Kel Khiruev

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**Kel Khiruev**, born **Neshte Khiruev**, is a Kel general who served during the Hafn invasion and later became a ranking general in the Compact. Her emblem is the Swanknot. She appears in Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun.

## Appearance and Personality

Khiruev has dark skin, pale disfiguring scars on the side of her face that she never bothered to have removed, and an untidy streak of white in her hair. She was 72 years old at the time of the Hafn invasion and 81 at the time of the treaty between the Compact and Protectorate, at which time her hair had gone fully white.

She participated in composite work a number of times and enjoyed the sense of being part of a greater whole.

## Personal Life

Khiruev was the only child of mothers Neshte Allu and Vidona Ekesra and father Neshte Kthero. When she was eleven, Ekesra discovered that Kthero had committed heresy by joining a historical reenactment group. Ekesra passed summary judgment on Kthero and killed him with the Vidona deathtouch in front of their wife and child. Both before and after this incident, Ekesra brought home detailed but dispassionate stories of failed heresies and Vidona purges; Khiruev grew up terrified of her, though well-practiced in hiding her reactions.

She composed a tone poem for an alt when she was fourteen, but did not date until she was in her thirties. At thirty-seven, she contracted for a year's marriage to singer Dosveissen Moressa, but the two parted after five months, foundering on long-term specifics that they had never discussed. She sabotaged all her subsequent relationships by deliberately picking unsuitable partners, being most ashamed of her time with a refugee who begged her to leave the Kel and was a constant reminder of the human cost of her career. She never felt strongly about having children and was never tempted to contract for any. She did not like talking about her family.

## Career

Khiruev applied to the Kel to escape the dangers of the independent thinking that had led her father to his death. Engineering was her subspecialty as a cadet. With the hexarchate in considerable turmoil, she expected to die in service as a young officer.

Khiruev figured out as a lieutenant that no battle could be routine, but that certain rituals, such as being in the command center while swarms approached potential battle locations, helped to manage the chaos.

After receiving numerous commendations and realizing she likely to be promoted further, Khiruev applied to be an instructor instead and was declined. Her profile noted the application as a temporary loss of nerve.

As a general, she developed a reputation for unconventional thinking and sidestepping Kel Command's intent.

While looking at a casualty list from a recent battle during her first meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, she asked him to help her remember that the Kel she so frequently had to send to their deaths were people as well as soldiers.

At the time of the Hafn invasion, she had served at her present rank for fifteen years.

## Trivia

* Khiruev knows how to catch bees in her fingers without harming them, a skill she learned on the same day as her father's death.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2, 13
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 10
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
11. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
12. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 12
13. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
14. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2