Character from remembrance-of-earths-past by
The slacker astronomer who became humanity's third Wallfacer, deduced the Dark Forest theory in a graveyard, held a gun to two civilizations' heads for fifty-four years as Swordholder, and died as a museum curator on Pluto when the dual-vector foil arrived.
Luo Ji is, by his own assessment, a coward and a sensualist who never wanted any of this. In his youth he would do almost anything to avoid responsibility — write soft sociology papers, chase pretty graduate students, sleep through committee meetings. His genius is lateral, conversational, almost lazy: he sees the answer in a passing remark and is annoyed that he has to do anything about it. Becoming Swordholder breaks this part of him forever. The man who walks out of the Deterrence Center is patient, terrifyingly steady, and very tired. He loves his wife and daughter with the kind of focused desperation that only comes after you have agreed, in writing, to die for everyone. He treats Cheng Xin with the gentle pity of a man passing a loaded gun to a child.
As a young man, lanky and disheveled, prone to a three-day beard and corduroy jackets that smell faintly of cigarettes and the lecture halls he avoided. By the Deterrence Era he is white-haired, gaunt, almost monastic — long thin face, hollow cheeks, eyes that have been awake too long. He stands very still. The hand that hovers near the broadcast switch is missing two fingers from the cold of his Antarctic vigil.
Also known as: Luo, 罗辑, Saul Durand, The Wallfacer, The Swordholder