recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Truth-or-dare

**Truth-or-dare** is a game played in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

While beginning to design a game representing the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles, Brevet General Kel Cheris was almost tempted to devise a game structure incorporating dueling, jeng-zai, and truth-or-dare.
Three

**Three** was a Kel soldier who competed for the opportunity of retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Three appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Three was a lieutenant colonel with nothing particularly unusual about their record. However, Three's signifier was an Ashhawk Unhatched, which struck Kel Cheris as a terrible omen.

Along with the other competitors, One, Two, Four, Five, Six, and Cheris, Three 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. Three was acquainted with Four and the two presented their proposal together: an infantry attack relying on weapons from the Kel Arsenal, including the neglect cannon.

## Trivia

* Three is the only one of the six competitors whose gender is not specified in the text.
Sundered Spheres swarm

The **Sundered Spheres swarm** was a Kel swarm under Major General Kel Jui. It is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

During the Hafn invasion of the hexarchate, Kel Command pulled Jui's swarm from the Rosetta March. However, the swarm was still too far away to aid in a potential Hafn attack on Cobweb System in the Severed March.
Shuos Magrach

**Shuos Magrach** was a Shuos assassin who once dueled Shuos Jedao. She is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

A long-haired, whippy-looking Shuos, Magrach took offense to a point of etiquette and was filmed dueling Shuos Jedao, who was then commander of a tactical group. Like him, she had trained as an assassin and her reflexes, like his, were extraordinary. It was later speculated that she had been attempting to harm or kill Jedao for her own reasons. The match was set for best out of seven and the first set of points were two to two, a score Kel Brezan suspected that Jedao had engineered.

The recording of Magrach and Jedao's duel survived for several centuries.
Weather-eater

A **weather-eater** is a Kel military device designed to control local weather conditions. Weather-eaters are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and Glass Cannon.

## History

The Kel battalion dispatched to seize the directional storm generator on Dredge expected to rely on weather-eaters to mitigate the storms' deadly effects. However, the storm generator's reliance on heretical mechanics reduced the weather-eaters' effectiveness, resulting in the deaths of most of the companies in the battalion.

Planetary weather-eaters are stationed in the atmosphere of Esrala as part of its terraforming process.

## Trivia

* Weather-eaters were so named in order to provide context cues to their function. The author elaborates: "I don’t explicitly explain what this does, but it’s mentioned in the context of, well, local weather conditions, and you can probably guess that it has something to do with artificially controlling weather. I didn’t feel the need to waste words spelling that out."
* Where calendrical terrain is favorable, weather-eaters are more reliable than the effects of formations which offer protection against weather.
* Weather-eaters are exotic technology and are unreliable in unfriendly calendrical terrain.
* It is possible for a weather-eater to be used destructively by crashing it on a planetary surface.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
2. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
3. ↑ HuffPost interview: Epic Space Battles, Deadly Equations
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
5. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
Nexus fortress

A **nexus fortress** is a space fortress which projects calendrical stability in regions of the hexarchate. Nexus fortresses are visited in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem.

## Description

Nexus fortresses project calendrical stability throughout the realm by magnifying the effects of high calendar observances on consensus mechanics, allowing the hexarchate’s exotic technologies, such as mothdrive and communications, to function.

## Known Nexus Fortresses

* Fortress of Scattered Needles in the Entangled March
* Fortress of Spinshot Coins in the Severed March

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
Shuos Shenner

**Shuos Shenner** is the head of Shuos Intelligence. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Personality and Traits

Shenner is vain about her linguistic skills, extremely loyal, and good at her job, though her touchy ego, obsessiveness, and paranoia make it necessary for Shuos Mikodez to handle her delicately. She ignores hints not to overrun meetings, liking the sound of her own voice, though Mikodez considers it shrill.

## History

Shenner despised the Hafn, having once met a Hafn aristocrat who had criticized her accent in their language.

One of the Shuos senior staff, Shenner ascribed to the sense of importance shared by many Shuos heads of Intelligence and regularly caused staff meetings to overrun by a considerable amount, despite theoretically being limited to twenty minutes. She also customarily ranted about the inadequacy of Shuos data processing throughput.

Shenner attended a Shuos staff meeting during the Hafn invasion overseen by Vauhan Istradez, believing him to be Mikodez, while the real Mikodez rested in a corner of the room. Her diatribe about the Hafn was cut off by the head of Accounting. She also had what Istradez referred to later as a "spectacular pissing match" with the head of Propaganda, unaware that Istradez and Mikodez had previously discussed potentially reprimanding her for ignoring hints not to derail the meetings.
Vauhan Istradez

**Vauhan Istradez** is a younger brother of Shuos Mikodez and uncle of Andan Niath. He appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Istradez is an exact double of Mikodez, with the same flawless dark skin, smiling eyes, and glossy black hair. Each is tall and a little too thin, though Istradez's metabolism is not as fast as his brother's.

## History

Istradez was creche-born exactly one year after Mikodez, and family superstition expected them to be particularly close, though they had at least one other sibling. They grew up together and continued to call each other "Miki" and "Istra" throughout adulthood. To their family's bemusement, they were also occasionally lovers; their older mother reasoned that at least they kept one another occupied.

Shortly after Mikodez became the Shuos hexarch and before he was taken very seriously in his position, Istradez, born a womanform, volunteered to be modded into his exact body double. His role included exacting knowledge of Mikodez's body language, behavior, and details such as hobbies and preferences.

Istradez seduced someone on Mikodez's staff and learned, without the person realizing what they'd said, that Mikodez was planning a strike on the other hexarchs. He also managed to read Spirel's most recent evaluation of his mental stability and learned that Mikodez was planning to remove him from duty. Meeting with Mikodez in the Room of Guns,

## Trivia

* While Istradez probably suffered some early dysphoria after physically transitioning due to simple unfamiliarity with his new body, his attitude toward gender is not tied to his physical form.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 11
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
4. ↑ Author's remarks
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
6. ↑ Author's remarks
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
9. ↑ Author's remarks
Three Kestrels Three Suns

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

**Three Kestrels Three Suns** is a Kel cindermoth in the Three Kestrels Three Suns swarm. It is the only cindermoth to be named after its general's personal emblem.

The cindermoth survived the revised calendar but was destroyed in an attempt to defend Ista Mothyard from the Deuce of Gears swarm.
Yeri Chejio

**Yeri Chejio** was a composer in the hexarchate who is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Colonel Kel Najjad brought up a flute concerto by Yeri Chejio during an argument with General Kel Khiruev about musicology. Khiruev responded that she'd even agree the seven-movement suite was a valid form in order to provide context for early post-Liozh composers if Najjad would just stop jabbing his stylus at the grid interface.
Servitor Path Integral

**Servitor Path Integral** is a servitor who appears in the tinyfic Servitor Tarot.

## History

Servitor Path Integral drew a π of Gears from a jeng-zai deck. Since jeng-zai cards normally used only positive integers, Servitor Path Integral thought this was a strange occurrence.

## Trivia

* This entry is longer than the tinyfic, which is tiny.
Shuos shouter

A **Shuos shouter** is a Shuos weapon used in the heptarchate and the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

Shouters are devices set up by teams of Shuos assassins. Once in position, they can shout any non-Shuos listener within a wide range into submission, forcing them to mindlessly kneel before the signs of the heptarchs without regard for what is happening around them at the time.

A different version of the Shuos shouter, controlled by the Andan and stored in the Andan Archives, operates over a wider calendrical range. Forty percent of survivors can be retrained by the Vidona to lead productive lives; the rest are left unable to function.

## History

Shuos shouters were deployed against the Axers as an alternative to drones, which the Shuos did not wish to show to the Kel on the same battlefield. Shuos Jedao and Shuos Sereset were on Shouter Team 5, positioning a shouter relative to a nearby city.

Once activated, the shouters disabled both rebels and Kel, causing mass carnage as war machines rolled unguided through the battlefield. In the ensuing chaos, Sereset was hit by a stray tunneler bullet and subsequently died. Jedao was retrieved by Lieutenant Shuos Lharis.

Shuos shouters were used for fast compliance in raids against the Gheffeu when the heptarchate was trying to assimilate the Outspecker Colonies, but the calendricals were too unstable for the shouters to succeed.

Candidate Five suggested using the Andan version of the shouter to retake the Fortress of Scattered Needles, believing she had enough leverage to borrow it from the Andan and detailing the survival prospects to Composite Subcommand Two. The proposal was followed by a long silence and was not accepted.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 22
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 22
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 12
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
Vidona deathtouch

The **Vidona deathtouch** is a faction ability of the Vidona. It is seen in Raven Stratagem.

## Description

With proper training, a Vidona can reduce people to corpse-paper by touching them, often folding the remains into elaborate sculptures afterwards. The ability is associated with a loud, sourceless jangling sound of complex, out-of-step gears, during which the victim's form turns a tarnished gray and is flattened to a crackle-stiff translucent sheet of disordered diagrams, untidy numbers, and dry traceries of bones and blood vessels.

The deathtouch is usually used ceremonially in remembrances; in rare cases it is employed for summary execution of a heretic, though misuse is punishable by death.

## History

When rendering summary judgment on her husband Neshte Kthero, Vidona Ekesra used deathtouch to kill him while their wife and daughter watched, afterwards folding his corpse-paper into an elaborate sculpture of tangled swans..

## Trivia

* Due to its association with the Vidona deathtouch, the art of paper-folding is specific to the Vidona and disdained by the Andan. Citizens of the hexarchate are taught to recognize elaborate paper sculptures as ominous from early childhood.
* As only a touch is necessary for the deathtouch to work, Vidona 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. ↑ The Factions: Low Faction Vidona
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
3. ↑ The Factions: Low Faction Vidona
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
6. ↑ The Factions: Low Faction Vidona
Servitor 1491625

**Servitor 1491625** of the Pyrehawk Enclave is a deltaform servitor who appears unnamed in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem and by name in Revenant Gun and Glass Cannon, and is mentioned in Cheris and the Sea.

## History

A Kel servitor, 1491625 was posted to the cindermoth *Unspoken Law* until the cindermoth's destruction at the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Revived from the effects of the carrion bomb strike by Ajewen Cheris, 1491625 helped her to revive a birdform servitor, who assisted them in killing Vahenz afrir dai Noum and escaping in a needlemoth.

1491625 accompanied Cheris in her takeover of the Swanknot swarm and afterwards in her quest to assassinate Hexarch Nirai Kujen. [add events of Revenant Gun and Glass Cannon]

Though 1491625 was a better grid diver than Ajewen Cheris, she did not ask it to find information on her old home neighborhood before returning to Bonepyre. 1491625 accompanied her and Shuos Jedao to the planet and forged a digital docking permit for the small dinghy they took from voidmoth to shore, remaining with the moth as the humans left.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 24
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 23
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 24
4. ↑ Cheris and the Sea
Trigger

**Trigger** is a Kel soldier who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

Trigger is a great shot. Lieutenant Kel Mikev considers her none too bright, and expects her to someday focus too much attention on her weapons to notice heretics shooting her full of holes.

## History

During ground operations in the Umbrella Ward, Trigger, along with Eggshell and the rest of Mikev's platoon, were assigned to the ward's forward section near Gate 3-12 after fighting to keep it pressurized while the heretics attempted to suck out the atmosphere. Trigger spent the time meticulously checking her weapons.

When the platoon was told to stay undercover, Trigger responded slowly, having been half out of position. She fired her scattergun through the loophole. The platoon began to experience the crawling physical sensation of an exotic effect coming for their weapons, which Mikev ordered discarded. Trigger was distressed as the corrosion gradient fossilized her guns, and Mikev yelled at her to keep away from them. Mikev's captain was aware of the issue and his platoon was ordered to hold position.
Scattergun

**Scatterguns** are invariant armaments used in interstellar battle. They appear in Revenant Gun.

The shattergun, an assassination weapon, is unrelated.

## Description

Scatterguns are among the armaments on large warmoths. Projectile weapons, they are normally used to clear large numbers of minimally shielded targets.

## History

Aware that Ajewen Cheris was nearby in a stealthed needlemoth, the Deuce of Gears swarm used scattergun fire to saturate the area in hopes of disabling her vessel. Despite Servitor 1491625's piloting skill, the volume of fire led to a crippling engine hit which caused the needlemoth to crash on Terebeg 4.
Shuos Irriz

**Shuos Irriz** was an assassin mentioned in the flashfic Irriz the Assassin-Cat. Shuos Zehun's cat Irriz is named after her.

## History

A notorious Shuos assassin from an earlier century, Shuos Irriz had assassinated all of a particular Andan hexarch's children and siblings. While working her way through the hexarch's cousins, she had died "tragically (?) young" of an unexpected allergic reaction.
Severed March

The **Severed March** is a march of space in the hexarchate. It is visited in Raven Stratagem.

## Geography

The Severed March lies along a border of the hexarchate. It is adjacent to the Entangled March, the Stabglass March, the Concerto March, and the Rosetta March, and overlapped by the Crescendo March. It is on the other side of the hexarchate from the planet Bonepyre, which is in the Ausser March

Systems and facilities in the Severed March include the Jeweled Systems; the Fortress of Spinshot Coins, which is in an empty region of space for calendrical reasons; a Nirai research facility; a listening post; a habitat with a large Andan presence; Station Tankut Primary; a Kel military outpost at Tercel 81-7178; Minang System and Minang Tower; and Cobweb System.

## History

While the Severed March had been quiet for as long as Kel Brezan remembered and was therefore less prepared for trouble, the Hafn advanced into the area after the assassination of General Kel Chrenka, necessitating the scrambling of General Kel Khiruev's Swanknot swarm.

The swarm battled the Hafn near the Fortress, followed them to Minang Tower, and engaged them again, routing them completely.

## Trivia

* The Concerto March is also referred to as a potential destination for the Hafn moving through the Entangled March. This is the only reference to the Concerto March and the chapter may actually refer to the overlapping Crescendo March.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 17
3. ↑ Hexarchate Map
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
6. ↑ Hexarchate Map
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 15
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
11. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter
12. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
13. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
14. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
15. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
16. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
17. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
Nirai Havrekaz

Hexarch **Nirai Havrekaz** was a Nirai false hexarch mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Hexarch Nirai Havrekaz was taken out by a bombing. 373 years later, at the time the Swanknot swarm was taken over by Shuos Jedao, the event was poorly remembered. Agent Andan Tseya compared the distant patina of this long-ago event to the significance of Shuos Jedao and his treachery at Hellspin Fortress in the minds of non-faction hexarchate citizens.
Kel Zhan Goro

Captain **Kel Zhan Goro** was a Kel soldier who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Zan Goro is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Kel Naraucher was in Zhan Goro's company, which followed that of Major Kel Ula of Battalion Seven in Ula's advance on the Radiant Gate. As Ula's company burned up evaporating the gate, Zhan Goro savagely relayed orders from Colonel Kel Ragath to change rear units to front, follow when Ula had destroyed the gate, and hit the factory they had been assigned to attack, hoping the rearguard could handle the advancing heretics. The company duly passed through the gate's remnants once it had been destroyed.
Yoon Ha Lee

**Yoon Ha Lee** (born January 26, 1979) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, known for his Machineries of Empire space opera novels and his short fiction. His first novel, Ninefox Gambit, received the 2017 Locus Award for Best First Novel. He has also written a middle grade novel, *Dragon Pearl*, about Korean mythology in space.

## About

*A Korean-American sf/f writer who received a B.A. in math from Cornell University and an M.A. in math education from Stanford University, Yoon finds it a source of continual delight that math can be mined for story ideas. Yoon’s fiction has appeared in publications such as F&SF, Tor.com, and Clarkesworld Magazine, as well as several year’s best anthologies.*

*Yoon is represented by Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.*

## Author bio

*Yoon Ha Lee's first novel,* Ninefox Gambit*, was published to critical acclaim in 2016 and was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards. The first in the Machineries of Empire series, it was followed in 2017 by* Raven Stratagem*. Lee is the author of more than forty short stories that have appeared in* Tor.com, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, *and* The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction*, and are collected in* Conservation of Shadows*. He lives in Louisiana with his family and has not yet been eaten by gators.*

## Awards

Yoon Ha Lee has been a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Locus Award, and the WSFA Small Press Award.

## Trivia

* If Yoon Ha Lee were a servitor, he would be a catform.

## Links

* Website
* Twitter
* Dreamwidth
* RSS feed
* Wikipedia

## References

1. ↑ Author's website
2. ↑ The 1000 Year Plan: Revenant Gun Blog Tour Q&A with Yoon Ha Lee
Shuos Liis

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

> "*Why the Immolation Fox and not some other weapon?*"
> ― Shuos Liis
>
>

Analyst **Shuos Liis** was a Shuos soldier who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance

Liis, having been surgically modified to resemble long-dead Heptarch Shuos Khiaz, was strikingly lovely, with velvet-dark eyes and a heart-shaped face framed by rippling dark hair. Her mouth was beautiful, but not kind.

## History

Liis, part of the Shuos team led by Captain-analyst Shuos Ko, was introduced to Brevet General Kel Cheris during her first meeting with Ko's team. Liis, with knowing eyes and a languid smile, asked Cheris why she had picked Jedao in her bid to besiege the Fortress. Cheris simply replied that she had seen Jedao's record, and, though aware of her striking beauty, showed no bleed-through reaction despite being anchored to Jedao's revenant. Later, Jedao told Cheris that Liis had been altered as a tacit threat from Hexarch Shuos Mikodez, though he did not fully explain that Khiaz had been a sexual predator; Liis served as a reminder that if Jedao was ever signed back to the Shuos, Mikodez would have him killed.

Liis attended Cheris's duel with Commander Kel Nerevor, taking a seat near the front and smiling openly, though Cheris avoided looking at her. Liis appeared disturbingly pleased when Cheris won her last three bouts with Jedao's skill and grace.

At high table after the Fortress's calendrical values settled toward approved norms, Liis smiled slowly and sweetly at Cheris, who caught herself admiring Liis's beauty and flinched, worried about bleed-through from Jedao.

Liis died in the carrion bomb attack that hit the *Unspoken Law* and most of Cheris's swarm. After experiencing Jedao's memories of Khiaz, Cheris was unable to make herself go near Liis's carrion-glass remains after recognizing who she had been.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 24
Spider restraint

**Spider restraints** are a form of restraint used in the heptarchate and hexarchate. The verb forms for their use are "to **spider**" and "to **unspider**." They are used throughout Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun.

## Description

Spider restraints are a form of restraint technology that can be activated via augment or by hand without augment involvement. They tighten and tighten to cause slicing pain if a spidered person tries to move too fast. Very slow movement is possible with extreme care or if the restraints are on a relaxed setting, and is aided by flexibility and muscular control.

## History

Spider restraints were invented after the physical lifetime of Shuos Jedao.

The restraints are demonstrated as part of the training of Kel cadets in Kel Academy. They are also used by the Shuos and Vidona.

Kel guilty of small infractions usually get time in the brig without restraints; use of spider restraints in such cases suggests petty vindictiveness in their superiors.

## Trivia

* Jedao wondered whether spider restraints were manufactured by humans or spiders.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 8
2. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 14
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 16
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 8
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 16
6. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
7. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon, p.294
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 8
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 16
10. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon, p.293
11. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 14
Liozh training game

The **Liozh training game** is an educational tool used in the Liozh entrance exam in the heptarchate. It is described in Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam.

## Description

Used as a portion of the Liozh entrance exam, the game is played in groups of seven Liozh cadets, with one cadet portraying a Liozh ambassador and the others playing heretics to be brought into the heptarchate.

## History

The game may have been developed by the Shuos as a tool to accelerate the Liozh's destruction. After the Liozh were purged, the scoring rubric and method for choosing the "ambassador" was lost to time.

## References

1. ↑ Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam
New Year Festival

The **New Year Festival** marked the beginning of the new year in the high calendar. It is mentioned in Revenant Gun and the flashfic Birthdays.

## Overview

Birthdays were celebrated on the New Year for every citizen in the hexarchate, no matter their actual day of birth. New Year festivities involved dances, which Hexarch Nirai Kujen liked to practice at other times of year, and sumptuary regulations set by the Rahal.

## References

1. ↑ Birthdays
2. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 15
Neshte Kthero

> "*Have mercy on the child. She's only eleven.*"
> ― Neshte Kthero
>
>

**Neshte Kthero** was a teacher who was one of the three parents of General Kel Khiruev. He appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Personality

Kthero's voice was quiet but compelling. He was an independent thinker whose interest in deprecated calendricals led him to involvement with heretics. Along with his spouses, he tolerated rather than encouraged Khiruev's mechanical aptitude.

## History

Kthero was married to Vidona Ekesra, a Vidona who reprogrammed heretics, and Neshte Allu, an ecoscrubber maintenance worker. They had one child, Neshte Khiruev.

When Khiruev was eleven, Ekesra confronted Kthero about his involvement with calendrical reenactors, accusing him of heresy in front of both Khiruev and Allu. He argued that at least he had been thinking, unlike other members of their household, and told Ekesra to stop dragging the confrontation out and hand him over to the authorities if she intended to do so. When Ekesra pronounced summary judgment on him, he asked her to spare Khiruev, citing her age, and told Ekesra that Khiruev wouldn't forget his death. He didn't flinch when Ekesra laid her hands on his shoulders to carry out the sentence.

After turning Kthero into corpse-paper with Vidona deathtouch, Ekesra folded his remains into a pair of entangled swans.

Kthero's death 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 Kthero's fate with her emblem, the Swanknot.

## Trivia

* Kthero couldn't stand bugs.
* As the Vidona are responsible for education up to the age of seventeen, Kthero likely taught higher education courses.
* Two of Khiruev's parents were from the Khaigar community on Denozin 4; it is not known which of them was not.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
4. ↑ Revenant Gun open thread
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
Meditation of Needle Tongues

The **Meditation of Needle Tongues** is a high calendar remembrance observed in the hexarchate. It occurs during Raven Stratagem.

## Observance

The remembrance has an official litany which is read at a specific day and time. Citizens are required to stop what they are doing and listen until the proceedings are over.

## History

Moroish Nija met Shuos Feiyed on the same day as the Meditation of Needle Tongues, shortly after the end of the remembrance.
Serpentines

The **Serpentines** were a heretical group in the hexarchate. They are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

The Serpentines were a heretical group whose religious heresy involved a belief in reincarnation. They were eradicated by the hexarchate while Shuos Jedao was in the black cradle. Their deaths are commemorated on the Day of Serpent Fire.
Shuos Mazeret

> "*I see two threats here. One of them is already in flight. I'm dealing with the bigger predator.*"
> ― Shuos Mazeret
>
>

**Shuos Mazeret**, alias Commandant **Kel Mazeret**, was a Shuos operative posing undercover as a Kel. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Mazaret is a sturdy, obstinate, pasty-faced woman. She holds her shoulders stiffly and is mindful of pronouns in the high language, using the insulting inanimate pronoun for Shuos Jedao. General Kel Khiruev admires her for her blunt hostility in the face of Jedao's famous kill count.

## History

Mazaret infiltrated the Kel and rose to command the Fortress of Spinshot Coins, either by faking her way through a Kel career or replacing the real Kel Mazeret. When the Swanknot swarm approached an engagement with the Hafn near the Fortress, Khiruev notified Mazeret of the impending action and was acknowledged. Khiruev again informed Mazeret when the Hafn peeled away from her swarm and headed for the Fortress. When informed that the Hafn were drawing energy for their attacks from the Fortress's phantom terrain defense, Mazeret turned off the terrain immediately.

When the Hafn had begun to retreat, Mazeret, aware from a second bannering that the Swanknot Swarm was under the control of General Shuos Jedao, turned the phantom terrain back on, miring the swarm and allowing the Hafn to escape. When contacted, she argued curtly that the swarm rightfully belonged to General Khiruev, that Kel Command would have notified her if they had fielded Jedao, and that her duty was to detain him, whatever the cost. Her refusal to obey his orders revealed her lack of formation instinct, and Jedao surmised that she was a Shuos operative. Though Mazeret held her fire when Jedao did not attack the Fortress, she left the phantom terrain on until the swarm's moths worked free on their own and remained openly hostile toward Jedao until he signed off.

Afterwards, Mazeret was taken into custody by the Kel. Hexarch Shuos Mikodez stood by her decision to target Jedao, given his reputation and the fact that he had placed threshold winnowers in orbit around the Fortress, and threatened to start taking down Kel listening posts unless Hexarch Kel Tsoro agreed to extradite her. Tsoro eventually complied as a favor to Hexarch Rahal Iruja, and Mikodez ordered that Mazeret be given the posting of her choice in return for her extraordinary service. Publicly, despite Jedao's propaganda broadcasts detailing Mazeret's interference with his pursuit of the Hafn, the Shuos remained silent on the matter and no reason was given for her removal from her post.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 9
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 17
Thunder of Horses

**Thunder of Horses** is a Kel formation which can generate **kinetic lances**. It appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Description

Thunder of Horses is a formation which contains subformations. Once the formation is assembled, modulation of three component formations can activate its kinetic lances, ranged exotic weapons that rake sideways to maul whatever they hit.

The aim of a kinetic lance can be read from the formation's geometry, potentially allowing targets to calculate and evade them. The speed at which they can change direction depends on precise execution of the component formations and cannot be hurried above the limits of successful modulation speed.
Servitor 244666

**Servitor 244666** is a Kel servitor who served on the cindermoth *Unspoken Law*. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

244666 is a suspicious servitor with foldable limbs and some philosophical differences with its fellows about how to adhere to the rules of servitor society.

## History

244666 was the lead servitor secretly assigned to keep tabs on Brevet General Kel Cheris in the cindermoth's public areas. Unsatisfied with distant servitors as to her character and uneasy about her position as anchor for the notorious General Shuos Jedao, 244666 attempted to plant a bug in her quarters to monitor her around the clock. Due to a glitch in the cindermoth's variable layout, 244666 was caught by Servitor 819825, who spotted it exiting Cheris's quarters and reported it to the other servitors. 244666, summoned to explain itself, was lectured on servitor rules by 819825 and shut in one of the moth's dark service corridors for temporary remedial meditation, while the bug in Cheris's quarters was removed. However, 819825 also joined 244666 so that it did not have to be alone.

While still disliking Jedao's involvement, 244666 was aware that no bug could eavesdrop on a revenant's side of the conversation, and conceded defeat, resolving to eventually repay 819825's kindness in keeping it company.
Knifer System

The **Knifer System** is a star system in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## Geography

Knifer is near the border of the Crescendo March which separates the hexarchate from Hafn space.

## History

Among the eight planets reduced to crystallized ruins by the invading Hafn early in their incursion into hexarchate space were one or more planets in the Knifer System, which were attacked without communication or provocation. General Kel Khiruev mentioned Knifer and the Crescendo system to General Shuos Jedao in reference to the unlikelihood of opening a dialogue with the Hafn.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
Omens

**Omens** is a flashfic set in the Machineries of Empire universe. It was published by Yoon Ha Lee on his Dreamwidth account, written for Dreamwidth user niqaeli to the prompt "Garach Ledana (Jedao's mom), Shparoi theatre," and now appears in Hexarchate Stories.

## Synopsis

Having persuaded Cousin Miro to watch her young son Garach Rodao, Garach Ledana dresses up for a date with Koiresh Shkan at the Andan-restored Shadow Theater. The two watch a tragedy, the only shadow play running there for the next month, in which a lover's quest to reunite with his beloved results in both men being transformed into a flower-offering for the gods.

On the way out, Shkan kisses Ledana's hand and asks whether the tragedy should be taken as an omen or whether she just likes "very flexible people." Delighted with the overture, Ledana replies that she doesn't believe in tragedies and asks him how he feels about siring a child.

## Trivia

* This story is the only appearance of Koiresh Shkan and the only mention of Cousin Miro.
* Differences between Dreamwidth flashfic and its published version include:
	+ Omissions: Ledana's infrequent visits to the city usually coinciding with conferences, and her first visit to the Shadow Theater having been on a school trip.
	+ Additions: more architectural description of the Shadow Theater, Koiresh Shkan's black hair, and Ledana's entertaining shorthand of "goose farmer" for "agricultural researcher."

## Links

* Original flashfic on the author's Dreamwidth account.

## References

1. ↑ Omens
2. ↑ Omens
Shadowmoth

A **shadowmoth** is a Shuos mothdrive vessel with stealth capabilities. Shadowmoths appear in Raven Stratagem.

## Description

Shadowmoths are expensive and are deployed frugally by the Shuos. They are equipped with exotic weapons, including the knife cannon.

When the stealth system is powered up, the shadowmoth's mothdrive is minimally active, making it difficult for the vessel to collect scan readings and rendering weapons useless until the moth unstealths. The stealth system also takes a long time to come back up once powered down.

Some citizens often assume that hexarchate space is thronged with invisible, all-seeing shadowmoths, but this is not the case.

## History

The stealth systems used on shadowmoths, needlemoths, and other vessels were developed by the Shuos.

Hexarch Shuos Mikodez dispatched "a useful number" of shadowmoths to monitor the Swanknot swarm.

A shadowmoth commander contacted Mikodez about a matter of Shuos etiquette, meaning whether to unstealth or stay stealthed before blowing something up.

The shadowmoth *Eyes Unstabbed* carried out a suicide strike on Nirai Station Mavi 514-11, destroying it.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
2. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 29
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
Smokewatch 33-67

**Smokewatch 33-67** is a star system in the heptarchate. It is mentioned in The Battle of Candle Arc.

## History

On the way from the Haussen system to Candle Arc, Shuos Jedao detoured to the Rahal outpost at Smokewatch 33-67 to request the 73 calendrical lenses with which he would win the Battle of Candle Arc. The Rahal vessels acted as decoys and only three became involved in the battle.
Liyeng

**Liyeng** was an anchor for Heptarch Nirai Kujen. He is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

An unusually pretty man with wavy hair, Liyeng was the current anchor for the revenant of Nirai Kujen at the time Kel Command turned Shuos Jedao over to him to be executed and placed in the black cradle. Like many of Kujen's anchors, he took care of insignificant tasks, such as ordering soldiers around, when Kujen's mind was on other things.

As Kujen's anchor, Liyeng was the only person other than High General Kel Anien to attend Jedao's execution, carrying out the procedure by lethal injection.

## Trivia

* Though some of Kujen's anchors are Nirai, Liyeng is never identified as being part of a faction.

## References

1. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 11
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 11
Kel Zethka

> "*Lieutenant, if I hear you're late because you have your soldiers practicing four-part harmony, I will smother you with a drum hide. Got that?*"
> ― Kel Zethka
>
>

Captain **Kel Zethka** was a Kel soldier who served during the retaking of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Personality

Zethka is prone to expressing low opinions of Lieutenant Kel Hren, insulting her intelligence, capabilities, and priorities both to her face and while in his cups and finding her frequent musical endeavors infuriating.

## History

Once, while drunk, Zethka complained that Hren was "a vegetable" aside from her musical talents and questioned her value to the Kel. Though he was addressing someone else, Hren overheard his remarks, but never told him that she found his antipathy funny.

After the Nirai figured out how to safely tunnel past the Fortress's invariant ice support strands, Zethka ordered Hren, then overseeing Platoon Two, to proceed to the location in twenty minutes and take the generators causing the corrosion gradient. He openly doubted her ability to follow directions and added a warning not to waste time with music, but seemed satisfied when she repeated the orders back to him.
Rahal Zaniin

> "*There's a whole bunch of formulaic stuff for addressing traitors that I memorized back when I was in academy, but why don't we forget about that so I can get to the point.*"
> ― High Magistrate Rahal Zaniin
>
>

High Magistrate **Rahal Zaniin** is a Rahal magistrate. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Zaniin has immaculate upswept hair and a slight melodic accent, and wears a severe gray Rahal shirt with its bronze brooch. She has a sheathed knife with a braid-wrapped hilt, which she keeps on her desk. Unusually for a Rahal, she has a tendency to snap styluses in half when stressed. She is blunt-spoken and direct and places a high value on human life, and was required to learn to read scan formants before being assigned to Minang Tower's master clock.

## History

Zaniin was a magistrate at Minang Tower. As an invading Hafn swarm passed through the area, followed by the Swanknot swarm, Zaniin sent a message to the swarm's command moth with a request to speak to General Shuos Jedao. She repeated the request when it was not answered. Twenty-three minutes later, shortly after the Hafn changed course for the Cobweb System while the Swanknot swarm kept heading for the tower, Zaniin sent a video message which showed her sitting at her desk with snapped styluses at her side. Forgoing the standard protocol to be used when addressing traitors, she expressed exasperation that Jedao had not responded and provided information about the inhabited planets in the Cobweb system, detailing the staggering potential loss of life if the Hafn were to attack it and then comparing it to the expensive, but less costly in human terms, functions of a master clock like Minang Tower.

Guessing that Jedao's stretch in the black cradle had left either disenchanted with the hexarchate as a whole or very effectively faking it to gain allies, she expressed hope that the former was true, stabbing the table with her knife as she agreed that the hexarchate's torturous system was awful. Recalling Jedao's long-ago decision to prevent the on-the-spot rendering of a Lanterner heretic for a calendrical remembrance at Candle Arc, she stressed the innocence of the Cobweb inhabitants. In closing, she mentioned that she would have to turn herself in for her words, but hoped Jedao would give some indication that a better world was possible.

During the subsequent wait for the swarms to engage, Zaniin had scan relay data forwarded to the *Hierarchy of Feasts* from the region's listening posts, and continued to do so throughout the engagement. General Kel Khiruev appreciated her restraint in not calling for assistance as the Hafn swarm wheeled past the tower.

## Trivia

* Zaniin's choice to address Jedao by a rank he no longer held demonstrated the force of her belief that charges of heresy and treason were preferable to silently allowing two inhabited planets to die.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
Sparrow 2

**Sparrow 2** was a Kel servitor who appeared in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Sparrow 2 served in Heron Company and had liked discussing number theory with Captain Kel Cheris and listening to her stories of ravens in her home city. Sparrow 11 considered 2 very young. As a Kel servitor, 2 shared the Kel prejudice against General Shuos Jedao.

At leisure while waiting for the remnants of the company to receive new orders, 2 had a conversation with 11 about Cheris's fate. 2 believed that Cheris should be warned about her new situation as a Shuos pawn and wished the servitors could openly help her. Eventually, after some debate, 2 acceded to 11's reminders that Cheris's upcoming contacts with Jedao and Hexarch Nirai Kujen could endanger servitors if her association with them was openly known, and that since she was a terrible liar, her only hope of surviving Kujen's scrutiny was genuine ignorance. However, the servitors would hear of her progress through the servitor grapevine, and any warmoth she ended up on would have servitors to help her if she chose to ask.
Rahal Korais

> "*I don't think your meditations during the next nineteen minutes are going to help if you fall unconscious.*"
> ― Captain-magistrate Rahal Korais
>
>

Captain-magistrate **Rahal Korais** was the Doctrine officer on the fangmoth *Fortune Travels in Fours*. He served during the Lanterner rebellion and appears in The Battle of Candle Arc.

## Appearance and Personality

Shuos Jedao considered Korais reasonable for a Rahal. He shared Jedao's wry impatience when waiting for battle to commence. Though regretting the calendrical advantage of torturing a heretic during battle and speaking bluntly rather than euphemistically about it, Korais was prepared to fulfil his duty as Doctrine officer by informing his general of the option and carrying it out if necessary.

## History

Korais served as Doctrine officer under Commander Kel Menowen. After Jedao became ranking officer on the ship, Korais observed the Feast of Drownings with him, reciting some of its litany for him and even leaving early due to Jedao's poor medical condition.

Shortly before the Battle of Candle Arc, Jedao noticed that his watch was off by a fraction of a second and did not alert Korais, judging that the captain-magistrate had more important things to do than recalibrate it to the high calendar with the battle about to begin.

When the Lanterners offered their general to Jedao as a hostage, Korais asked Jedao to make sure the general was still alive, since the battle was taking place on a remembrance day and torturing her on it would influence the calendar in the heptarchate's favor. After Jedao ordered all available heretics to be destroyed instead and then collapsed from his injuries, Korais revisited the subject with Commander Menowen, but stopped when she backed Jedao's orders.

Though Korais was obligated to report Jedao's orders to the Rahal, Doctrine provisionally declared a replacement remembrance day to commemorate Jedao's victory, involving candle-burning as a focus instead of torture.
Vidona Diaiya

> "*Let me sort that out for you, General.*"
> ― Vidona Diaiya
>
>

Commander **Vidona Diaiya** was a Vidona soldier who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Diaiya was seconded to the Kel and, unusually for a Vidona, rose high enough in the military to command the bannermoth *Starvation Hound*. She had a lot of very carefully worded commendations and a reputation for finding loopholes in orders.

Brevet General Kel Cheris and General Shuos Jedao chose Diaiya and *Starvation Hound* for her swarm over the less desirable *[Simplicity Eye]]* or *Six Spires Standing*. Jedao suspected that her position was due to high connections and classed her as someone to watch carefully, but believed he had a use for her.

During Cheris's first address to the swarm, Diaiya watched carefully when Commander Kel Nerevor was speaking.

After scout moths from the Fortress used a kaleidoscope bomb to multiply themselves into a larger force, Diaiya broke formation to attack them with a fungal canister from a modified gunport, refusing to acknowledge orders from both Nerevor and Cheris to resume formation. The cloud of spores consumed a third of the kalaidoscoped enemy moths and contributed to the battle ending with fewer casualties, but a Kel boxmoth, *River Full of Stones*, was lost due to the unplanned formation break. To protect the rest of the swarm, Cheris excluded *Starvation Hound* from the reconfigured formation, and it was destroyed seconds after the fungal canister exploded. Jedao savagely criticized Diaiya's decision to break formation for her own glory at the expense of her soldiers, and Nerevor considered the fungal attack a waste of the enemy bannermoth it had contaminated, as it would be cheaper to build a new one than to clean it.

Later, while pretending insanity, Jedao mentioned having made an example of Diaiya, saying that she had been his "expendable" and that they would need to find a new target among the swarm now that she had "torched herself." Cheris protested that Diaiya's exclusion from the swarm after breaking formation was normal discipline. Later, Jedao confirmed that he had not been serious, and a later allusion by Cheris to Diaiya's actions was in line with regular Kel discipline.

Diaiya's use of the fungal canister figured in the report Cheris sent to Kel Command after the retaking of the Fortress.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 6
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 10
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20