François Leclerc

Name

• Canonical: François Leclerc
• Aliases: "Leclerc" in dialogue

Role in the story

French climatologist on the Petrova Taskforce, a renowned career scientist who has spent decades fighting to protect Earth's ecosystems. The taskforce's voice for what is at stake — when the math of the Astrophage timeline lands, Leclerc is the one who articulates exactly how many people will die and on what schedule. The moral conscience of the room.

Personality / energy

Gravely competent, weighty, articulate. Speaks rarely; when he does, the room listens. Possibly slightly older than the rest of the senior scientists in the room. Carries the burden of "this is real, and we are losing it."

Physical description

Sparse in summaries. What we lock:

• French-coded man, late fifties to mid-sixties
• Lean, intellectual build; not athletic but not fragile
• Gray hair, neatly trimmed; clean-shaven or with a short, well-kept beard
• Light skin, lined face, eyes that have spent decades watching graphs trend the wrong way
• Glasses likely (reading or full-time)
• Eyes: render as gray-blue or hazel

The book does not describe his face in detail. Render dignified, weathered, kind around the eyes despite the gravity.

Outfit / clothing notes

• A simple, well-cut button-down (plain blue or white) under a dark blazer
• Trousers, plain leather shoes
• Possibly a thin scarf or open collar — light French-academic styling
• A lanyard with a taskforce ID tag

Visual motifs

• A climate-graph projected behind him — temperature curves, agricultural-yield projections
• A pen tapping a table at a slow, mournful rhythm
• A globe or world-map visible somewhere in the frame

Magic / power signature

None — career human climatologist.

Chapter appearances

Background in Ch. 4–5 taskforce-briefing flashbacks. Appears in any scene where the global climate stakes are being articulated. Probably not a foreground subject of any specific chapter image.

Source references

See ../sources.md. Primary: SuperSummary character list, LitCharts.

Confidence

Low for face/clothing specifics, medium for role and gravity. Render as an aging French-coded senior climatologist with weight in his presence.