recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Crescendo system

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

## History

Among the eight planets reduced to crystallized ruins by the invading Hafn early in their incursion into hexarchate space were Crescendo 2 and 3, which were attacked without communication or provocation. Videos of the assault on Crescendo 3 revealed a fractalscape of jagged webbed towers, deadly singing storms, and frenzied crowds of writhing, staggering red-blue tree-things with "ugly chambered hearts" which analysts concluded "had once been people."

General Kel Khiruev mentioned Crescendo and Knifer 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
Kel Anien

> "*No one saw it coming. I would have suspected myself a traitor before I suspected him.*"
> ― High General Kel Anien
>
>

High General **Kel Anien** was a part of Kel Command during the lifetime of Shuos Jedao. She is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Anien is thin and gray-haired, with difficulty keeping her hands still when under great stress. Nirai Kujen suspects that she gets too easily bored for her own good.

## History

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

During Jedao's campaign against the Lanterners, he mentioned while calling Kel Command that Anien owes him an embarrassing sum because she kept trying to draw an inner Crowned Door in jeng-zai, so the least she could do was answer his calls. However, he reached High General Kel Garit instead.

After the massacre at Hellspin Fortress, Anien oversaw Jedao's transfer to Nirai Kujen for installation in the black cradle. She reported details of the Rahal attempt at scrying Jedao, including a confidential account of Jedao's memory blackouts and concern for his soldiers after the massacre. She also admitted concern for Jedao, theorizing that the Kel "promoted him too fast and pushed him too hard, and he cracked." However, she also felt that Jedao's tactical expertise was valuable enough to justify attempting to place him in the black cradle.

Asked for details about Jedao's personality, she reported him fond of games and guns, talkative and brave, occasionally funny, and loved by his soldiers. She also showed Kujen a card trick featuring the Deuce of Gears, one of many Jedao had taught her a few years back, and admitted that neither she nor the Kel had seen Hellspin coming.

Video footage of Anien attending Jedao's execution was still publicly available several hundred years later. Appearing in full formal beside Jedao, who was under sedation lock in a black casket, she was visibly unhappy with the event, stroking Jedao's hand and murmuring something to him before the execution took place.

When Anien died of a rare cancer, she left Kujen her card collection. She was succeeded as Kujen's Kel liaison by High General Kel Shiang.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 12
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 11
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
Kel Gehmet

Commander **Kel Gehmet** is a Kel commander who served with the Swanknot swarm. Gehmet appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

During the swarm's engagement with the two Hafn swarms near Minang Tower, Gehmet, part of Tactical Group Four, sent a report to General Kel Khiruev with an accompanying list of destroyed units.
Hopper

**Hoppers** are small Kel vessels which carry infantry troops in the hexarchate. They are described in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

Hoppers transport personnel between stations, warmoths, or battlefields. Designated with numbers rather than names, they have seats and windows, may sound like "barbed wires and bells" during flight, and each ordinarily holds a full-strength Kel platoon.

A boxmoth's hoppers insert Kel infantry into battlefields, returning immediately once empty. They return later to extract the survivors, along with medical teams to stabilize any wounded.

Hoppers on large warmoths reside in hopper bays. Between arrivals and departures, bays are sealed and can only be accessed from outside with a burrower. Upon expected arrivals, bays are pressurized so pressure suits are not required to debark.

## History

Hoppers from the boxmoth *Burning Leaf* were used to extract Heron Company from Dredge.

A hopper transported Brevet General Kel Cheris and a Shuos team from the black cradle facility to the cindermoth *Unspoken Law*.

The null swarm's hoppers ferried disguised Kel infantry to the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Cindermoth commander Kel Nerevor was placed on Hopper 1 from *Unspoken Law* as a ploy to ensure the safety of the landing troops. As the infantry campaign on the Fortress progressed, hoppers continued to provide transport and extract the wounded.

## Trivia

* The fact that hoppers can hum while in flight may indicate that they are moth-derived.
* Hoppers are not much smaller than needlemoths, but are designed to hold more personnel.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1,11
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1,16
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 23
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 11
10. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 16
11. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
12. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapters 7,24
Bunny

**Bunny** is a flashfic set in the Machineries of Empire universe. It was published by Yoon Ha Lee on his Dreamwidth account, written for LL to the prompt "young Jedao (hexarchate/heptarchate), cat, winter." It will appear in Hexarchate Stories (2019).

## Summary

With his older brother Rodao skipped out on a boyfriend date and their mother working late, eleven-year-old Jedao is stuck with the chore of cleaning the bathroom. As he tries to figure out how the weird purple stains got in the bathtub, his little sister Nidana enters and bursts into tears, explaining that she went outside to look at the big icicles and thinks the family cat, Bunny, escaped into the cold.

Donning winter gear, Jedao accompanies Nidana outside. The two search all the buildings they are allowed into, and some they aren't, but find no cat. As the sun sinks lower, the two discouraged children return home, and Jedao asks Nidana to keep the dog (also named Bunny) occupied while he searches inside the house.

With no luck anywhere else in the house, Jedao reluctantly enters his brother's off-limits room and finds the cat curled up in a half-open dresser drawer on top of some adult magazines. Jedao pulls one out to page through, but stuffed it back quickly when Nidana and Bunny-the-dog arrive and, without letting the little girl see her brother's reading material, picks up the cat and hustles everyone out of the room.

## Trivia

* The story explains that all the family's pets -- the cat, the dog, two finches, and a snake -- were named Bunny by Nidana when she was five.

## Links

* Full flashfic at the author's Dreamwidth account.

## References

1. ↑ Bunny
2. ↑ Author's blog: Hexarchate Stories due in June 2019
3. ↑ Bunny
Directional storm generator

A **directional storm generator** is an exotic device designed to control local weather. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

The generator creates storms which scramble localized vectors, causing individuals' movements to diverge drastically in relation to each other and the surrounding terrain; parallel troop columns might end up far apart, or forward movement might become fatally vertical. At close range, the storms can disintegrate individuals on an atomic level.

## History

The heretics on Dredge destroyed most of a Kel battalion with a directional storm generator operating on a heretical calendar. The generator was captured by Heron Company and subsequently destroyed by the Chain of Thorns swarm.
Ghirout

**Ghirout** was the name of a family that lived on Eshpatan during the youth of Shuos Jedao. A boy from the Ghirout family was mentioned in Silence.

## History

At fifteen years old, Jedao hacked his brother Rodao's floater vehicle to impress the Ghirout boy, and the two went for a ride. The next day, the two had a make-out session which was interrupted by Rodao.
Kel Chriferafa

**Kel Chriferafa** was a Kel soldier in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Kel Chriferafa, nicknamed "Chrif" and always teased for her unpronounceable name, served in the Heron Company action against the Eels on the planet Dredge.

In the thick of a variant crystal storm generated by heretical Eel equipment, Captain Kel Cheris heard through the field grid chatter that Chrif was down, though the reporting soldier's first assessment had been that it was "just a scratch."
From every spark a fire

**from every spark a fire** is a Twine choose-your-own-adventure game written by Yoon Ha Lee and set in the Machineries of Empire continuity. Released on June 25th, 2019, it is dedicated to Dreamwidth user Isis, with all the author's thanks.

## Content Notes

*This game takes place in the hexarchate, the setting of the Machineries of Empire trilogy. Anything that might show up in the books is fair game.*

*Specifically, the game includes brainwashing and suicide.*

*There are some spoilers for Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem.*

## Development

The author credits Peter Berman coding help and Glorious Trainwrecks for Twine macros. The game features cover art by Augusta Scarlett and was beta-tested by Berman, Yune Kyung Lee, lemon\_badgeress, Rue, and Ursula Whitcher.

## Trivia

* The game's release coincided with the release of Hexarchate Stories.
* It takes about 10 minutes to play through.
* In the most canon-compliant ending, Stesarion chooses to fill the pivot.

## Links

* from every spark a fire on the author's website

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Stories Giveaway + A Bonus Twine Game
2. ↑ Author's remarks
Blue Heron border

The **Blue Heron border** was a border of the heptarchate and hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## Geography

The Blue Heron border lies between the hexarchate and the Taurag Republic until Taurag space gives way to the Gwa Reality. On the hexarchate side, it runs from the Rosetta March past the Concerto March and all the way to the Pale Fracture.

## History

The security of the Blue Heron border led the heptarchate to field Shuos Jedao against the Aughens, whose stretch of territory could not be ceded lest it leave the border vulnerable.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 22
Kel Daharit

Commander **Kel Daharit** was a Kel bannermoth commander who served with the Swanknot swarm. Daharit appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Daharit was the commander of Tactical Group Six.

At the end of the swarm's second engagement with the Hafn, General Shuos Jedao dispatched Daharit's group to deal with the fleeing remnants of the original invasion swarm, with orders to see if they could capture anything intact for analysis. The main swarm rejoined Tactical Six after the rest of the Hafn were defeated.
Andan Viendris

> "*My dear Inesser, you don't have to explain to* me *that war is about uncertainties.*"
> ― Andan Viendris
>
>

Governor **Andan Viendris** is the governor of Terebeg 4 and one of numerous relatives of Andan Tseya. They appear in Revenant Gun.

## Appearance and Personality

Viendris is an alt who bears an alarming resemblance to Tseya, though they are possibly more beautiful. Unlike Tseya, they style their hair in coils, a style popular among nonmilitary alts; and their signifier is tattooed in silver, black, and blue over half their face, a design one of Tseya's brothers believed had been applied by a drunken artist. While their mannerisms appear foppish, they are perceptive when it comes to interlinking events.

Protector-General Kel Inesser regarded Viendris as fussy and vain, doubted they had any combat experience, and vastly preferred having Tseya on her staff to the prospect of the reverse, but enjoyed numerous networking dinners with Viendris, not least because of their excellent wines. Tseya is not comfortable with Viendris, but reserves any impolite remarks.

## History

A cousin of sorts, related to Tseya by way of a surrogate and three gene-donors, Viendris oversees Terebeg 4 and maintains ties with the administrators of the system's other planets, stations, and moons.

Upon receiving evacuation orders from Inesser for Terebeg 4's civilian authorities and population, Viendris contacted Inesser to request further information. They assured Inesser that the high calendar was being enforced as previously discussed, and, to Inesser's surprise, asked what they could do to expedite the plan. Inesser asked them to see that people adhered to the preparedness bulletins and try to keep the others calm, assuring Viendris that she would try to prevent the fighting from reaching the planet.

After Viendris closed the channel, Tseya, who had been watching, relaxed slightly, and Inesser mentioned preferring her presence to her cousin's.
Every Mirror Is A Flatterer

> "*No one with two brain cells is going to fall for Every Mirror.*"
> ― Kel Khiruev
>
>

**Every Mirror Is A Flatterer** is a Kel formation which affects the scan formants of mothdrive vessels and other objects. It appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Description

An illusion generator, Every Mirror Is A Flatterer affects the scan formants of the swarm using it, causing them to resemble the formants of vessels facing them. It does not affect visuals and is only useful at a very short distance, rendering the illusion useless against a visual survey. Due to this drawback, the Kel normally do not use the formation in battle.

## History

At orders from General Shuos Jedao, Commander Kel Kavinte's Tactical Group Five used the formation while approaching a flock of Hafn outrider caskets. When the outriders fell for the illusion, revealing that they could scan formants but had no intelligent guidance, Jedao ordered the outriders destroyed.

## Trivia

* The formation's name appears as "Every Mirror Was A Flatterer" at one point in the text.
Fires-and-towers

**Fires-and-towers** is a game played in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Brevet General Kel Cheris used fires-and-towers as a template to create a game based on the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles.

## Trivia

* Fires-and-towers may involve fire tokens, gamepieces which figured in one of Cheris's dreams.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
Hunting Trip

**Hunting Trip** 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 metamorphosis to the prompt "hexarchate, red pandas." It will appear in Hexarchate Stories (2019).

## Summary

Shuos Jedao diverts an unwanted hunting trip with High General Kel Garit, who wants to add a gray tiger to his collection, by suggesting a trip to the zoo to pick up souvenirs for Jedao's relatives. Using an antique camera, a gift from his brother, Jedao tries to take pictures of the animals without giving Garit more trophy ideas. When they come across a red panda, Garit mistakes it for a fox and then suggests catching one to bring home for Jedao's relatives, but Jedao talks him out of it.

## Trivia

* Due to Kel Garit's reputation, the author prefaced the story with a disclaimer that the red panda is okay at the end.

## Links

* Full flashfic at the author's Dreamwidth account.

## References

1. ↑ Hunting Trip
2. ↑ Author's blog: Hexarchate Stories due in June 2019
3. ↑ Hunting Trip
High calendar

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

> "*She had told six Kel companies that the best use she could make of their loyalty was to have them fight the heretics and lose. Meat for a sham victory. All for one day in the calendar.*"
> ― Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
>
>

The **high calendar** was the calendar used and enforced throughout the heptarchate and hexarchate. Observance of the high calendar allows the regime's exotic technology, including mothdrive and communications, to work, though this dependence on local observances to maintain calendrical values leaves the hexarchate vulnerable to calendrical rot.

## Timekeeping

The calendar has a 100-minute hour and a 30-hour day.

The regime does not regulate the length of the week. The Kel military use a ten-day week, while the Mwennin week is eight days and Shuos Spirel's people use seven days.

## Observances

The high calendar encompasses feasts, remembrances, and the rest of the hexarchate's social order, down to which languages and cultural practices are approved and which are considered suspect or heretical.

Every citizen's birthday is celebrated on the high calendar's new year, with ages starting from one year old at birth to account for time spent gestating. New Year Festival observances include specific dances and a gift exchange, and are regulated by sumptuary laws set by the Rahal.

## History

The high calendar was instituted along with the founding of the heptarchate. During its first century, Rahal Ienora introduced changes which allowed citizens across countless planets, moons, and stations to adhere to local dinural cycles in their observations of the high calendar.

Heptarch (later Hexarch) Nirai Kujen was responsible for major changes in the high calendar, including increasing the remembrances because he enjoyed them. Reducing the number of remembrances was one of the goals of the Liozh heresy.[citation needed] Later on, a rule change allowing prisoners of war to be used in remembrances led to an attempted secession which endured until the death of its instigator.

In 1252, a major calendrical spike and the broadcast of a revised calendar caused the hexarchate to break into two realms, the Compact taking on the new calendar and the Protectorate adhering to the old. Nine years later, the two realms united under the new calendar.

## Trivia

* Sumptuary regulations for the New Year Festival are memorized by prospective Rahal cadets.
* The hexarchate's practice of annual, communal birthdays and including time spent gestating as the child's first year is the traditional way of reckoning Korean age.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
2. ↑ Calendrical Rot
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
4. ↑ Birthdays
5. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 15
6. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 2
7. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 15
8. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Hexarchate (And Heptarchate) Timeline
9. ↑ Seven Views of a Kel Secession
10. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Hexarchate (And Heptarchate) Timeline
11. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapters 1,2
12. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 12
13. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 15
14. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Birthdays (Author's Note)
Concerto March

The **Concerto March** is a march of space in the hexarchate.

## Geography

The Concerto March lies on part of the Ivenua border and is adjacent to the Taurag Republic. On the hexarchate side of the border, it is surrounded by the Rosetta March, the Severed March, the Stabglass March, and the central area of the hexarchate.

Weraio System, Isteia System, and Kel Academy Prime are in the Concerto March.

## History

The Concerto March is referred to as a potential destination for the invading Hafn moving through the Entangled March.

## References

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

General **Kel Najhera** was a Kel general who served during the Lanterner rebellion. She is mentioned in The Battle of Candle Arc.

## History

Najhera commanded a fangmoth swarm in a critical battle against Lanterner general Bremis kai Meghuet, but relied too much on exotics, attempting to fight solely with exotic effects, and underused invariant defenses. Due to the swarm's scan being thwarted by the Lanterners' distorted formants, there was no time for formation fighting. The swarm was decimated and Najhera was killed in an aggressively showy exploitation of calendrical terrain by the Lanterners, who broadcast their grievances against the heptarchate after defeating her. Due to her loss, a calendrical choke in the area of Candle Arc periodically shifted to favor the Lanterners' calendar.

The remainder of Najhera's force of fangmoths, despite depleted morale, were led by Shuos Jedao to victory against the kai Meghuet at Candle Arc, repairing the calendrical terrain.
Kel Mikev

Lieutenant **Kel Mikev** is a Kel infantry lieutenant who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

Mikev gives his soldiers nicknames and has many theories about how they are likely to die in order not to get attached to them. He feels awful when faced with upset civilians, and prefers doing battle in a contained environment rather than on a planetary surface due to decreased potential for creepy biological attacks.

## History

During ground operations in the Umbrella Ward, Mikev and his platoon, including Kel soldiers Eggshell and Trigger, 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. Though grateful a different platoon had dealt with civilian rescues and casualties, Mikev hated his assignment.

Mikev told his officers to stay under cover after being warned of an imminent attack. Experiencing a crawling physical sensation indicative of an exotic attack, Mikev realized it was coming from his belt, pack, and pistol, and ordered his troops to discard their weapons. He had to yell at Trigger to stay away from her guns as the corrosion gradient fossilized them. Observing that the gradient had not affected grenades and power tools, he contacted his captain, but she was aware of the issue and told him and his platoon to hold position.
Kel Jai

Lieutenant **Kel Jai** is a Kel soldier who served on the cindermoth *Unspoken Law*. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Jai manned the Weapons station in *Unspoken Law's* command center during the null swarm's attack on the invariant ice shield protecting the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He was incapacitated by the shield's inversion and was taken to Medical afterward by the moth's servitors. Commander Kel Nerevor took over the station until his replacement could arrive.
Kel Huo

**Kel Huo** was a Kel soldier who served during the retaking of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Huo served on Platoon Two under Lieutenant Kel Hren. As the platoon proceeded toward the location of the corrosion gradient generators, Hren told Kel Chion to help "that idiot" Huo with her pack, which was giving her trouble again.

Shortly afterwards, Platoon Two collided with Captain Kel Miyaud's company, proceeded ahead of it, and ran into the first use of the heretics' amputation gun.
Andan Niath

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

**Andan Niath** is a nephew of Hexarch Shuos Mikodez. He is mentioned in Raven Stratagem, Revenant Gun, and Glass Cannon.

## Appearance

Niath bears a family resemblance to Mikodez, sharing his dark skin, dark hair, and various accents, mannerisms, and gestures. He keeps his hair in a shower of braids laced with rose-blue ribbons, and his taste in clothing, also blue, runs to slacks and tight, translucent jackets, displaying a well-defined torso, narrow hips, and long legs. The activation of his Andan abilities cause his eyes to blaze blue.

## History

Niath was born to parents who had no faction affiliation, one of whom was a sibling of Mikodez and Vauhan Istradez. He trained as an Andan contact specialist, but was left unstable after being the sole survivor of a border encounter. When his parents were too afraid to care for him due to the serious danger of poorly controlled Andan enthrallment, Mikodez, protected by rank, accepted him as a ward.

Niath was quartered at the Citadel of Eyes and was often visited by Mikodez and Istradez, who resembled Mikodez enough to take the risk, both together and separately. Niath's life at the Citadel was a lonely one, though Mikodez mentioned to Shuos Zehun that Niath was doing as well as he ever did, and Zehun -- unusually, despite awareness that the subject was an uncomfortable one -- joked about sending Niath a plate of too-sweet cookies to see if he could enthrall anyone into eating them.

Nine years later, Shuos Jedao reminded Mikodez of the way Niath had looked when he first returned to the Citadel after the border incident. The two eventually met when Niath, now middle-aged, interrupted a lunch meeting between Jedao and the hexarch, who stepped between them to shield Jedao from Niath's enthrallment. Over the next two years, Niath conducted psychological evaluations of Jedao and was known to him as Mikodez's contact specialist. The latest evaluation, a long document, detailed Jedao's unfitness to be released from the Citadel or to have contact with anyone but Niath and various carefully selected personnel.

## Trivia

* Niath's freedom to interrupt one of Mikodez's meetings, as well as his analysis work with Jedao, suggests sufficient recovery to interact with others on at least a limited basis.
* The author has considered writing a short story involving Niath and a character from Revenant Gun, who, given Niath's role in Glass Cannon, is probably Jedao.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 36
4. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
5. ↑ [1]
Shuos Igradna

Major-analyst **Shuos Igradna** was a Shuos analyst seconded to the Kel. He is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Major-analyst Shuos Igradna served with the Swanknot swarm. Kel Brezan remembered him as having a collection of flutes, “most of which weren’t in tune with each other, or possibly anything.”  Along with other non-Kel personnel, Igradna was offloaded in an emergency sleeper unit, many of which were badly prepped in the rush after Shuos Jedao took control of the swarm.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 3
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
Kel Nhiel

**Kel Nhiel** was a boxmoth commander in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Nhiel commanded the boxmoth *River Full of Stones*, which was lost in the first action against the heretics who held the Fortress of Scattered Needles when the bannermoth *Starvation Hound* broke formation and allowed the formation shields to be pierced by dire cannon fire.
The Robot's Math Lessons

**The Robot's Math Lessons** is a flashfic which takes place in the Machineries of Empire universe. It was written by Yoon Ha Lee for cohomology to the prompt "servitor math glitch/comedy" and will appear in Hexarchate Stories (2019).

## Summary

A servitor tasked with cleaning debris from the shoreline of the City of Ravens Feasting was often accompanied while on its duties by a young girl who lived by the sea and liked to walk along the shoreline. The servitor liked to amuse itself during its work by writing nonsense equations in the sand, and one day the girl politely and anxiously asked whether it needed help with its math. Not wanting to laugh at her obvious sincerity, the servitor deliberately misfactored a polynomial and let her correct it, gravely accepting her earnest explanation of the technique. Their impromptu lessons continued from then on, growing more advanced as the girl's skills increased.

## Trivia

* Unusually for this universe, the servitor is referred to as a "robot" for most of the story.
* Besides being available on the author's website, this story is collected in The Fox's Tower And Other Tales.
* The servitor in the story is mentioned again in Cheris and the Sea, when a grown Cheris realizes that the math it had taught her could be foundational to challenging the high calendar.

## References

1. ↑ The Robot's Math Lessons
2. ↑ Author's blog: Hexarchate Stories due in June 2019
3. ↑ The Robot's Math Lessons
Ashhawk

The **ashhawk**, also known as the **suicide hawk**, is a mythical bird used as the faction emblem of the Kel. Ashhawk imagery appears across the series.

## Description

An ashhawk is a mythological black phoenix with a crest and a raptor's beak. The Kel ashhawk emblem has black wings, outstretched talons, and a fierce raptor's beak; it is depicted surrounded by flames and described as "the bird that burned in its own glory, all fire and ferocity." Some depictions have smoke-coil wings and golden eyes.

## Iconography

Ashhawk art is found wherever there are Kel: gilded onyx statuettes, ink paintings, and tapestries. Kel warmoth decor is rife with flamboyantly depicted ashhawks. The Kel uniform features an ashhawk image which "preens," brightening and arching its neck, when the uniform is set to full formal. Ashhawks also appear in Kel rank insignia and signifiers.

Ashhawks can be used in art to represent liaisons between factions, such as in an ink painting of an ashhawk clutching arrows in its talons to represent Andan Zhe Navo's successful career among the Kel.

## Trivia

* Kel signifiers appear on terminal screens as silhouettes surrounded by red-gold flames.
* An orrey owned by Kel Brezan leaves a shadowfall of ashy feathers drifting behind each moon, viewed by Brezan as "the touch of ashhawk conquest."
* General Kel Essier had two gilded onyx ashhawk statuettes in her office.
* In Extracurricular Activities, "ash-hawk" is hyphenated.
* The ashhawk was slightly inspired by the Fenghuang or Chinese phoenix.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Author's remarks
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 14
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
5. ↑ The Battle of Candle Arc
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 23
7. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
11. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
12. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
13. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
14. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
15. ↑ Author's remarks
Sword-Shopping

**Sword-Shopping** is a flashfic set in the Machineries of Empire universe. It was published by Yoon Ha Lee on his Dreamwidth account, written for S.B. to the prompt "hexarchate, calendrical sword," and will appear in Hexarchate Stories (2019).

## Synopsis

Ajewen Cheris and her girlfriend Linnis Orua visit a shop called "Blades for All Occasions" to purchase a calendrical sword for Cheris. After she admires an extremely showy but far too expensive voidmetal hilt, Orua offers to pick for her, saying she knows nothing about dueling but a lot about Cheris.

Orua draws her over to a display of swords which, though simpler, have a raven-feather sheen to the metal. Cheris picks one whose textured design incorporated a mathematical pattern, and loudly says she'll take it to quiet Orua's whispering suggestion for further activities that night.

## Trivia

* This story takes place after Cheris's second year at Kel Academy.
* The textured design of Cheris's new sword incorporates "the first digits of the base of the natural logarithm."

## Links

* Full flashfic at the author's Dreamwidth account.

## References

1. ↑ Sword-Shopping
2. ↑ Author's blog: Hexarchate Stories due in June 2019
3. ↑ Sword-Shopping
Taurag Republic

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

The **Taurag Republic** is a polity outside the hexarchate. Its citizens are known as **Taurags**. They are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, and Revenant Gun, and figure in the plot of the short story Gamer's End.

## Geography

The Taurag Republic lies beyond the area of the Blue Heron border known as the Taurag border. It is also adjacent to the Gwa Reality. On the hexarchate side, Taurag space borders the Pale Fracture, the Concerto March, and the Rosetta March.

## Government

Vahenz afrir dai Noum had dealings with the Taurags, and remembered their oversight officers as inclined to foul complex operations.

## Population and Culture

The Taurags are humans. Many have distinctive violet eyes. They wear articulated armor.

The Taurags greatly value their concept of honor, and pointedly spare civilian targets.

## History

The Taurags have a history of conflict with the hexarchate and have tried to invade it in the past. A map created by Hexarch Nirai Kujen at an unknown time represented the Taurag Republic as one of the different calendrical zones surrounding the hexarchate, and identified them, along with the Hafn, as most likely to be dangerous to the hexarchate in coming decades.

In an engagement against Taurag raiders during his first bannermoth posting, Kel Brezan was narrowly missed by railgun shot which punctured the Kel shields and killed the woman standing next to him.

After the revised calendar was broadcast, the Taurags and other external regimes annexed parts of the former hexarchate's border territories.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 23
3. ↑ Gamer's End
4. ↑ Gamer's End
5. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 20
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 22
7. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 12
Tunneler bullets

**Tunneler bullets** are a form of ammunition used in the heptarchate. They are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

Tunneler bullets work quickly inwards from their point of entry; only amputation can prevent further damage after a tunneler bullet hits.

## History

Shuos Sereset was mortally wounded by a stray Kel tunneler bullet on the Axers' battlefield.
Weraio 5

> "*One of a thousand conflagrations.*"
> ― General Kel Khiruev
>
>

**Weraio 5** is a planet in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## Overview

Weraio 5, in the Weraio System, is in the Concerto March. It became part of the hexarchate after the death of Shuos Jedao. Its location is not of strategic importance.

Like many other planets, Weraio 5 suffered recurring outbursts of calendrical warfare and student demonstrations on its subtropical archipelago.

## Miifau

Miifau, a popular vacation city not near the troubled subtropical archipelago, is famed for its orchestra. General Kel Khiruev has vacationed there and watches the digests for news of the orchestra's safety.

## Trivia

* Khiruev chose Miifau as a destination, rather than the subtropical areas, because she dislikes warm climates.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 10
Unspoken Law

The **Unspoken Law** was a Kel cindermoth which served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. It is described in Ninefox Gambit and mentioned in Revenant Gun.

## Description

The *Unspoken Law* boasted a spinal-mounted erasure cannon and a complement of dire cannon, along with invariant weapons.

Stations in the command center included Weapons, Communications, Sensors (Scan), Engineering, Navigation, and Doctrine. In friendly calendrical terrain, they were preferentially operated by composite marionettes.

The cindermoth had the usual barracks, high-table halls, and dueling halls. It held hoppers to transport infantry troops, numbered Hopper 1 and onward. Its medical facilities were able to wipe a Kel's personality into fledge-null.

## Personnel

Commander: Kel Nerevor

Second/Acting Commander: Kel Hazan

Infantry: Corporal Kel Hadang, Kel Jua

Rahal: Captain-magistrate Rahal Gara

Shuos: Captain-analyst Shuos Ko, Senior Analyst Shuos Veldiadar, Analyst Shuos Teng, Analyst Shuos Mrai Dhun, Analyst Shuos Liis

## Servitors

Deltaform servitors with multiple gripping beaks were favored on the *Unspoken Law*, but other forms were also present. Their internal governing structure was headed by Servitor Overgroup One.*[cite]* Individuals included Servitor 1491625, Servitor 124816, Servitor 7777777, Servitor 244666, Servitor 819825, and Servitor Overgroup Three 13610.

## History

Along with *Sincere Greeting*, the **Unspoken Law** was one of two cindermoths made available to Brevet General Kel Cheris and General Shuos Jedao to deal with the heresy at the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Despite the seniority of *Sincere Greeting's* commander, Cheris chose to banner the *Unspoken Law* in order to keep an eye on Commander Nerevor.

After passing the Fortress's guardswarm, the swarm switched to invariant drive to cope with the encroaching calendrical rot, giving up composites, variable layout, and other luxuries the crew enjoyed under the high calendar.

As the swarm's command moth, the *Unspoken Law* led the first tactical group, Tactical One.

## References

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

> "*Commandant, I appreciate that the Fortress feels naked without any clothes on, but would you mind terribly switching the terrain off again, or clearing us a path? You're interfering wtih our pursuit of the enemy.*"
> ― General Shuos Jedao
>
>

**Phantom terrain** is an exotic defense used by the Fortress of Spinshot Coins. It appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Description

Phantom terrain is a defensive shield of temporary terrain in space. It behaves like a densely manipulable fluid; mothdrive vessels caught inside it find their movement impaired and their scans disrupted. Scanned from the outside, it appears as dizzying blue swirls with waving kelp-like inclusions. It can be shifted to open brief windows for the Fortress's guns to fire through.

## History

Phantom terrain was developed some time after the death of General Shuos Jedao.

Lieutenant Colonel Kel Riozu tried to explain phantom terrain to Jedao during his first staff meeting on the *Hierarchy of Feasts,* but was interrupted by an assassination drone.

Commandant Kel Mazeret activated the Fortress's phantom terrain during Jedao's first skirmish with a Hafn swarm nearby. Using a dish formation, the Hafn were able to degrade the terrain, adding further inclusions in the shapes of tangled plant life.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
Kel Najjad

> "*If we still had any Nirai, I could torture one of them wiht the inadequacy of the interface controls. But our beloved general sent them packing, so I'm afraid you're stuck.*"
> ― Kel Najjad
>
>

Lieutenant Colonel **Kel Najjad** is a Kel soldier who served with the Swanknot swarm. He appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Personality

Najjad has a gift for breaking terminal interfaces and causing mothgrids to hang. He enjoys making onlookers uncomfortable with his distracting misuse of technology. General Kel Khiruev has considered lending him to the Shuos next time she needs a favor.

## History

Najjad has three children; his middle child researches comparative linguistics. Since joining General Kel Khiruev's staff, he has had a running argument with her about musicology. He heads the swarm's Logistics department.

Najjad was introduced to General Shuos Jedao at Jedao's first high table after the takeover of the swarm. Jedao seemed genuinely interested in his family.

Khiruev and Najjad were arguing about musical forms on the day the swarm received the hexarchs' ultimatum about the Mwennin. Najjad had brought up composer Yeri Chejio; and while Khiruev tried to head him off by mentioning post-Liozh composers and the need to find repair facilities for the swarm's bannermoths, Najjad offered to teach her the grid-hanging trick and expressed relief that Jedao hadn't killed them all yet. Later, Najjad's hopes to get raw materials for printing instead of relying on outside resources were dashed when the swarm resupplied at Station Tankut Primary; Khiruev teased that this is what running off to turn pirate would be like, and Najjad glumly replied that pirates in dramas were never this short on matter printers and that the station probably had ulterior motives for cooperating with the swarm. He was also uncomfortable with reminders that Khiruev had invoked the Vrae Tala clause, though his reaction was subtle.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 15
Rahal Ienora

Magistrate **Rahal Ienora** was a Rahal who studied localized effects of the high calendar. She is described on the Solaris website.

## History

Recognizing that the many planets and moons in the early heptarchate did not share the same day-cycles, Ienora promoted a compromise to allow local day-cycles to be adhered to and to create specially calculated remembrances to tune diverse locations to high calendar norms. Ienora's workaround, instituted in the heptarchate's first century, is so normalized that most citizens consider it a matter of course.

The revised calendar lacked these apparently-effortless concordance with local day-cycles, leaving some planets, such as Krauwer 5, with "morning" occurring at their midday.

## References

1. ↑ The Factions: High Faction Rahal
2. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Hexarchate (And Heptarchate) Timeline
3. ↑ The Factions: High Faction Rahal
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 5
Leng

**Leng** was a customer of a confectioner shop in the Dragonfly Ward on the Fortress of Scattered Needles. They are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Shuos Haodan was told by the confectioner's manager to hand-deliver a parcel to Leng and to let them know she was thinking of their son.

## Trivia

* The manager's mention of "their son" could mean that Leng is an alt or refer to more than one of the son's parents.
Kel Zro

**Kel Zro** is a Kel soldier who served in Squadron Three of Heron Company during the action on Dredge. She is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

During the capture of the weather generator on Dredge, Zro offloaded too much of her situational awareness functions into the computational grid relay and consequently had difficulty reacting to warnings about incoming fire. Many other Kel experienced similar difficulties.
Machine Universal

**Machine Universal** is the language used by servitors in the hexarchate to communicate amongst themselves. Its less complex variant, **Simplified Machine Universal**, can be learned by non-servitors.

## Description

Machine Universal has at least one obscenity, which involves nonlinear dynamics. The language can also be used for song, written in interlocking phrases of light.

Servitors' lights, with their colors and geometric placement, add nuance to Machine Universal. Simplified Machine Universal works around the absence of these lights in non-servitors, flattening the nuance but still conveying meaning and politeness levels. Simplified Machine Universal can be tapped out with the fingers or signed as a one-handed series of long-short fingertip movements.

## References

1. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 15
2. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 3
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 3
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 10
Cloudwood

**Cloudwood** is an expensive material used in interior decoration in the hexarchate. It appears in Raven Stratagem and Gamer's End.

See also: glasswood.

## Description

Cloudwood is a shimmering gray wood with subtle pearly swirls. Genuine cloudwood is used in expensive furniture; imitation cloudwood may be used on a tighter budget.

## History

* Shuos Sfenni keeps an abundance of expensive hand-bound books on cloudwood shelves, and has a cloudwood liquor cabinet.
* One of the games in Shuos Jedao's classroom is a pattern-stone set with a cloudwood board with a knife scratch marring its surface.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 8
2. ↑ Gamer's End
Sparrow 11

**Sparrow 11** was a Kel servitor who appeared in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

As a Kel servitor, 11 shared the Kel prejudice against General Shuos Jedao.

At leisure while waiting for the remnants of the company to receive new orders, Sparrow 11 repaired one of its limbs while having a conversation with Sparrow 2 about the fate of Captain Kel Cheris. Though 2, whom 11 privately thought was very young, was fond of Cheris and wanted to openly help her, 11 reminded it that she was about to meet Jedao and Hexarch Nirai Kujen, whose ignorance of servitor contacts and culture was all that kept them safe from him. 11 also reminded 2 that Cheris was a terrible liar and that her only hope of surviving Kujen's scrutiny was genuine ignorance.

After some debate, 2 acceded to 11's viewpoint, knowing that 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.
The Lieutenant and the Sergeant

**The Lieutenant and the Sergeant** is a flashfic set in the Machineries of Empire universe. It was published by Yoon Ha Lee on his Dreamwidth account, written for A.M. to the prompt "Kel Nerevor (hexarchate), on planet."

## Summary

Though disappointed at a planetary assignment to shipboard instead of a coveted bannermoth posting, Junior Lieutenant Nerevor arrives determined to be too Kel to let anything bother her, including the corrosive ocean, the local pirates, or the seasickness which threatens to hit every time she catches sight of the hissing, roiling waves even before the ship debarks.

Nerevor's sergeant, a round, laconic woman with a tanned, seamed face, presents some paperwork for her to sign. On observing Nerevor's condition, the sergeant offers her two anti-seasickness pills, remarking that she takes them all the time but doubts an officer needs them. Nerevor gulps the pills down, threatening to throw the sergeant overboard if she tells anyone; the sergeant replies that she wouldn't expect any less: "What else are suicide hawks for?"

## Links

* Full flashfic on the author's Dreamwidth account.
Candle Arc

> "*Whoever wins there will shift the calendar in their favor. When we offer battle, they'll take us up on it.*"
> ― Shuos Jedao
>
>

**Candle Arc** is a battledrift site in the heptarchate. It appears in The Battle of Candle Arc and is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and Revenant Gun.

## History

177 years before the Lanterner rebellion, a fortress built of desiccated suns was destroyed by a battle between two later-conquered powers. The original name of the site, scatted with debris of ships that had not been called warmoths, was unknown in the heptarchate, and the calendars of the two powers now exist only in locked Rahal records. The site was later referred to as Candle Arc for the arc of lights dancing among the debris.

A calendrical choke, the meeting-point between different calendrical terrains, lay within the battledrift. The choke's locus lay past a calendrical null around which different calendrical regions shifted on a predictable schedule. While the region on the choke's far side had periodically favored the high calendar, cascading effects of the defeat of General Kel Najhera by the Lanterners had shifted some of the terrain to intermittently favor the Lanterners' calendar as well.

Centuries later, Heptarch Nirai Kujen drew from analysis of Jedao's action at Candle Arc and emphasized invariants when arming the *Revenant*.

## Trivia

* A 2D pencil diagram of the tactical situation at Candle Arc appears on the author's blog.

## References

1. ↑ The Battle of Candle Arc]]
2. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 7
3. ↑ Author's blog