Demerzel

Lore & Background

She is a gender-swapped and expanded version of Eto Demerzel, First Minister to Emperor Cleon I in Asimov's prequels Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation, where Demerzel is revealed to be the robot R. Daneel Olivaw. In the series she has served the dynasty since the first Cleon; only the emperors know she is an ageless robot, 18,000 years old and the last survivor of a war between humans and robots.

Reader's Guide

Her loyalty is to the dynasty itself above any single Cleon. Hari Seldon's psychohistory challenges her plans, and in season two a Seldon avatar gives her his Prime Radiant so she can use it to guarantee humanity's survival. Critics praised Birn's performance, with James Poniewozik of The New York Times calling it both mechanical and the most vulnerably human of the series.

A season two flashback shows her kept, after the Robot Wars, as the prisoner of Emperor Aburanis. Thousands of years later the young Cleon I finds her, visits her for her stories and, late in life, frees her, but first implants a chip that binds her to his plan to rule through his clones. As the clones drift from her path she grows more openly independent, even killing and replacing them.