Who's Who in Asimov S

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Sabbat, Gennao: Young mathematician of Aurora. (Mirror Image)
Sacratorium: Building in Mycogen dedicated to Aurora, with grounds constructed in imitation of Aurora's governmental grounds, and containing video reconstructions of the Mycogenians' ancestors' presumed idyllic life on Aurora. Visited by Hari Seldon and Dors Venabili in search of the robot which Seldon had read about in the Mycogenians' revered Book. (8-11,12)
Samia: Daughter of the Squire of Fife, researching kyrt on Florina when a spate of murders forced her recall to Sark. (5-8,11,15)
Sammin: Lieutenant General of the Mule's forces during the war with the independent trading worlds. (11-II-21)
Sammy: Messenger robot of New York police department. Used by Julius Enderby to carry into Spacetown the blaster used by Enderby to kill Roj Nemennuh Sarton, and later destroyed by Enderby. (1-1)
Santanni: System of the Periphery near Terminus, 9,000 parsecs from Trantor, with an evidently well-regarded university. For a while during Stettin's move against the Foundation it was controlled by Kalgan. (9-IV-14,28,29; 10-II-1,III-1; 12-II-18)
Sarip: Late-Empire Outer World near Santanni. (9-IV-28)
Sark: Planet of unspecified location. Once with Imperial ambitions similar to those of Trantor, the discovery of the unique kyrt growing on the neighbouring world of Florina led to Sark establishing a near-feudal economy on Florina, the huge profits from a galactic monopoly of kyrt products giving Sark a wealth which rivalled that of Trantor itself, supported by the cheap labour of the Florinians who worked on Florina in the kyrt industry, and on Sark in the Sarkite Civil Service. Shortly before the establishment of the Trantor-based Galactic Empire, Sark's five continents each played host to a Great Squire, who not only between them controlled Sark, but maintained a cartel of the kyrt market which only ended with the evacuation of Florina after the discovery that its sun was in a pre-nova stage. (5)
Sark City: Capital city of Sark. (5-5)
Sarton, Roj Nemennuh: Leading Auroran sociologist, specialising in robotics, and collaborator with Han Fastolfe in attempts to improve relations between Earth and the Spacers. While living in Spacetown to study the psychology of Earthpeople, he was killed by Julius Enderby in mistake for Daneel Olivaw. His death led to the removal of the Spacers from Earth. (1; 3-4-15)
Savard, Tapper: Native of Anacreon, and designer of the Imperial Palace grounds on Trantor. (9-II-1)
Sayshell: Union of eighty-six populated planetary systems which had throughout the period of the Empire enjoyed an uncommon degree of independence, thanks in no small measure to the influence of the nearby planet of Gaia. After the decline of the Empire, Sayshell maintained its autonomy and neutrality even through the period of the Mule's conquests, pursuing an anti-Foundation foreign policy and discouraging links with the Foundation and its expanding Federation despite being surrounded by, and economically dependent on, Federation territory.; After Gaia had been given the dominant role in the future development of the galaxy, Sayshell negotiated a trade agreement with the Foundation Federation, when Gaia no longer needed the protection afforded by an isolationist Sayshell while being able to expand its own influence through the new social and economic links. (13-11,12,13)
Schwartz, Joseph: Retired tailor of twentieth-century Earth, transported to the ninth century of the Galactic Empire by an unexplained mechanism. Volunteered for an experiment with Affret Shekt's Synapsifier, he found himself able to read and influence human minds. He used this ability to forestall and expose the plan of the Earth's Zealots to launch a biological war on the rest of the Empire. (7)
Scowler: Hamish dialect word used to refer to the Second Foundationers who inhabited the University Library and its grounds on Trantor. It was probably a corruption of "scholar." (13-7-23)
Second, Ernett: Humaniform robot designed by Vasilia Aliena at the Robotics Institute of Aurora, sent to Earth by Kelden Amadiro and Levular Mandamus in the contingent of robots used to take nuclear intensifiers to Earth's radioactive hotspots. Sent to New York by Amadiro to kill Giskard Reventlov, he went into mental freeze-out when Gladia ordered him to reveal the location of his masters. (4-V-17-80,81)
Second Foundation: See Foundation, Second.
Seldon, Bellis: Daughter of Raych Seldon and Manella Dubanqua. She was presumed dead when the ship carrying her and her mother from Santanni to Anacreon disappeared without trace. (9-IV-3,IV-16)
Seldon, Hari: Mathematician of Helicon who first attracted attention as the result of the paper which he presented at the Decennial Convention on Trantor, outlining the theoretical potential of psychohistory. When it became clear that various factions on Trantor would try to use psychohistory for their own political ends, Seldon was given protection by Daneel Olivaw, then (as Eto Demerzel) Chief of Staff to Cleon I. Daneel concurred with Seldon's belief that the collapse of the Galactic Empire was inevitable, and encouraged him to develop his ideas into a form which could provide a social structure strong enough to form a new and more resilient Second Empire, while reducing to a minimum the intervening period of chaos. While at Streeling University Seldon attempted the historical research which he believed could help him develop psychohistory, but failed to find the information he needed. In Mycogen and Dahl he discovered some of the mythology surrounding the forgotten planets Aurora and Earth, and the existence in prehistoric times of robots. After being taken to Wye, where Rashelle's attempted coup was pre-emptively defeated by Demerzel, he deduced Daneel's true identity, and realised that a practical psychohistory could be developed from the cosmopolitan social milieu of Trantor itself.; He returned to Streeling University where he was able to continue his work as head of the Maths Department, and after his successful handling of the Joranumite crisis, and on Demerzel's recommendation, succeeded Demerzel as First Minister to Cleon, a post which he held for ten years until his resignation after the assassination of Cleon.; Through the military government which followed, the benign reign of Agis XIV and the autocracy of the Commission of Public Safety, he continued his research but found funding increasingly difficult to find, and when his increasingly well-known views on the state of the Empire met with hostility went through a prolonged period of disillusionment. With the discovery first of his granddaughter Wanda's, then Stettin Palver's and Bor Alurin's mental powers, he returned to his work with renewed vigour in the knowledge that the Second Foundation essential to his Plan could be established, and at the time of his death was Professor Emeritus of Psychohistory at Streeling University. (8; 9; 10-I)
Seldon, Raych: Boy of Dahl, twelve years old when Hari Seldon met him during his visit to the Billibotton area of Dahl in search of Mother Rittah. Raych was later adopted as a son by Hari, and when the growing popularity of the Joranumite movement began to pose a threat to the position of Eto Demerzel as First Minister, he was sent into Dahl to investigate Laskin Joranum. There he succeeded in convincing Joranum that Demerzel was a robot, a double-bluff which led to Joranum's public humiliation and eventual exile.; After a spell working for the Imperial civil service in the Ministry of Population, he was sent into Wye to investigate Gambol Deen Namarti, who recognised him, and drugged him with Desperance to force him to join Namarti and Gleb Andorin's plan to assassinate his father. This was forestalled through the intervention of Manella Dubanqua, who he had first met in Wye, and who he later married. After taking up a post at the University of Santanni, he was killed when anti-Empire rebels attacked the University. (8-14-68 etc.; 9)
Seldon, Wanda: Daughter of Raych Seldon and Manella Dubanqua. After discovering that she had mental powers which could help make psychohistory a practical reality, she stayed on Trantor with her grandfather Hari when her parents and sister left for Santanni. With Stettin Palver, she formed the core of what became the Second Foundation. (9-III,IV)
Seldon Convention: Psychological convention at which Hari Seldon put into action his plan to establish the Foundations. The records of the convention were studied by Ebling Mis during his visit to the University of Trantor Library with the Darells and the Mule. (11-II-25)
Seldon Crises: Key events in the development of the Foundation, usually accompanied by political unrest, were marked by the operation of the Time Vault, at which a hologram of Hari Seldon explained the problem which had just been negotiated. (10; 11; 12; 13)
Seldon Crisis (first): c.50FE the Foundation had become increasingly isolated from the rest of the galaxy, and was under threat from the neighbouring Kingdoms which had broken away from the Empire. No longer able to rely for protection on its status as an Empire-backed scientific institution, the Foundation was forced into the realm of local politics in order to play the Kingdoms against one another and maintain a balance of power. This change in policy was accompanied by Salvor Hardin's siezure of administrative power from the Encyclopedia Trustees. (10-II)
Seldon Crisis (second): c.80FE, when maintaining the balance of power between the Four Kingdoms was no longer enough, the Foundation extended its political control of the Periphery through a "priesthood" of technicians who kept the Kingdoms' power plants and industry going. Technical expertise was kept strictly to the Foundation, the Kingdoms being allowed to believe in the spiritual power of a religion based on the Foundation. (10-III)
Seldon Crisis (third): c.FE155 the hold of the Foundation's "religion" of advanced science over the Periphery was weakening, and for a while there was a power struggle between the traditionalists, led by Jorane Sutt, and the independent trading interests, personified by Hober Mallow. This was marked by the collapse of the Sutt-instigated public trial of Hober Mallow and Mallow's election as Mayor. (10-V)
Seldon Crisis (fourth): The weakening Empire's last serious attempt at reasserting its authority began with its last capable general, Bel Riose, launching a military expedition against the Foundation. The threat subsided when an increasingly paranoid emperor recalled Riose. (11-I)
Seldon Crisis (fifth): As the owners of the Foundation's big trading companies strengthened their grip on government and became increasingly authoritarian, independent traders were increasingly isolated, and tension had built to the point of civil war. This conflict was overtaken by the Mule's conquest of the Foundation. (11-II)
Seldon Crisis (eighth): 498FE, there was a possibility of the Foundation moving its administrative capital away from Terminus as part of a too-hasty move towards the centre of the Galaxy. Harla Branno, then mayor, recognised the dangers and successfully fought to maintain the status quo. It was the appearance of Hari Seldon's hologram in the Time Vault with an accurate description of the state of the Foundation which convinced Branno that the Second Foundation still existed. (13-II-6)
Seldon Plan: Hari Seldon's work in the field of psychohistory led him to see as inevitable the collapse of the Galactic Empire through the vulnerability of the highly centralised autocracy on Trantor to opportunist attack.; His Plan to secure as quick and humane as possible a transition to a stable Second Empire consisted essentially of two foundations. The First, disguised initially as an Encyclopedia Galactica to gain Imperial funding, formed a resilient economic core based on advancing technology which would expand as the old Empire collapsed. The Second, hidden from all but themselves, consisted of psychohistorians with mental powers who would continue to develop the Plan while ensuring that the First Foundation stuck to it.; As a part of the Plan, the staff recruited for the Encyclopedia project were exiled to Terminus, where, as the Foundation, they could expand in relative safety from the collapsing Empire while having a technological edge over their less well-prepared neighbours.; The people of the Foundation itself was aware of the Seldon Plan only as something which they believed had guaranteed in advance the Foundation's long-term success as the inheritor of the old Empire. (10; 11; 12; 13)
Semic, Elvett: Professor-emeritus of physics at the University of Terminus who helped Toran Darell design the Mental Static Device used against the Second Foundation agents on Terminus. (12-II-9,20,21)
Senter, Lee: Leader of a farming community on Trantor after the Great Sack. Senter met Bayta and Toran Darell, Ebling Mis, and the Mule on their landing. (11-II-23)
Sermak, Sef: Terminus City Councillor, and one of the founders of the Action Party. Although the policies of then-Mayor Salvor Hardin were proved right, Sermak evidently gained enough political power at a later date to institute land reforms in the neighbouring Kingdom of Smyrno. (10-III-1,4,V-1)
Settlers: Second wave of emigrants which left Earth, after the Spacers had lapsed into moribundity and complacency. Starting with Baleyworld, the Settlers eventually spread throughout most of the habitable parts of the galaxy. (4; 14)
Shandess, Quindor: Twenty-fifth First Speaker of the Second Foundation. Essentially a scholar during an extended time of peace and prosperity for both Foundations, he broke with convention by attempting to apply the Seldon Plan to an individual, Golan Trevize, but saw enough to agree with Stor Gendibal about the importance of Trevize and the existence of what he called Anti-Mules with powers of mental control which were more subtle than the Second Foundation's own.; Importantly, he supported Gendibal against the hostility of the other Speakers in general and the ambition of Delora Delarmi in particular, enabling Gendibal to survive Delarmi's attempt to have him removed from the Table. He also agreed with Gendibal's call for a total network of Second Foundationers in order to supply Gendibal with enough power to confront Gaia. (13-5,7,8,10)
Shekt, Affret: Physicist at the Institute for Nuclear Research in Chica, Earth, in the ninth century of the Galactic Empire, once politically active as an Assimilationist. Inventor of the Synapsifier. (7-4 etc.)
Shekt, Pola: Affret Shekt's daughter, and a worker at the Institute for Nuclear Research in Chica, Earth, in the ninth century of the Galactic Empire. Later wife of Bel Arvardan. (7-4 etc.)
Simpson: Colleague of Elijah Baley on New York's Police Force. (1-1)
Siwenna: Former capital of the Normannic Sector. Used as a base by Wiscard during his planned takeover of the region, Siwenna's people rebelled only to to be attacked by Imperial forces. (10-V-10)
Skystrip Two: Elder of the Temple of Mycogen. (8-11-52)
Smitheus: One of the Outer Worlds. (3-12-49)
Smitko: Bacteriologist of Earth in the ninth century of the Galactic Empire, treated with the Synapsifier in order to speed development of the virus to be used in the Zealots' war against the rest of the Empire. (7-20)
Smool: Hiroko's father. (14-VI-17-75)
Smushyk: Planet of the Periphery. (12-II-18)
Smyrno: Prefect some 50 parsecs from Terminus, and one of the Four Kingdoms, rebelling against Imperial rule at around the same time as Anacreon. For a while between the disintegration of the Empire in the Periphery and the establishment of the Foundation as a political force, Smyrno was at war with Anacreon. It was the birthplace of Hober Mallow and Munn Li Compor. (10-II-2)
Sobhaddartha, Jogoroth: Sayshellian Customs official who inspected Trevize's and Pelorat's Far Star on their visit to Sayshell. (13-9-40)
Society of Ancients: See Earth. (7-6)
Solaria: Planet, 9,500 miles in diameter, the outermost of three orbiting a star in what in Imperial and later times was known as the Sirius Sector, and the last of the fifty Outer Worlds to be colonized by the Spacers, settled from the neighbouring world of Nexon when Nexon's ruling class found the affluence of their lifestyles threatened by an increasing population and limitations on the number of robots they were allowed. The Solarians' expertise in constructing robots enabled them to corner the market exporting high-quality, specialized robots to the other Outer Worlds, and to keep their independence secure, with strict birth and immigration controls keeping their population stable at 20,000, living in 30 million square miles of fertile land, while with some 10,000 robots per human they became the most robotocized of all the Outer Worlds.; By the time of Elijah Baley's visit to Solaria some two hundred years after its independence, the development of sophisticated trimensional viewing systems meant that its citizens never had to meet save for sexual contact between partners who had been matched by gene analysis, preferring to remain alone on their huge estates. All work was done by robots, including the ectogenetic raising of young from embryo to adulthood, with month-old foetuses grown on a farm, where they were screened and unhealthy specimens or unwanted mutations destroyed.; Its small and widely dispersed population, and general lack of personal and familial ambition because of universal affluence and the lack of traditional family structures and the secrecy of parentage records, meant that crime was virtually unknown.; When Aurora's non-interventionist foreign policy led to a new and vigorous wave of colonization from Earth all communications from Solaria ceased, and it was assumed that its human population had abandoned the planet to the robots, which D.G.Baley's salvage expedition found to have been programmed to attack as non-human any visitors without the distinctive Solarian accent.; Solaria was forgotten until, many thousands of years later, Golan Trevize, Janov Pelorat and Bliss landed during their search for the lost planet Earth. They found that while conflicts had raged in the rest of the galaxy, the Spacers of Solaria had adopted a policy of total isolationism, though they had apparently kept up with events around them by monitoring hyperspatial communications, and that through genetic engineering had turned themselves into hermaphrodites with brains capable of transducing external energy sources.; The planet was divided into 1,200 estates with extensive underground mansions, Sarton Bander's estate being some 40,000 square kilometres in area, each ruled by a single adult Solarian living in complete isolation except for essential electronic contact with other Rulers. Robots carried out maintenance work, produced goods for trade with other Rulers, and were given the upbringing of the fertilized egg when a Ruler needed offspring. The population was rigidly controlled, with surplus children killed, and the energy needs of each estate was met by the conversion of heat flow within the boundaries of the estate to mechanical energy, through the Solarians' transducer-lobes. (2; 3-6-24; 4-2,4-12-49; 14-IV)
Sopellor, Evander: Lieutenant of the Foundation's Mayoralty Security Corps sent to escort Golan Trevize from Security headquarters to his house on the occasion of Trevize's arrest and exile. (13-1-4)
Southwark: Seaside city of Rhodia. (6-10)
Spacers: Descendants of the early emigrants from Earth, who had colonized the fifty Outer Worlds before Earth's population increase led to its urbanization, overthrown Earth's domination in the Great Rebellion, and secured a monopoly of hyperspatial travel through a rate of technological progress which far outstripped that of an overcrowded and resource-rationed Earth. Through the eradication of pathogenic organisms, selective breeding and an intensive study of ageing processes, they enjoyed lifetimes of over three centuries in luxury and personal security due to their highly advanced and numerous robots.; Spacer attitudes towards Earth became sharply polarized into Globalist and Humanist, though both factions attempted to some extent to hide their fear of contact with Earthpeople who still carried potentially dangerous diseases. The Humanists' attempt to encourage Earth to become an integrated human-robot society along the lines of the Outer Worlds failed, and the Spacers' already pronounced individualism and materialism became complacency and moribundity.; When Earth began its own wave of colonization without robots the Spacers were unable to compete with the more numerous and vigorous Settlers, and after they were first ostracized and then forgotten by the Settlers, with the exception of the descendants of Aurora of the Mycogen sector of Trantor and the extreme isolationist Solaria, all the Spacer worlds died. (1; 2; 14)
Spacetown: Enclave of Spacers on Earth, abandoned after the murder there of Roj Nemennuh Sarton, and when the Spacers realised that without a focus for anti-robot and anti-Spacer sentiment a conservative Earth would be more likely to take the initiative in colonizing the galaxy themselves. (1-2,7)
Speaker: See Foundation, Second. (12-I-1,2,3,4,6,II-8,10,22; 13-5,7,8,10)
Speaker, First: See Foundation, Second. (12-I-1,2,3,4,6,II-8,10,22; 13-5,7,8,10)
Squires: Term used on Florina to refer to the Sarkite rulers who lived in the Upper City. On Sark itself it referred more to the wealthiest of the Sarkites. Most specifically of all, the Great Squires were the five Squires of Balle, Bort, Fife, Rune and Steen, heads of landowning families who between them controlled both Sark and the trade in kyrt from Florina. (5)
Stanmark: Town outside Terminus City, the home of Toran Darell. (12-II-18)
Stannell II: Early, and evidently mad, Emperor. Deposed by Edard. (7-6)
Stannell VI: Described as the last strong emperor, presiding over a brief cultural and social renascence in the Empire. Died c.105FE. (10-V-10; 11-I-4)
Starlet: Imperial patrol ship of Bel Riose's fleet, lost during Riose's initial move against the Foundation. (11-I-3)
Star's End: One of the supposed clues left by Hari Seldon to the location of the Second Foundation, "at the other end of the galaxy". Bail Channis used the similarity with the name Tazenda as one of the reasons for leading Han Pritcher and the Mule there. (9-IV-34,V; 12-I-2,22; 13-4-16)
Steen: One of the five continents of Sark. (5-9,14)
Stettin: Ruler (self-styled "First Citizen" after the Mule) of Kalgan at the time of Homir Munn and Arkady Darell's visit, he was manipulated by the Second Foundation into launching an unsuccessful attack on the Foundation, which the Second Foundation believed was still too inward-looking after their earlier conquest by the Mule. (12-II-12,13,14)
Streeling: Sector of Imperial Trantor. Hari Seldon first stayed at Streeling University while trying to avoid the attentions of the Imperium, later returning as a permanent member of staff when it became clear that he could continue his research in relative safety. (8-3,4,5,6; 9-I,III,IV)
Sunbadger: Dahlian slang term for security officer. (8-XVI-78)
Sunmaster Fourteen: High Elder of Mycogen who, at Chetter Hummin's instigation, provided refuge from the unwanted attentions of the Imperium for Hari Seldon and Dors Venabili, and who later released them when they had illegally entered the Sacratorium. (8-8,9-57,58)
Suranoviremblastiran: See Novi, Sura. (13-19-82)
Sutt, Jorane: Described by Ankor Jael as "the cleverest politician on the planet", the Foundation mayor's secretary who sent Hober Mallow to Korell to investigate the disappearance of Foundation traders while himself plotting to use the orthodox religious hierarchies established on the Four Kingdoms to take control of the Foundation, where the traders were in the ascendancy. The ignominious collapse of his public trial of Mallow effectively ended his political career. (10-V)
Sutt, Tomaz: Member of the Board of Trustees of the Encyclopedia Committee at the time of Salvor Hardin's coup. (10-II-3)
Synapsifier: Affret Shekt's experimental device to improve the learning capacity of the mammalian nervous system, functioning by speeding the transmission of nerve impulses. (7-3,4,5; 13-12-44)
Synnax: Home planet of Gaal Dornick. (1-I-1)