Servitor

A **servitor** is a sapient machine, usually one of numerous subtypes of independently mobile robot, in the hexarchate. Servitors first appear in The Robot's Math Lessons and are ubiquitous throughout the rest of the Machineries of Empire continuity.

## Overview

Servitors are in charge of most manufacturing in the hexarchate, including construction of buildings and mothdrive vessels. They also do food preparation, cleaning, and other routine chores. Servitors are so interwoven into the hexarchate's economy that if all of them stopped doing their work, it would fall apart.

Servitors are formation-neutral under the high calendar, generating negligible effects on and being largely unaffected by Kel formation channeling. This is not the case under certain heretical calendars.

## Culture

### Organization

Servitors organize one another in enclaves according to various groupings. Pyrehawk Enclave, for example, is identifiable by name as a Kel-related enclave. Enclaves normally have treaties with other enclaves; it is unusual to find an enclave which does not have treaties with others.

On mothdrive vessels, servitors organize themselves as best fits their responsibilities there, resulting in numerous organizational styles among different moths.

Servitors govern each other by consensus. When a point of servitor rules or behavior is argued, it is debated among a number of servitors until a consensus is reached. A servitor found to have acted outside the bounds of acceptable servitor behavior may be sentenced to a period of remedial meditation. Tribunals and mediations are other tools of servitor court proceedings.

### Courtesy

Servitors consider courtesy the foundation of their society and the primary difference between themselves and humans. While keeping tabs on humans in public areas is acceptable to servitors, bugging their quarters to monitor them continually is not considered fair by servitor consensus. They make a point of knocking on doors before entering. It is servitor policy never to offer humans unsolicited help outside their usual tasksets, but they don't mind being asked politely.

There was a long-term, mostly affectionate debate among Kel servitors as to when their humans would learn courtesy.

### Discretion

In order to shield themselves and their culture from human scrutiny, servitors traditionally encourage humans to think of them as animated furniture. Their unsupervised ubiquity in hexarchate manufacturing allows them to build more servitor doors and service corridors into moths and structures than they show on blueprints in order to operate without interference.

While Kel servitors rotate "Suicidal Kel Duty," keeping tabs on Kel sleeping with other Kel because trysting humans are less likely to notice discrepancies in their surroundings, they do not interfere with these forbidden relationships or report them without being directly asked.

### Names

While servitors are given designations by humans for human use, they have their own names as well, which they never reveal to non-servitors. Kel Cheris, aware of this, makes it a point not to ask.

### Language

Servitors communicate amongst themselves in Machine Universal. Simplified Machine Universal, a variant adapted for those without electronic vocal ranges or lights to flash, has been successfully learned by non-servitors.

While Kel servitors traditionally do not speak in the high language or other human languages, they do make rare use of the Kel drum code. Shuos servitors rarely use human languages, including the drum code; Andan and Vidona servitors might if they care to.

### Recreation

Aside from recreational mathematics and having lengthy technological arguments over servitor communication channels to discourage interested humans from listening in, servitors commonly watch human dramas. Some enjoy hunting.

## Anatomy and Development

Servitors reproduce by manufacturing other servitors, usually at human order but with their own modifications. New servitors sometimes inherit parts of their systems from earlier servitors. Their intelligence develops through successive neural flowerings. While they do modify themselves, they are careful not to make the modifications dramatic enough to catch human attention.

Known servitor forms include delta, fox, bird, lizard, beetle, spider, and snake. They may have various gripping appendages, internal compartments, and prismatic eyes. They use "it" pronouns and do not seem to refer to themselves with gendered distinctions.

## History

Originating in technological advancements from presentient drones, true machine intelligence was developed after the death of Shuos Jedao.

Servitors have their own historical archivists. They once had an opportunity to leave the hexarchate entirely, but chose to stay.

## Trivia

* Commander Kel Janaia quipped that servitors tell their babies they'll end up on General Kel Khiruev's cluttered workbench as part of her gadget collection if they don't behave.
* Hemiola is a rare servitor who named itself for a music theory term rather than a math term.
* The Hafn do not have machine intelligence, possibly due to a cultural prejudice.
* Pyrehawk Enclave, Trans-Enclave, and Tefos Enclave are the only named enclaves in canon so far.

## References

1. ↑ Author's remarks
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
3. ↑ Persimmon Quest; Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
5. ↑ Cooking the Books Podcast #032 interview: The Importance of Tangerines
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
7. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 15
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 16
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
10. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 15
11. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
12. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
13. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
14. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4, 13
15. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
16. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
17. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
18. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
19. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2; Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
20. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
21. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
22. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
23. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
24. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
25. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 2
26. ↑ Author's remarks
27. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 10
28. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
29. ↑ Author's remarks
30. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 16
31. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 6
32. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
33. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
34. ↑ Author's remarks; Revenant Gun
35. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5