Dag

Overview

Dag is an extramuros migrant encountered as a passenger on a smuggler sledge heading toward Kolya. He travels alongside Laro and Brajj, and the narrator (an avout using a cover name). Not to be confused with the acronym "DAG," short for Directed Acyclic Graphs.

Appearance and Traits

• Little description is given; he is noted as the sturdier of the two migrants traveling together (Dag and Laro).
• He and Laro are described praying together and are characterized by others as Deolaters.
• Quiet and practical in manner; when survival work begins he takes over sawing tent poles to fabricate makeshift snowshoes.

Roles and Actions

• Boards a one-sledge smuggler train during a storm; shares the covered sledge with Laro and Brajj while the avout narrator rides with them in a suitsack.
• When the drivers depart - claiming they will return with fuel - Dag joins the group's effort to break camp, salvage gear, and craft snowshoes and a toboggan for a self-rescue descent toward the coast.
• Roped between Brajj (lead) and Laro (aft), Dag is pulled off the safe line during a steep traverse; shortly after, he disappears into a crevasse during a small slide. Subsequent rescue efforts recover the toboggan and Laro; Dag does not reappear.

Relationships

• Laro: Travels as a close companion; the narrator infers they may be brothers or near-kin. They pray together and are treated as a pair by others.
• Brajj: A fellow passenger who organizes the self-rescue. Brajj uses a common extramuros slur for Dag and Laro and prioritizes survival decisions during the descent.

Current Status

Dag is not recovered after the crevasse incident and is presumed dead by the narrator; in a later retelling he also characterizes it as Dag's "death - or his being left for dead," underscoring the uncertainty. No burial or recovery is described, and no further sightings are recorded.