Liozh

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> "*Every reflection is a truth.*"
> ― Liozh motto
>
>

The **Liozh** were one of the seven factions governing the heptarchate in the Machineries of Empire universe until the other factions declared them heretical and purged them to form the hexarchate. They are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, and the flashfic Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam.

For the later heretical sect identifying itself with the same name, see Liozh (revival).

## Role

The Liozh were philosophers and ethicists, emphasizing public service and theory of proper government. They coordinated the heptarchate's government. General Shuos Jedao remarked that with their role as the heptarchate's idealistic conscience, it was no wonder the faction had developed a taste for heresy.

## Government

The Liozh center of government was the Palace of Glass. Their emblem was the mirrorweb and their colors were white and gold.

The last Liozh heptarch's signifier was the Web of Worlds. Fragmentary records of her entrance assessment retained by the Rahal include a Web of Worlds jeng-zai spread; a receipt for a meat pie dated at an auspicious time on the day of her exam; and a dog-eared, old-fashioned romance novel of unknown significance.

## Technology

Fragmented, contradictory records exist of the mirrorweight, a device with which Liozh were trained to scry their own inner nature.

## Recruitment

The Rahal vaults retain records of Liozh entrance requirements, which included both practical and written examinations.

Practical examinations included public service, such as dangerous first contacts of which a failed example is preserved in a certain Vidona museum, and a scenario designed for groups of seven, one of whom would play a Liozh ambassador to the others' heretics. The scenario is rumored to have been introduced by the Shuos. The most famous written question asked cadets to consider which faction, if necessary, they would choose to destroy for the good of the heptarchate. It is claimed that the paper used for the written portion was recycled from other faction exams.

Cadets who failed the exam were not permitted to reapply or to apply to any other faction, a harsher policy than that of other factions at the time. The Andan and Shuos were both known to defy that rule occasionally.

## History

One of the oldest factions, the Liozh were founded by a refugee scientist involved in the nascent heptarchate's politics. They usually allied with the Rahal and Andan, except during a revolt during the time of Heptarch Liozh Henezda; disdained the emphasis on obedience in the Vidona and Kel; and considered the Shuos unreliable.

The Liozh grew in power during the lifetime of General Shuos Jedao. Twenty years after his death and before he was first revived by the Kel, the Liozh, possibly motivated by the calendrical disruption caused by his infamous massacre at Hellspin Fortress, held an investigation of alternate forms of government which led to an attempt to replace the heptarchate's structure with a democratic one. They had also begun to investigate whether remembrances could be removed from the high calendar, angering Kujen.

While the Liozh military was fervently revolutionary, it lacked battle prowess. Their best general was accidentally assassinated by a Shuos who was after a Shuos traitor and killed the wrong woman, throwing the rest of the Liozh campaign into disarray early on. Most of its battles were one-sided enough to be considered "militarily uninteresting" and ignored in subsequent Kel textbooks. The final heptarch died broken before massed troops of Rahal, Shuos, and Kel. Much of the historical material on the rebellion is classified, but records and videos detailed the horrific tortures inflicted on Liozh prisoners. Some Liozh cadets who had not yet passed their entrance exams during the final purge may have been reeducated by the Rahal, but reports differ as to their collective fate.

After the purge, every act in the faction's history was examined for signs of their heresy. Nexus fortresses such as the Fortress of Scattered Needles were rebuilt at enormous expense to remove wards corresponding to the seventh faction. Details of the heresy were suppressed and can only be found in sealed Rahal records, though Liozh documents going back 500 years were preserved in the Hall of Stochastic Longings. Historical expertise is required to find and place unclassified materials in their proper context.

Four hundred years later, a new Liozh group sprang up, taking advantage of calendrical experiments being run in the Fortress of Scattered Needles and potential Hafn support to completely subvert the fortress. Jedao, anchored to Brevet General Kel Cheris, used propaganda drops to remind them of the fate of the original Liozh, though he acknowledged later that their real purpose was to teach Cheris what her siege was destroying.

## Trivia

* A Shuos training game from the post-Liozh period named a gamepiece, the web piece, after the Liozh mirrorweb.
* There is a jeng-zai spread called the Web of Worlds.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
2. ↑ The Factions: Heretical Faction Liozh
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 14
5. ↑ The Factions: Heretical Faction Liozh
6. ↑ Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam
7. ↑ The Factions: Heretical Faction Liozh
8. ↑ Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam
9. ↑ The Factions: Heretical Faction Liozh
10. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 20
11. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 22
12. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2; Revenant Gun, Chapter 20
13. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
14. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 10
15. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
16. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
17. ↑ Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam
18. ↑ Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam
19. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
20. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 10
21. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
22. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
23. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
24. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter
25. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
26. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20