Summary

Ana Thurmond is the secondary protagonist of Unsong, a young, yet brilliant theology graduate from Stanford University, and the best friend and unrequited love interest of Aaron Smith-Teller. Ana is deeply invested (and also personally infuriated) by the Problem of Evil, and is thus a passionate student of Theodicy — the desire to understand and vindicate why an Omnipotent and Perfectly Good God would allow so much evil and suffering to exist in the world, even going as far as being awarded the title of "Augustine Distinguished Scholar in Theodicy" from Stanford.

Ana is also a member of the Unitarian Church, an underground religious-political counterculture movement which seeks to undermine the unchallenged authority of that UNSONG and the Theonomic Corporations have over the usage and copyright-claim of the Names of God. She lives on a group house called Ithaca alongside her cousin, the revolutionary Erica Lowry, Aaron, and the other members of the local Unitarian Hub.

However, when UNSONG agents chase after Aaron for unlicensed usage of Secret Names, Ana is forced to leave her home behind and set out on the run throughout the Untied States. Her dangerous journey leads her to meeting with the mysterious crew of a magical boat in search of God across the sea, sailing on a voyage that will inexorably lead her to meet face with face with The Metatron, and discover the true answer of Theodicy from the lips of the Voice of God itself.

Powers and Stats

Tier: 10-B

Name: Ana Thurmond

Origin: Unsong

Gender: Female

Age: Unknown

Classification: Human

Powers and Abilities: Immortality (Limited Type 6) and Telepathy (With Sacred Kabbalistic Marriage of Minds), Invisibility (With the Spectral Name), Pseudo-Flight (With the Airwalker/Airwalking Name and the Ascending Name), Air Manipulation (With the Zephyr/Mistral Name), Damage Reduction (With the Bulletproof Name), Electricity Manipulation (With the Fulminant Name), Telekinesis (With the Motive Name), Teleportation (With the Vanishing Name), Holy Manipulation (With the Sanctifying Name), Clairvoyance (With the Revelatory Name), Healing (With the Wakening Name), possibly every Name Aaron, Uriel, Sohu, Dylan, Erica, Sarah, and THARMAS know (Sacred Kabbalistic Marriage of Minds can unconsciously pass knowledge of Names between people, with the recipient often not knowing they know the Names or can use them. Near the end of the series, Ana becomes part of a telepathic network including all those people listed)

Attack Potency: Human level

Speed: Average Human

Lifting Strength: Average Human

Striking Strength: Human level

Durability: Human level

Stamina: Average

Range: Standard Melee Range normally, likely Several Meters with most Hidden Transcendent Names of God (No exact range or comparison is given for the Names of God, but many are at the bare minimum capable of reaching across rooms)

Standard Equipment: None notable

Intelligence: Gifted. Ana is a very knowledgeable and learned theologician, going as far as receiving the nationally-honored title of Augustine Distinguished Scholar in Theodicy from Stanford University. She is the only person in Ithaca who is able to consistently match Aaron in discussions of theological minutia and in games of seemingly-random word association, with the two able to spend hours debating and bantering by quoting scripture, creating highly-specific Biblical puns, and identifying Kabbalistic Correspondences between the most insignificant and unrelated elements and concepts.

Weaknesses: Most names, particularly the most powerful ones, are extremely long and thus take several seconds to speak, making them largely useless in direct combat.

Notable Attacks/Techniques:

Hidden Transcendent Names of God: Ana is aware of many Hidden Transcendent Names of God. These are close-to-random assortments of syllables that when spoken create supernatural effects. However, since most people can only speak around eight or ten letters per second, most of these, particularly the more powerful ones, take many seconds to speak, making them largely useless in direct combat.

• Sacred Kabbalistic Marriage of Minds: Sacred Kabbalistic Marriage of Minds is a ritual fueled by a Name of God which allows two minds to connect across distance and death.^[1] This grants those linked telepathy with each other, and makes it so that if one of them dies their mind is transferred to the other's, allowing some persistence after death.^[2] To the point that control of the alive person's body can be passed to the dead person.^[3] SCABMOM also has the side-effect of passing knowledge of Names through these telepathic links, seemingly unconsciously.^[4][5] But as this is an unconscious process they're not consciously aware of these Names they learn this way unless they're explicitly consciously shared.^[6]
• The Spectral Name: The Spectral Name turns the speaker invisible, but wears off as soon as they speak another word.^[7]
• The Airwalking Name: The Airwalking Name lets the speaker walk on air as if it were solid ground.^[8]
• The Zephyr Name: The Zephyr Name calls various winds before the user, the squall, simoon, sirocco, monsoon, marin, zephyr, levante, tramontane, haboob, and the Santa Ana.^[9] The user is then able to fling these winds at a target.^[10]
• The Bulletproof Name: The Bulletproof Name is a forty-letter long Name which protects the speaker from exactly one bullet.^[11] The bullet still hurts the recipient,^[12] but causes far less damage than normal.
• The Ascending Name: The Ascending Name lets one rise into the air. Exactly how high it sends someone seems controllable, capable of sending someone up to a balcony,^[12] atop the Empire State Building,^[13] or even higher than the hills.^[14]
• The Fulminant Name: The Fulminant Name shoots a lightning bolt, capable of lighting objects on fire.^[15] It's short range^[16] and rarely fatal, but it could knock someone out long enough to be captured.^[17]
• The Motive Name: The Motive Name is used to make things move. It's usually used to make cars move, replacing the internal combustion engine,^[18] and it can also be used to turn locks.^[19] It was also seemingly used by Sarah to let her move despite not having legs/a body.^[20]
• The Sanctifying Name: The Sanctifying Name blesses an area.^[21]
• The Revelatory Name: The Revelatory Name reveals hidden dangers.^[21]
• The Wakening Name: The Wakening Name sends a jolt of energy through people,^[21] effectively acting as a replacement for coffee.^[22]
• The Vanishing Name: The Vanishing Name acts as a form of teleportation, and has a range of at least hundreds of miles. However, it is limited in the sense that it only teleports the user into a situation complementary to the one they are already in: For example, if they use the Name to teleport away from a group of hooligans, they will reappear next to another group of hooligans looking for someone to accost.^[23]. In spite of that, this limitation can by bypassed if the user prepares artificial complementary situations that exist nowhere in the world, allowing them to effectively control their destination.^[24]

Notable Matchups

Victories:

Losses:

Inconclusive:

References

Discussions