recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Singe the Hour

**Singe the Hour** is a Kel bannermoth which was in service during the Hafn invasion of the hexarchate. It appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

*Singe the Hour* is the lead bannermoth of Tactical Group Five of the Swanknot swarm. It is commanded by Commander Kel Kavinte.

During the swarm's first contact with Hafn outriders, Kavinte's group formed Swallow Braves the Thorns, a flashy formation that could easily be mistaken for Wave-Breaker, and reported that the Hafn vessels reacted when the group had closed to a distance of 49 Hafn ayyan, forming a concave dish centered towards the Kel formation and sending signals toward the main body of the Hafn swarm. The group then formed Every Mirror Is A Flatterer, an illusion generator which made the group's formants, but not visuals, appear to be those of more outriders. The Hafn outriders responded to the formants rather than visuals, moving into a disadvantageous position and demonstrating that they were not crewed by independent humans. As requested, Tactical Five proceeded to demolish the outrider caskets, successfully capturing one for examination despite others self-destructing rather than be taken intact, and returned to fill the swarm's null pivot. Over the next three hours, *Singe the Hour's* engineering team opened the casket with due caution and attempted to keep the contents alive, but were unsuccessful.

During the battle near Minang Tower, Kavinte alerted General Kel Khiruev to a formation break caused by the Hafn traitor's lance attack, and was ordered to prioritize the destruction of fourteen afflicted bannermoths from Groups Five and Three. As the battle continued, she passed along visuals showing how the traitor's lance had infected the bannermoths.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
The Chameleon's Gloves

**The Chameleon's Gloves** is a short story by Yoon Ha Lee set in the distant past of the Machineries of Empire universe. It appears in *Cosmic Powers* (April 2017) and *The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume 12* (March 2018), and will be reprinted in Hexarchate Stories (June 2019).

## Extract

*Rhehan hated museums, but their partner Liyeusse had done unmentionable things to the ship’s stardrive the last time the two of them had fled the authorities, and the repairs had drained their savings. Which was why Rhehan was on a station too close to the more civilized regions of the dustways, flirting with a jeweled woman and feigning interest in pre-Devolutionist art.*

*In spite of themselves, Rhehan was impressed by colonists who had carved pictures into the soles of worn-out space boots: so useless that it had to be art, not that they planned to say that to the woman.*

## Blurb

*A space adventure involving a heist gone wrong, a weapon of mass destruction, and weird space art. Just because.*

## Summary

Captured by a judge-errant during an attempted art theft, exiled ex-Kel Rhehan, a rare haptic chameleon, is promised reinstatement with the Kel in exchange for infiltrating the command ship of rogue general Kel Kavarion and disarming a stolen superbomb. Under control of a coldhearted Kel sergeant and fearing for their partner in crime, Liyeusse, Rhehan infiltrates the ship but is immediately captured by Kavarion, who has been trying to keep the bomb out of the wrong hands. When the bomb cannot be disarmed, Kavarion asks Rhehan to smuggle it away from surrounding Kel swarms and occupied space, placing her Kel gloves and her honor in Rhehan's hands. Abandoning the Kel sergeant wounded but alive on Kavarion's ship, Rhehan and Liyeusse flee with the bomb and accomplish their mission, foregoing Rhehan's chance to return to the Kel and leaving them broke and on the run together -- exactly where Rhehan wants to be.

## Trivia

* This is the only story in the continuity to take place before the formation of the heptarchate and showing the culture of the Kel who predated their later identity as a faction of that regime. It also predates mothdrive, which was developed in its earliest form in the heptarchate.

## References

1. ↑ Author's website
2. ↑ Author's website
Shuos Sfenni

**Shuos Sfenni** is a Shuos administrator on Minner Station. He appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Sfenni has a round, soft face incongruously set above a boxer's frame, a rumbling voice, and a tendency toward unctuous obliquity, though he is capable of brisk action when convinced of its necessity. His office is crammed with expensive hand-bound books on cloudwood shelves, along with a cloudwood liquor cabinet. He likes his comforts, appreciates boredom, and takes placebo medications for anxiety.

## History

Sfenni has an office deep in the bowels of Minner Station. A tasseled woman with gills acts as his assistant. Recently, Sfenni's brandy supply has dried up and his collection of brandies is currently atrocious.

Substituting for Shuos Oyan, Sfenni processed Colonel Kel Brezan after the interception of Brezan's message to Shuos Zehun caused the colonel to be routed to Minner Station. Sfenni checked whether Medical had cleaned Brezan up before inviting him into his office. After summarizing a pile of hand-off reports, Sfenni informed Brezan of Minner's inoffensively boring status, offered him a drink, and worked round to requiring a bribe for use of a secured terminal to call Kel Command, helpfully providing routing information to hide its purpose. After the transfer, Sfenni dispatched Brezan to a guest room to wait, mentioning that he needed to deal with a Vidona envoy next.

Several days later, Sfenni received word that the Swanknot swarm had been suborned. He sent for Brezan again, ignoring the outburst when Brezan assumed he was going to ask for another bribe, and finally provided a secure communications channel, advising Brezan to make his report and not to bother looking for the green pills in the desk, because placebos probably wouldn't affect him.
Station Mavi 514-11

**Station Mavi 514-11** was a space station in the hexarchate. The seat of Nirai government, it appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Mavi 514-11 was a space station ringed with a lace of engines, sensor arrays, and whirring structures built of concentric wheels.

Hexarch Nirai Faian invited the other faction's hexarchs to the station to obtain immortality using her new technique, recalibrating it for five hexarchs after Hexarch Kel Tsoro declined the invitation on the behalf of her entire faction. Hexarchs Rahal Iruja, Vidona Psa, and Andan Shandal Yeng arrived as planned. When Faian received a vidcall purporting to be from Hexarch Shuos Mikodez on the shadowmoth *Eyes Unstabbed*, she greeted him and expected him to dock at the station and receive immortality with the rest of them as previously planned.

Instead, the shadowmoth used its knife cannon to shear the station and its power core nearly in half and then self-destructed without warning, destroying all four hexarchs along with the body double of Mikodez who had carried out the strike.

## References

1. ↑ The Factions: Low Faction Nirai
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 15
Eyes Unstabbed

The following content contains plot or ending spoilers. Read with caution!

**Eyes Unstabbed** was a Shuos shadowmoth used to destroy Nirai Station Mavi 514-11. It appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

*Eyes Unstabbed* was selected to carry out a suicide run against Station Mavi 514-11. For security reasons, the commander and crew were not informed of this mission and believed they were carrying Hexarch Shuos Mikodez to the station when they were actually carrying his body double, Vauhan Istradez.

When the moth arrived at the station's checkpoint radius, the commander called Istradez to check if he intended to unstealth. The moth's scan readings weren't much help due to the stealth system, so Istradez ordered it to be unstealthed and, in character as Mikodez, offered the commander a honey cookie, which she tactfully declined because the pine nuts tended to get stuck in teeth.

After vid-calling Hexarch Nirai Faian, again in character as Mikodez, and confirming that Hexarchs Rahal Iruja, Vidona Psa, and Andan Shandal Yeng had already arrived, Istradez entered the final override and locked the moth's commander and crew out of its controls. Though the commander attempted to contact him on the emergency backup channel, he did not answer, and *Eyes Unstabbed* sheared through the station with its knife cannon and triggered a self-destruct sequence with no safeguards or countdown, destroying both the station and itself.

## Trivia

* Istradez thought of the moth's name as a "typical cheery Shuos name."
Kel Nikara

**Kel Nikara** was a Kel soldier who served in Heron Company. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Kel Nikara, remembered by Captain Kel Cheris as a soldier who sang well, served in the action against the Eels on the planet Dredge.

During a battering of Eelfire, Nikara took part in an unconventional formation as ordered by Cheris. Falling out of formation three paces to Cheris's left, Nikara vanished in "a vapor of blood and tatters."
Nirai Maholarion

**Nirai Maholarion** is a Nirai researcher. She appears briefly in Raven Stratagem.

## History

A long-haired woman who chews on the end of her stylus, Maholarion is a researcher on Station Anner 56-5. She uses obsolete Mevru data solids, possibly for backwards compatibility, and is sometimes assisted by a mothform servitor.

Despite state-of-the-art noise cancellation, Maholorian detected strange scan formants which she theorized might be side-effects of Hafn arrivals in hexarchate space. After compiling notes on her findings, she debated whether to forward them to the Kel, handing the data solids off to a mothform servitor for storage. A staticky recording of Maholorian and her findings made its way to the Swanknot swarm, where it joined multiple reports from independent observers confirming the strange formants and was passed to Scan and Doctrine for analysis.
Moonsweet Blossom

The following content contains plot or ending spoilers. Read with caution!

The **Moonsweet Blossom** is a trademoth from the heptarchate. It appears in the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## History

Commanded by Ahun Gerav, the *Moonsweet Blossom* was a merchanter moth used by the Shuos to spy in the Gwa Reality.

Unknown to the rest of the crew, Gerav was a deep-cover spy for the Gwa-an. When the ship was waylaid by the Gwa-an at Du Station, a crewwoman sent a message to Shuos Intelligence which was received with garbled video and scant audio: "...*Blossom*, code red to Overwatch... Gerav’s in *[words obscured by static]* Du Station. You’d better— [*two gunshots, silence*]”

The *Moonsweet Blossom* was impounded and its crew, except for Gerav, executed. However, Shuos Jedao, having been briefed on the distress call twenty-six days after the vessel's capture, extracted Gerav and the *Blossom* from the station, slaved it to another "trader" vessel, and returned it to the heptarchate.
Linnis Orua

**Linnis Orua** is a citizen of the hexarchate who appears in the flashfic Sword-Shopping, and is, at the time, the girlfriend of Ajewen Cheris.

## Appearance and Personality

Orua is taller than Cheris and has long, luxuriously rippling wavy hair. She is amused by Kel aesthetics and cares more about special effects and makeup on dueling shows than the actual dueling, but knows Cheris well enough to anticipate the aesthetics she prefers.

## History

Orua grew up on an enclosed station and is uncomfortable with natural or artificial weather, particularly wind, which, on the station, might have signaled a carapace breach.

After becoming Cheris's girlfriend, she accompanies Cheris, who wishes to purchase a calendrical sword, to a shop called "Blades for All Occasions." Seeing Cheris's regret over the inattainability of a very showy and expensive hilt, Orua points out a display of swords more in tune with Cheris's preferences and abilities, mischievously whispering suggestions of further activities later that night until Cheris pointedly -- but happily -- interrupts by choosing one of the swords from the display.

## Trivia

* Orura was created specifically for this story.

## References

1. ↑ Sword-Shopping
2. ↑ Author's remarks
Servitor 819825

**Servitor 819825** is a Kel servitor who served on the cindermoth *Unspoken Law*. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

819825 is prone to lecturing and particular about servitor morality. Servitor 244666 thinks it has an annoying prim streak.

## History

Due to a glitch in the cindermoth's variable layout, 819825 spotted 244666, the lead servitor secretly assigned to keep tabs on Brevet General Kel Cheris in the cindermoth's public areas, exiting Cheris's quarters after illicitly planting a bug there. 819825 reported 244666 to the other servitors, who summoned 244666 to explain itself. 244666 did so, and 819825 gave it a detailed lecture on how courtesy was the foundation of servitor society and how the unfailingly polite brevet general deserved more consideration than being monitored around the clock. 244666, though still uneasy about the involvement of General Shuos Jedao, conceded defeat, and was temporarily shut in a dark service corridor for remedial meditation. Still, instead of leaving it alone, 819825 volunteered to keep it company in the corridor and stayed with it until its sentence was over.
Onuen Wei

**Onuen Wei** was a third-year Kel cadet in the same year as Kel Brezan. She is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Onuen Wei was sitting next to Brezan with the other cadets when their instructor entered to announce Exercise Purple 53. Noticing the gleam in the instructor's eyes, she breathed deeply, recognizing along with Brezan that the gleam was not a good sign for the cadets.

Upon receiving instructions for the scenario from Shuos Zehun, Wei was the second cadet to ask a question. She asked what the exercise's win condition was, and was told the cadets would know immediately if they lost.

Wei was given the same instructions as the other cadets in the exercise, and, like the rest of the class, did not succeed in beating it.
Jeweled Systems

The **Jeweled Systems** are a series of star systems in the hexarchate. They are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## Geography

The Jeweled Systems are in the Severed March.

## History

When the Hafn invaded the hexarchate during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles, General Kel Cherkad was assigned to repel them and Brigadier General Kel Marish of the Eyespike swarm was pulled off sentry to assist near the Jeweled Systems.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 14
Vidona Ekesra

> "*It was too late for me to save you when you got it into your head to research deprecated calendricals. But it's not too late to stop Khiruev from ending up like you.*"
> ― Vidona Ekesra
>
>

**Vidona Ekesra** was a Vidona who was one of the three parents of General Kel Khiruev. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Personality

Ekesra was neat and methodical, adept at the Vidona art of paper-folding, and had an "Inescapable Logic" tone that Khiruev dreaded, even as a child. She loathed heretics and heresy. Along with her spouses, she tolerated rather than encouraged Khiruev's mechanical aptitude. Khiruev learned from her to break daunting tasks down into small subtasks in order to get them done.

## History

Ekesra was married to Neshte Kthero, a teacher, and Neshte Allu, an ecoscrubber maintenance worker. They had one child, Neshte Khiruev, who called her Mother Ekesra. As a Vidona, Ekesra took part in the scouring or reprogramming of heretics, and would describe failed heresies and the purging process in a dispassionate, compartmentalized fashion when talking about her work at home.

When Khiruev was eleven, Ekesra found out that Kthero had been consorting with calendrical reenactors. She confronted him with it, arguing in front of Allu and Khiruev that Kthero's actions had exposed their daughter to heresy and that she would never forgive any more mistakes. Though tearful, she invoked summary judgment on him, killing him by means of Vidona deathtouch and folding his corpse-paper body into a pair of entangled swans. Then, embracing Allu, she wept for almost an hour while Khiruev watched.

Though Khiruev remained with her mothers after her father's death, she grew up terrified of Ekesra and the Vidona. She never forgot Ekesra's expression when Khiruev shorted out one of her pastry machines while tinkering. When Allu complained that Khiruev was a quiet child, Ekesra replied that at least Khiruev wasn't getting into trouble.

Ekesra's execution of Kthero traumatized Khiruev and cost her years of nightmares about corpse-paper, internalized terror of Ekesra and the Vidona, a career with the Kel due to fear of the consequences of independent thinking, a death wish, and a lifetime of depression. Khiruev later memorialized the incident with her emblem, the Swanknot.

Like Allu, Ekesra never learned about Khiruev's short-lived marriage.

## Trivia

* Two of Khiruev's parents were from the Khaigar community on Denozin 4; it is not known which of them was not.
* As only a touch is necessary for the deathtouch to work, Ekesra's choice to place both her hands on her husband's shoulders while executing him may have been associated with her regret at the necessity of his death.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 10
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
7. ↑ Revenant Gun open thread
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 10
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
11. ↑ The Factions: Low Faction Vidona
Nirai Hanzo

**This page contains spoilers for Revenant Gun.**

**Nirai Hanzo** is a Nirai citizen of the Compact who works in the Operations department on Isteia Prime. He appears in Revenant Gun.

## History

Hanzo liked to make jewelry from cast-off mothdrive components. He gave one piece, a handsome bracelet, to High General Kel Brezan, ostensibly to impress people with but, Brezan suspected, actually in order to get some free advertisement. Instead of passing the bracelet on to a courtesan, Brezan kept it in idle curiosity about whether Agent Andan Tseya might have liked it.

When Protector-General Kel Inesser visited Isteia Prime, Hanzo reported the approach of the Three Kestrels Three Suns swarm in a non-defensive formation to Brezan, confirming the presence of the swarm's eponymous cindermoth. Reporting again when the cindermoth requested permission to dock, Hanzo was confused when Brezan answered "I hate you," until Brezan clarified that he had been referring to Inesser. Once granted permission, he allowed Inesser to dock.
Kel Ula

Major **Kel Ula** was a Kel soldier who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Ula headed a Kel company in Infantry Battalion Seven. As they advanced toward the Radiant Ward, Ula called Colonel Kel Ragath and received modified orders to accommodate attrition of servitors who had been aiding their formations. After personnel were shuffled between companies, Ula's company was ordered to take the van and lead the other companies across a causeway, down a Nirai-burrowed tunnel, and through the Radiant Gate into the ward.

When Ula reached the Gate, with Captain Kel Zhan Goro's company right behind, she moved the pivots of a heretical formation into place and a fierce radiance sprang up around her company, both drawing and afflicting the eye. Ula's company bannered as the Radiant Gate gave way. However, those at the non-pivot positions of the formation's edge began to change into pillars of glowing numbers, humans represented in high language script and servitors in Machine Universal, burning up to evaporate the gate. Kel Naraucher, following in Zan Goro's company, believed that the numbers were ones that mattered to the burning people.

The smoke-memory of the Kel from Ula's company still remained around the gate's shriveled remnants as the rest of the companies passed through the opening their sacrifice had won.

## Trivia

* While the non-pivot edge positions of Ula's company's formation were definitely burned up and the other companies had been ordered to follow Ula "once she's through," Naraucher's perception was that Ula's company had burned up, possibly completely, to evaporate the gate.
Web-mine

> "*Those spiderfucking web-looking Hafn things* effloresced *at us, sir.*"
> ― Kel Nazhan
>
>

**Web-mines** are self-propelled exotic weapons designed to disable or destroy mothdrive vessels in space. They are used by the Hafn and appear in Raven Stratagem.

## Description

Released in the wake of fleeing Hafn vessels, web-mines are small, rapidly-moving devices evoking webs. When first seen, their formants were unfamiliar to Kel scan.

The corrosive damage caused by their efflorescence parasitizes or infects warmoths, possibly causing their biotech components to rupture.

## History

The Hafn first used web-mines against the Swanknot swarm while retreating toward the Fortress of Spinshot Coins, releasing too many of the unfamiliar devices to be cleared with scattergun shot. When activated, their corrosive effects took out six bannermoths in Tactical Three, including *Scratching Shadows*, *Beyond the Ocean*, *Two Books Bound Together*, and *Snakeskin Drum*.

Commander Kel Nazhan reported his engineering team's assessment of the mines' effects from scan readings, though a decontamination team could not be dispatched due to the ongoing action.

The Hafn launched a smaller number of web-mines when fleeing the Fortress.

## Trivia

* The damage done by the web-mines reminded the Kel of fungal canisters.
Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam

**Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam** is a flashfic written by Yoon Ha Lee and set in the Machineries of Empire universe. Written for D.D., it was first posted to the author's Dreamwidth account and now appears in Hexarchate Stories.

## Synopsis

Divided into a seven-part list, the flashfic views the Liozh from the modern hexarchate perspective. It discusses Liozh exam practices, questions and scenarios, and entrance requirements; the last Liozh heptarch; relics of the faction preserved by the Rahal and Vidona; and the fate of the last Liozh cadets.

## Trivia

* No named characters are mentioned in this flashfic.

## References

1. ↑ Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam
2. ↑ Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam
Ungentle Paragon

**Ungentle Paragon** was a bannermoth in the heptarchate. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

*Ungentle Paragon* was part of an assault swarm sent to retake the heretically subverted Fortress of Scattered Needles. Like all the other bannermoths in the swarm, it did not return.

Scans from the Kel cindermoth *Unspoken Law* suggested that, based on correlation of the assault team's formants, *Paragon* was the first bannermoth in a scout swarm sent from the Fortress.

Along with the other five moths in the scout swarm, *Paragon* bannered with a Liozh emblem. The swarm then ran into a kaleidoscope bomb, which resulted in a swarm of 100 phantom bannermoths based on the original five. Brevet General Kel Cheris ordered that fire be focused on *Paragon*, which she designated as "One", but was interrupted when Commander Vidona Diaiya broke formation. The swarm then refocused its fire on One until it fell silent; Three and Four, which were slaved to One, fell silent as well, along with all the phantom moths related to them.

Ultimately, the Kel cindered all the original moths in the swarm except the fourth.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
Remembrance

A **remembrance** is a ceremonial ritual whose observance supports the high calendar through consensus mechanics. Remembrances have been observed throughout the history of the heptarchate and hexarchate.

## Overview

Remembrances can involve ritual torture of heretics.

Due to the inconvenience of carrying out local calibrations and keeping spare heretics on hand, personnel on mothdrive vessels are exempt from observing remembrances while in transit and moths' remembrance halls are stored away using variable layout, to be expanded for use on arrival at starports. Some personnel insist on carrying out observances during transit anyway.

## List of Remembrances

* Day of Broken Feet
* Day of Serpent Fire
* Day of Shallow Knives
* Feast of Burning Veins
* Feast of Drownings
* Feast of the Falcon's Eye
* Meditation of Needle Tongues

## Trivia

* Artists in the hexarchate sometimes take inspiration from remembrances.
* The Feast of Drownings was observed by Shuos Jedao and Captain-magistrate Rahal Korais while in transit, appearing to be an exception to the exemption.
* Andan Tseya was among those who insisted on observing remembrances during transit.
* A planned sequence involving a Halloween-like masquerade remembrance was cut from Glass Cannon.
* The mechanic of physics and mathematics being influenced by sacrifices and ceremonies was partially inspired by a magazine article describing a tradition of sacrificing chickens to ensure that new laptops worked correctly.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
2. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 16
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 16
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
7. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: The Battle of Candle Arc
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
9. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon (Author's Note)
10. ↑ Author AMA
Two

**Two** was a Rahal soldier who competed for the opportunity of retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Two was a Doctrine officer seconded to the Kel: a strange candidate for a military mission due to the usual inflexibility of the Rahal, though Two's candidacy suggested some willingness to work outside his faction's parameters. His signifier was Scrywolf Hunting Alone, fitting choice to be in Kel service.

Along with the other competitors, One, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Kel Cheris, Two attended a meeting with Composite Subcommand Two to present a plan for retaking the Fortress, appearing to each other as constructs backed by their signifiers and never learning each others' names. Two proposed burning out the fortress's afflicted areas with a lensmoth swarm: a slow solution which Cheris judged as only just workable if carried out by pathologically precise Rahal.
Smart fabric

**Smart fabric** is a type of fabric which can clean and alter itself. It is mentioned throughout the Machineries of Empire continuity.

## Overview

Programmable clothing does not always work, with problems including buttons refusing to attach.
It is difficult to discern the capabilities of modern fibers by sight alone.

Fibers used for clothing are not sturdy enough to withstand reentry burn.

The Shuos hexarch's robe was made of smart fabric.

## Military uniforms

Kel uniforms are self-cleaning and can be ordered to change formality level, rank insignia, and decorations based on the profile provided by the individual's augment in accordance with the service record on file with Kel Command. Cryptology, handled by the augment, prevents tampering with Kel uniforms for impersonation or pranks,, though the uniforms have been known to be hacked.

A common type of cadet prank involves fouling fellow cadets' uniforms with concoctions their self-cleaning fabric cannot handle.

## Interior decorating

Carpets and upholstery may be made with self-cleaning fabric that can heal scratches or cuts and consume minor debris, though they have difficulty digesting cat hair.

## Trivia

* The seasonal embroidery silks used by General Kel Inesser, which changed color with remembrances, calendrical changes, and seasons, may be a type of smart fiber.
* Scarves knitted by Hexarch Shuos Mikodez were suspected of being capable of strangulation.
* The extravehicular suits stored on the *Harmony* cannot clean themselves of Jedao Two's blood.
* The author remarks that cat hair is likely to defeat all future self-cleaning mechanisms.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
3. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon, p.248
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
6. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 24
7. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 7
8. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 3
9. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon, p.297
10. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Irriz the Assassin-Cat; Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
11. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 19
12. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
13. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon, p.297
14. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Irriz the Assassin-Cat (Author's Note)
Shuos Alaia

**Shuos Alaia** was a Shuos communications technician who dated Kel Cheris. She is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance and Personality

Alaia was pretty, with light brown eyes, skin a half-shade darker, and a wry laugh. She had a nervous inability to keep her hands still, a tic about which Cheris never asked. She shared the same taste in ridiculous melodramas as Cheris, enjoying over-the-top dueling, told stories of her upbringing, and brought pedagogical games into the bedroom.

## History

Alaia grew up in a dysfunctional mining community. She was the only person with whom Cheris, while on leave, played the post-Liozh Shuos training game which was later used as a message about the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Cheris remembered her with affection.
Vidona Psa

The following content contains plot or ending spoilers. Read with caution!

> "*Jedao walked right in and your general let him pull rank.*"
> ― Vidona Psa
>
>

Hexarch **Vidona Psa** was the most recent Vidona hexarch. He is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

A large, pale man, Psa had incongruous hunched shoulders. He was obsessed with rules, like most Vidona, and extremely inflexible. He believed that brutalizing heretics would deter future heresy, and was constantly inventing even more excruciating remembrances. Hexarch Shuos Mikodez found him boringly easy to finesse. Shuos Zehun heard that he was always late on his paperwork.

## History

Psa has seen Mikodez at the firing range, and would give him even odds in a firefight with Shuos Jedao.

In a meeting with the other hexarchs after Kujen's disappearance, Psa was scornful about how easily Jedao had hijacked the Swanknot swarm. He suggested applying pressure to by detaining Kel Cheris's parents, and accepted Hexarch Kel Tsoro's idea to threaten an extermination of all the Mwennin instead, making it a priority.

Psa seemed torn between admiration and incredulity when Tsoro declined immortality on behalf of the Kel. He protested that so few Kel had a chance at becoming hexarch that she wouldn't be impeding others' advancement otherwise and that she might feel different when age caught up with her, but she retorted that she had more experience with death more than he could. He smirked when Hexarch Rahal Iruja scolded Mikodez for shirking a remembrance, but said no more.

Psa joined several of the other hexarchs on Station Mavi 514-11 to receive Faian's new form of immortality, and died when a shadowmoth made a suicidal attack on the station.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
Pale Fracture

The **Pale Fracture** is an area of space in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## Geography

The Pale Fracture is bordered by the hexarchate on one side and by the Taurag Republic and Gwa Reality on the other. Its edge is part of the Blue Heron border.

## History

The Pale Fracture is a calendrical dead zone in which exotic technology does not operate. The revenant of General Shuos Jedao judged that if this were not so, the new class 22-5 mothdrive would be almost good enough to allow a new wave of expansion for the hexarchate.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
Maign City

**Maign City** was a Lanterner city. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

A Lanterner soldier whose name indicated that she was probably from Maign City was recorded to have died at Hellspin Fortress. Records relate that a Tchennes 42 was found in her hand. General Shuos Jedao deduced that the soldier would only have been issued such a good weapon if she had been an officer trusted to manage questionable troops.
Seven Views of a Kel Secession

**Seven Views of a Kel Secession** is a flashfic by Yoon Ha Lee that takes place in the Machineries of Empire universe. It was written for dreamwidth user ursula and published on the author's dreamwidth account.

## Summary

The story spans the lifetime of a fourth-generation Kel soldier, Lieutenant General Kel Sumaarzaav, whose name few could pronounce. It describes her family's support when she joined the Kel, and the toy arrow, a gift from her siblings, which later lent its name to her emblem; her volunteer work at Vidona orphanages; her like-minded lover, nicknamed Tapestry; the prosthetic leg she wore to her brigadier general promotion ceremony; and how a change in hexarchate policy, making prisoners of war fodder for remembrances, led her to spearhead a secession from the realm.

With her contacts, resources, and experience, as well as Tapestry's support, Sumaarzaav successfully brokered a cease-fire and held her splinter realm for the rest of her life. After she died of health complications in her old age, the hexarchate retook the splinter realm but could not altogether erase it from their histories.

## Trivia

* Sumaarzaav's secession from the hexarchate was recalled by Shuos Zehun as the second of three major secessions in the realm's history. Zehun added that the lieutenant general had allied with some foreign powers which the hexarchate later destroyed.
* The story takes place after the destruction of the Liozh but before the institution of formation instinct.
* Like Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam, the story has seven parts in a nod to the Liozh.

## Links

Full flashfic on author's Dreamwidth account.

## References

1. ↑ Seven Views of a Kel Secession
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
3. ↑ Seven Views of a Kel Secession
Liozh (revival)

The **Liozh** on the Fortress of Scattered Needles were a heretical sect attempting to revive the hexarchate's purged seventh faction and return the realm to its origins as a heptarchate. They appear in Ninefox Gambit and are mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

For the original faction, see Liozh.

## Government

Led by Liozh Zai, former clerk who turned traitor when she was fired for opinions

Pioro, round-faced man in white-and-gold (Liozh Pioro?)

General Znev Stoghan, popular soldier

Gerenag Abrana, factory holder, feuding with Ching Dze, only upper-level ally who's spent a significant time off the Fortress

Ching Dze, chief propagandist

Vahenz afrir dai Noum, "foreigner" heading Analysis and influential in policy-making

Analysis Teams up to 3. Analysis 1 was to oversee all captives. Analysis 2, with Tsegai, who has some mathematical credentials and is their best grid diver, is "incompetent."

## Takeover

Vahenz felt that if they had waited any longer, the Rahal would have caught them.

The heretics took advantage of a calendrical experiment being run by Hexarch Rahal Iruja and False Hexarch Nirai Faian to take out all six wards of the Fortress at once. A Kel warmoth swarm with a Rahal lensmoth was sent to investigate when the Fortress stopped communicating; only the lensmoth returned.

The heretics agreed that the Rahal justiciars on the Fortress would have to be purged.

## Calendar

A new day cycle was instituted on the Fortress.

Composite technology does not work under the heretical calendar.

Farm animals were voted in as names for years, months, and days.
Year of the Fatted Cow, Month of the Chicken/Partridge/Peahen, Day of the Onager/Earthworm/Goose/Hedgehog/Carp/Silkworm/Rooster/, Hour of the Greenback Beetle/Locust/Snail/"other snail [Vahenz] can't pronounce"

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 12
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
Liozh Henezda

Heptarch **Liozh Henezda** was a Liozh heptarch who is mentioned in Raven Stratagem and on the Solaris website.

## History

An ambitious heptarch, Liozh Henezda was a heavy-handed policy-maker determined to reduce Liozh dependence on the Andan and Rahal. This resulted in the first attempt at outright secession from the heptarchate, an Andan-Rahal revolt which the Liozh -- backed by the Shuos and Kel, whom Henezda had cultivated with an eye to the potential unrest -- swiftly put to an end. It was one of only three secession attempts in the history of the hexarchate, all of which failed.

Though putting down the Andan-Rahal revolt worked in the short term, Henezda's reign was plagued by civil disruptions, and few mourned his assassination several years later. Succeeding Liozh heptarchs registered their feelings about his reign by emphasizing diplomacy instead.

## Trivia

* After the Liozh were purged, Lieutenant General Kel Sumaarzaav would lead the second attempt at secession from the realm.

## References

1. ↑ The Factions: Heretical Faction Liozh
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
3. ↑ The Factions: Heretical Faction Liozh
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
5. ↑ The Factions: Heretical Faction Liozh
Null emblem

The **null emblem** is an emblem used as a Kel banner. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

For Brevet General Kel Cheris's use of the null emblem, see null swarm.

## Description

The null emblem is a featureless black banner used only by disgraced Kel generals. It is regarded with revulsion by Kel troops.

## History

Brevet General Kel Cheris used the null emblem for her swarm as an alternative to the infamous Deuce of Gears and to delay the enemy's identification of the general fighting them.
Servitor 135799

**Servitor 135799** is a Kel servitor who appears in Persimmons, a flashfic written by Yoon Ha Lee and set in the Machineries of Empire universe.

## Appearance and Personality

135799 is friendly, polite, and excited about having new experiences and working with Kel cadets. Prone to daydreaming and unused to overwhelming environments, it frequently ponders how to appropriately balance the subtleties of human-servitor interactions. It is capable of hovering and of harvesting and carrying fruits.

## History

Servitor 135799 is from a backwater town which didn't use variable layout. It requested and was granted a transfer to Kel Academy, despite the concerned noises of the servitors in its old home.

On arrival, 135799 was assigned to the kitchens and attempted to use a map to navigate the Academy. However, it was dazzled and confused by the variable layout and got lost. A helpful servitor directed it a stand of fruiting trees that was almost never location-shifted, advising it to pick some persimmons before reporting to the kitchens.

At the kitchens, a friendly deltaform greeted 135799 and directed it to wash the persimmons for Cadet Kel Cheris, whose dessert the other servitors have assigned it deliver at high table that night as a way of making friends. Though 135799 had pondered befriending humans, it asked whether they weren't supposed to avoid doing so. Reassured that even humans could be useful, 135799 proceeded to wash and quarter the fruits in eager anticipation of meeting its assigned Kel and serving her for many nights to come.
Khaio system

The **Khaio system** was a star system in the Gray Marches. It is mentioned in the short story *Calendrical Rot*.

## Description

The Khaio system was near the city-station of Nran. Khaio had a major city known for fine circuitry and its citizens customarily ate honeyed crickets at funerals.

## History

When a high court judge who was to sentence Nran for its heretical calendar was assassinated, Nran's establishment of the exact time of her death was not matched in Khaio, where the time was an uncertain area between 16.97 and 17.23. Due to this discrepancy, calendrical rot set in and every clock and calendrical engine in the Gray Marches broke at the instant of the judge's death.
Kel Vrae Tala

**Kel Vrae Tala** was a Kel lieutenant general who lived almost three centuries before Raven Stratagem. The Vrae Tala clause is named after her.

## History

Lieutenant General Vrae Tala was assigned to the Fire Grasses campaign 281 years before the Hafn invaded the hexarchate. Though she was a good general, a breakdown in communications left her forced by formation instinct to follow impossible orders for a full frontal assault on an enemy stronghold about to attain reinforcements and her own support absent due to logistical failures. She did her best with the orders, but the campaign's failure was inevitable the moment she received them.

Kel historians describe the results in unusually scathing terms, aware that without the communications breakdown, such orders would never have been given. To prevent such situations in future, Kel Command created the Vrae Tala clause as a last-ditch solution.
Minner Station

> "*The thing is, some of us* appreciate *boredom.*"
> ― Shuos Sfenni
>
>

**Minner Station** is a space station in the hexarchate. It appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Description

Minner Station is the most boring place in its march.

## History

Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan was held on Minner Station and solicited for a bribe by Shuos Sfenni before being permitted to contact Kel Command.

## Trivia

Due to overlap, it is not clear whether Minner Station is in the Severed March or the Crescendo March.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem
2. ↑ Hexarchate Map
Raggard's Basket

**Raggard's Basket** is a planet in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## Geography

Raggard's Basket is in the Rosetta March.

## History

Raggard's Basket was a populated planet whose seas were home to scaled, amber-eyed sea snakes. When heresy broke out on the planet, Kel Command ordered Kel Khiruev to deal with it. While Khiruev was en route, the orders changed: desiring a fast resolution due to a concurrent calendrical adjustment by the Rahal, Kel Command authorized the use of fungal canisters on the planet.

With the timetable so tight, Khiruev's only option was to launch the fungal canisters, which destroyed the world's ecosphere, along with heretics and loyalists alike. The devastation was such that decontamination was predicted to take over a century.

Afterwards, Khiruev's chief of staff caught her watching and rewatching a video of the first spores killing a sea snake, and made her stop.

## Trivia

* Commander Kel Janaia served with Khiruev at Raggard's Basket, indicating that its destruction took place less than fourteen years before the Hafn invasion of the hexarchate.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
Kel Talaw

Commander **Kel Talaw** is a Kel soldier who will appear in Revenant Gun. Talaw is an alt.

## Trivia

* Talaw's name is "supposed to look different" in the high language.
* Talaw will appear as "The Soldier" in Hexarchate Tarot. The card stands for conquest and success through physical strength. Reversed, it evokes weakness or ill health.

## References

1. ↑ Artist's design
2. ↑ Hexarchate Tarot: Major Arcana
Noe Irin

**Noe Irin** was a Shuos cadet whose time at Shuos Academy intersected with that of Shuos Jedao. She appears in the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## History

Irin was very intelligent and had done quite well on an assignment in which she was paired with Jedao. Her good memory made it hard to cheat her at cards; after trying, Jedao spent three hours doing kitchen duty for her. In Analysis, she was often paired with Veller and advised him to carry a spare screwdriver, though he did not take her advice. Prone to tempers and preferring to consider things without interruption, she was frequently frustrated at Jedao's leaps of logic. Like other cadets who were friendly toward Jedao, she called him 'Jay', though the two did not have a closer relationship.

Irin and Veller were paired in an assignment to find a hidden photobomb the day Jedao met Shuos Meng. They blocked Jedao's path to the instructor's desk when he appeared to know more than the other cadets, and Irin heckled Jedao as he revealed the location of the bomb so Veller could disarm it.
Nirai Esfarel

Heptarch **Nirai Esfarel** was a Nirai mathematical and technological innovator in the early days of the heptarchate. He is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem. Esfarel 5 and Esfarel 12 were modeled from him.

## Appearance and Personality

Esfarel had slightly unruly hair, a smiling mouth, and long hands. Nirai Kujen remembered him as weak, but spectacular in bed.

## History

Esfarel attended Nirai Academy Prime for a year as a Rahal cadet in order to study under one of its renowned mathematics instructors. In his last year, frustrated with the "overly legalistic" Rahal mindset, he transferred to Nirai Academy. His brilliance and administrative skill quickly advanced him in his new faction.

He served successfully as heptarch for three decades. Under his guidance, the first mothdrives were built, expanding the heptarchate considerably and increasing Nirai prestige, and the high calendar in its modern form first appeared.

Esfarel is also publicly credited with having developed the black cradle, obscuring the involvement of Nirai Kujen. When he tested it, the first to do so, a flaw in the device resulted in his death and leadership of the Nirai passed to his protégé, Kujen, who vanished shortly afterward.

One of the only three surviving test cases for the black cradle, Esfarel thrashed inside it when newly undead, trying to figure out how to kill himself. He talked to himself a great deal and eventually went mad.  Ultimately, he could not bear existence as a ghost, and convinced his anchor to commit suicide.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
2. ↑ Biography in The Factions: Low Faction Nirai
3. ↑ Biography in The Factions: Low Faction Nirai
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
5. ↑ Raven Strategem, Chapter 25
Unenclosed by Fear

**Unenclosed by Fear** was a bannermoth which appeared in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

*Unenclosed by Fear* was commanded by Kel Koroe. After the first action against the heretics holding the Fortress of Scattered Needles, Brevet General Kel Cheris sent the bannermoth out of range, telling the heretics it would broadcast vital information about their shields in all directions if the swarm was attacked.

Once the shields were down and the ruse rendered pointless, the bannermoth was recalled to provide supporting fire during a barrage of the Fortress by the swarm's two cindermoths.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13