Sophon
Names: Sophonsophons
First appears in Book 3: Death's End, chapter 21 (Deterrence Era, Year 61 The Swordholder)
Appearances
What you know
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 21Sophon is a robot woman controlled by sophons, serving as the Trisolaran ambassador to Earth; she lives in a bamboo house atop a giant tree.
- Ch 21Sophon hosts Cheng Xin and AA in a tea ceremony and, through gentle words, implicitly urges women to protect their fragile world together.
- Ch 31Sophon now appears in desert camouflage with short hair, a ninja scarf and a katana, both gentle and deadly.
- Ch 31Sophon easily brushes off AA's rock attack and cuts AA's hair with her katana, terrifying her.
- Ch 31Sophon tells Cheng Xin and AA to prepare to go to Australia and calls them pitiful bugs.
- Ch 34Sophon appears in camouflage with a katana on her back and announces Trisolaran terms to the world for the first time since deterrence ended.
- Ch 34Sophon threatens that after one year, humans outside the reservations will be exterminated as invaders, and droplets will keep attacking cities if relocation doesn't begin.
- Ch 35Sophon, in camouflage with a katana, brutally killed refugees at a Carnegie food distribution center to force order and declared the end of degenerate freedom.
- Ch 35Sophon recruited a human naval force to stop anyone leaving Australia, and proposed New Zealand as a buffer zone to speed resettlement.
- Ch 35Sophon had killed people at a food distribution center, declaring 'The era for humanity's degenerate freedom is over.'
- Ch 35Sophon declared the Australian Reservation completely severed from the outside world and blockaded, with anyone trying to leave to be exterminated as an invader of Trisolaris.
- Ch 35Sophon announced that all electricity and modern technology in Australia is prohibited for three months until the Trisolaran Fleet arrives, and that the Earth Security Force is destroying generators.
- Ch 35Sophon predicted only thirty to fifty million of Australia's 4.2 billion people would survive the three months of struggle for food.
- Ch 35Sophon, controlled by aliens four light-years away, is thought of by humans as an individual woman; she had secretly watched over Cheng Xin's welfare.
- Ch 35Sophon agreed to send Earth Security Force people to retrieve AA and Fraisse and leave a sophon near Cheng Xin to hear her if she needs help.
- Ch 37Sophon announced the news through the information window and ordered the Earth Security Force to assist evacuating Australia.
- Ch 43After the broadcast six years ago, Sophon withdrew from public life and mostly served as a speaking tube for Trisolaris.
- Ch 43Sophon is awed by Luo Ji, sitting farther from him and bowing to him more slowly and deeply than to Cheng Xin.
- Ch 43Sophon's controllers are probably on Trisolaran Fleet ships, since earlier controllers likely died with Trisolaris.
- Ch 44Pointed out that dark forest strikes are casual, with attackers not conducting close surveillance of targets; Sophon will not tell humanity how to broadcast a safety notice.
- Ch 45Crowds worship at Sophon's house, hanging about 400 meters up a giant tree; she bows to them when she appears but never answers their pleas.
- Ch 45Sophon announced she was leaving and held a final silent tea ceremony for Cheng Xin and Luo Ji.
- Ch 47Sophon controls a traffic-light system of green, yellow and red lights in the dinghy to monitor Cheng Xin's conversation with Tianming.
- Ch 47Sophon proclaimed that all sophons in the Solar System would be withdrawn, and her house and robot avatar were burned.
- Ch 73Sophon is a robot manager of Universe 647, controlled by sophons; she is a collection of digital bits and many copies of her exist.
- Ch 73She says she has never met Yun Tianming, last saw AA on Earth, and does not know why they are absent.
- Ch 73She estimates the great universe will collapse into a singularity after about ten years of Universe 647 time.
- Ch 73Sophon advises against returning, citing unknown conditions: Planet Blue vanished, Mr. Yun's star is extinguished, and the universe may no longer be three-dimensional.
- Ch 73Sophon has known Cheng Xin for almost twenty million years and tells her she is still living for her responsibility.
- Ch 75Sophon used Universe 647's control system to move the mini-universe's exit inside the great universe, searching for a habitable world.
- Ch 75Sophon promised Cheng Xin and Yifan that no harm would come to them as long as she lives.
Connections
- member ofOur Lordacts as Trisolaran ambassador to Earth
- related toSolar FleetObeyed her orders to return to Mars
- ally ofEarth Security Forcerecruited by and serves her
- related toEarth Security Forceordered by Sophon to assist evacuation
- friend ofCheng Xin
- related toTrisolaran Interstellar Fleetcontrolled by people likely aboard its ships
- related toSophon's houseSophon's residence
- leadsUniverse 647manager
- ally ofCheng Xin
- friend ofGuan Yifan
Key moments
- Book 3 · Ch 21Tea ceremony with Sophon
Cheng Xin and AA visit Sophon's tree house, where Sophon performs a long tea ceremony and hints that women must protect the fragile world together.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Sophon confronts Cheng Xin at the crater
Sophon reveals Cheng Xin was kept alive as a safety shield, that Gravity was destroyed, and that Wade would have been feared. She then leaves, telling them to prepare for Australia.
- Book 3 · Ch 34Reservation Proclamation
Sophon announces the Second Trisolaran Fleet arrives in four years and orders humanity to disarm and resettle in Australia within one year.
- Book 3 · Ch 34Great Resettlement begins
After the attacks and Sophon's second speech promising eventual coexistence, humanity begins relocating to Australia.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Sophon enforces order at Carnegie
A food distribution turns into a riot; Sophon kills many refugees with her katana, then orders them to form a line, which they do.
- Book 3 · Ch 35The Great Resettlement completes
With New Zealand as buffer, the last refugees reach Australia three days before the deadline; 4.16 billion are in Australia, and Sophon orders extermination of those outside.
- Book 3 · Ch 35ESF raids; Cheng Xin seeks Sophon
ESF bombers strike Australian power plants and harbors. Cheng Xin bikes to the city government and asks the mayor to contact Sophon or send her to Canberra; he refuses and advises her to stay.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Sophon announces the genocide of Australia
Addressing an emergency UN General Assembly in Canberra, Sophon declares a blockade of Australia and a ban on electricity for three months, dooming most of the 4.2 billion people there to starvation.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Cheng Xin goes blind and rescues her friends
Cheng Xin faints on hearing the announcement and wakes blind. She speaks to Sophon by phone, asking that AA and Fraisse be evacuated, and refuses to leave herself.
- Book 3 · Ch 37Announcement of the universal broadcast
Sophon announces over the information window that Gravity broadcast Trisolaris' location. The Trisolarans flee, the droplets vanish, and the crowd in Australia erupts in cheers as the refugees prepare to return home.
- Book 3 · Ch 43Conversation of the Way of Tea
Sophon hosts Cheng Xin and Luo Ji, describes Trisolaris's destruction and dark forest attacks, and answers Luo Ji's one question: a safety notice to the universe exists.
- Book 3 · Ch 44Humanity debates safety notice proposals
After the Sophon–Cheng Xin–Luo Ji conversation is publicized, humanity floods in proposals for a safety notice, which divide into declaratory and self-mutilation camps, but none solve the problem of convincing a distant universe.
- Book 3 · Ch 45Sophon's farewell tea
Before a vast silent crowd, Sophon holds a final tea with Cheng Xin and Luo Ji, then says her last mission is a message: Yun Tianming wants to see Cheng Xin.
- Book 3 · Ch 47Briefing on the Sophon-controlled dinghy
The fleet chief explains the traffic-light warning system and bomb in the dinghy; Cheng Xin accepts the risk and the dinghy departs five hours later for the Lagrangian point.
- Book 3 · Ch 47Sophon's withdrawal
Sophon's house and robot avatar burned as she announced all sophons would be withdrawn from the Solar System, though people doubted it.
- Book 3 · Ch 73Meeting Sophon the manager
Sophon greets them as manager, explains the universe is Yun Tianming's gift meant to let them survive the great universe's collapse and see the new universe.
- Book 3 · Ch 73Life and study in the mini-universe
They farm with robots, learn Trisolaran script, and study the universe's construction. Over time Yifan grows troubled and tells Cheng Xin about 'loss of mass'.
- Book 3 · Ch 73The Returners' broadcast
A supermembrane broadcast from the great universe lists 1.57 million languages, including Trisolaran and Earth. Its message says the universe is becoming open and asks mini-universes to return their mass.
- Book 3 · Ch 73Decision to return
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan decide to return to the great universe despite Sophon's warnings, to help prevent its eternal death.
- Book 3 · Ch 75Dismantling Universe 647
Robots send all soil, floor, machinery, sky, house, sun, water and air through the door into the great universe, leaving only the ship and a few objects.
- Book 3 · Ch 75Leaving the mini-universe
Sophon leaves a message-in-a-bottle box for the next universe, Cheng Xin leaves her ecological sphere, and the three board the spaceship and exit through the door toward the habitable planet.