding's Attorney General and a secret Atonist. He carries out the orders for Harding's poisoning.
Major Young
A Harlem poet whom Hinckle tries to solicit for the Talking Android position.
Nathan Brown
A prominent Black poet, intellectual. and Christian whose work "commingles Death and Nature in haunting ways" (116). Hinckle approaches him for the Talking Android role, but Brown repulses him. He later tells his story to Battraville and catches Jes Grew himself.
Benoit Battraville
A tall, elegant Black man who wears red robes and a necklace of beads and bones, Battraville has come from Haiti on his ship The Black Plume. He is looking for the man whom he will soon identify as Hinckle Von Hampton, who is grooming a Talking Android and looking for the Text. He also tells PaPa LaBas and Black Herman about what is going on in Haiti, connecting it to the larger history of Atonism. At the end of the novel, PaPa and Black Herman bring Hinckle and Gould to him, and it is implied he will mete out justice.
Ti Bouton
A powerful Haitian man who lives in the hills and aids Battravlle. He warns Battraville and his friend Charlemagne not to go to Port-Au-Prince, but they do and the latter is killed. He tells Battraville upon his return that he must travel to America and find "this White Host whom he said had been dispatched on a mission for the Wallflower Order" (137).
Reverend Jefferson
Woodrow Wilson Jefferson's impressively large, loud, and forceful father who comes to New York to bring his wayward son home. He and his men also punch out Hinckle and Gould.
Walter Mellon
Known as "The Sphinx," Mellon is a wealthy and powerful tycoon who, along with others like him, pulls the strings in the American economy. As an Atonist, he supports Western civilization and decides that Jes Grew is enough of a menace that he and his cronies will tank the economy to prevent it from taking hold (i.e. the Great Depression).
Hank Rollings
A Guianese art critic who hobnobs with the Black elite in Harlem. His reviews are phony and devoid of feeling, yet he is very smug and snobbish. He is quick to defend Hinckle and Gould.
Osiris
The beloved Egyptian god of agriculture and nature, Osiris is the son of Nut and Geb, brother/husband to Isis, and brother to Set. Osiris's dancing makes Egypt fertile, prosperous, and peaceful. He later traveled around the world, bringing agriculture and the concomitant end to cannibalism, as well as his music. He accepts Set's challenge to rise from the Nile, but he is destroyed by Set's machinations.
Set
The brother of Osiris and Isis, Set is an "arrogant jealous egotistical" (162) man who does everything he can to take Osiris down. He shut nature out of himself and endeavored to do that in the rest of the world. He is eventually successful in ridding Egypt of Osiris with the Nile challenge, but he himself is no more popular once his brother is gone. He outlaws dancing, sex, and eventually life itself, forming a veritable death cult around himself. He and his followers move to Heliopolis to rule from there, making the Sun the focus of the religion. This was the beginning of Atonism, named for the Sun's flaming disc, Aton.
Dionysus
The young Greek acolyte of Osiris's, whom he meets on tour. After the dispersal of Osiris's priests, Dionysus returns to Greece, where he spreads the Mysteries far and wide. They last until the 4th century when Constantine, acting under Atonist pressure, brings Christianity to the land.
Isis
Osiris's beloved wife and mother of Horus. She holds the Book after Osiris is killed and Thoth flees.
Thoth
An artist who volunteers to take down Osiris's dance steps and turn them into a Text for the music; this would allow the priests to figure out what god or spirit possessed them and how to make them leave, if necessary. When Osiris is destroyed, Set and his followers pursue Thoth, who flees the country and leaves the Book with Isis.
Moses
The biblical figure, here presented first as an initiate of Osiris but then as essentially a selfish, power-hungry man who is closer to Set in his views. He travels throughout his country, enjoying his popularity, and eventually is led to seek out Jethro the Midianite, whose music is supposed to be unbelievable. He has Jethro teach him what he knows, but Jethro will only go past a certain point if Moses is in the family. Thus, Moses marries Zipporah and prepares to return to Egypt, but Jethro tells him there is an actual Text. Moses then has a vision from Set, telling him how to procure this book from Isis. He successfully does and returns home, but when he plays the music and sings from the Book, the result is far different from Jethro, whipping his people into an angry frenzy. Eventually, he reads from it again and sets off a massive nuclear explosion. It is assumed that he and his Atonist followers went into exile.
Hugues de Payens
The founder of the Templars.
