recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Subcommand Two

> "*Are we to interpret your continued service as evidence that you have a Kel's heart after all?*"
> ― Composite Subcommand Two
>
>

Composite **Subcommand Two** is a composite of an unknown number of Kel Command high officers with at least one Shuos. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance and Personality

Subcommand Two has the physical appearance of Captain Kel Cheris, except for the flared-wings-and-flame insignia of a high general. The designation "Two" implied the presence of at least one of the highest Kel generals in the composite, and the occasional glint of an amber fox's eye revealed the presence of a Shuos.

## History

After the battle at Dredge, Subcommand Two held a conversation with Cheris on a secured terminal. While admitting that the Dredge assignment was terrible and a waste of good officers, Two also confronted Cheris with her deduction that the heretics' directional storm generator took advantage of calendrical rot in order to work, and her subsequent creation of unauthorized formations to shield her soldiers.

[...]

Subcommand Two contacted Cheris again at the black cradle facility to brevet her to general on Jedao's behalf. Jedao noticed Cheris's discomfort with the composite marionette's face, and advised her to show more control. Subcommand Two also informed them that the heretics had keyed their calendar to seven as a central integer.

## Trivia

* Both "she/her" and "it" pronouns are used for Subcommand Two, but the pronouns of the individuals involved in the composite are unknown.
* Jedao suspected that the Shuos presence in Subcommand Two was Hexarch Shuos Mikodez.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 6
Outspecker Colonies

The **Outspecker Colonies** are an area in the hexarchate which used to have a different name. They are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

The Outspecker Colonies were given their current name long after they were annexed by the heptarchate. Before that, the Gheffeu lived there and had a caste structure incompatible with Doctrine. When the heptarchate tried to assimilate them into its own culture, the Gheffeu joined the Lanterner rebellion.
Honesty

**Honesty** is a flashfic by Yoon Ha Lee set in the Machineries of Empire universe. Written for Dreamwidth user sovay and published on the author's Dreamwidth account,  it will appear in Hexarchate Stories (2019).

## Summary

Four-year-old Garach Nidana learned that her brother Jedao's name meant "honesty" in Shparoi and asked him why. When he guessed that their mother might have chosen the name from one of her favorite novels, Nidana offered to find out, and looked in their mother's bookshelf the next day when Jedao was at school. Unsuccessful with the books she could reach, she decided to find some other way to help her brother and, packing a rucksack of snacks, set off to meet him at his flitter stop.

Upon arrival, Nidana witnessed Jedao and two older boys confronting each other. Jedao shouted at her to run just as one of the boys punched him. Grabbing a rock, Jedao hit back while holding it in his fist instead of throwing it, and drove the older boys away.

Approaching Nidana, Jedao explained that the boys had insulted their mother. Afraid of the violence she had seen, Nidana shrank away, and Jedao gently promised never to hurt anyone he loved. At her young age, Nidana did not notice his choice of words in Shparoi, a term meaning mental but not physical harm.

## Links

* Full flashfic on author's Dreamwidth account.

## Trivia

* The story mentions Koiresh Shkan as not having been Shparoi, although in Omens he is described as a Shparoi who spent many years offworld.

## References

1. ↑ Honesty
2. ↑ Author's blog: Hexarchate Stories due in June 2019
Pioro

> "'**"**
>
>
>

**Pioro** was one of the leaders of the heretical Liozh takeover of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance and Personality

An affable, round-faced man, Pioro affected Liozh white and gold in his dress. Vahenz afrir dai Noum valued him most as a conversationalist and dinner partner, and he was familiar with her tastes in food and drink. He could not beat Vahenz's scores at the shooting range, and she felt he would benefit from a little humility.

## History

Vahenz consulted Pioro about the possibility of citizens being manipulated by a game that had become popular in the Umbrella Ward, and how Doctrine could address it.

During Jedao's propaganda drops, Pioro "extra-special flagged" some reports for Vahenz with a case of a brandy he knew she liked.

After the destruction of the Radiant Ward, Pioro stopped at Vahenz's office to pick up a box of sweets and deliver them to her at a secret meeting, remarking that Liozh Zai had begun to serve vegetable rolls with fish sauce at such meetings and Vahenz's mood would be bad if she missed her pastries. The box, however, had been booby-trapped by Shuos Haodan, and killed him after he left the building. Vahenz deduced that the trap had been meant for her, and immediately took steps to eliminate witnesses to her involvement and escape.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 11
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
Servitor Tarot

**Servitor Tarot** is a tinyfic by Yoon Ha Lee which is set in the Machineries of Empire universe. It was written for Dreamwidth user sovay.

## Synopsis

Confusingly, Servitor Path Integral draws a π of Gears.

## Trivia

* At two sentences long, *Servitor Tarot* is the shortest hexarchate story.
* Jeng-zai cards normally have only positive integers.
* This is the only mention of Servitor Path Integral.
* This entry is longer than the tinyfic, which, as advertised, is tiny.
Station Anner 56-5

**Station Anner 56-5** is a research station in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## Geography

Station Anner 56-5 is in the Crescendo March.

## History

The Swanknot Swarm received a recording of Nirai Maholarion compiling her findings on strange scan formants observed from the station. Mevru data solids are used on the station and there is at least one servitor, a mothform, present.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
Meurran

**Meurran** was a Shuos cadet at the same time as Shuos Jedao. They appear in the flashfic Black Squirrels.

## History

Meurran, an alt with wildly curly hair, had terrible aim but was good at fixing guns. During their first year at Shuos Academy, they found Jedao and Vestenya Ruo "fishing" for black squirrels near the carp pond, listened to Jedao and Ruo's theory about surveillance squirrels, and was drawn into an argument with Ruo about squirrel population dynamics on campus.
River soldier

The **river soldier** is a figure in a tale from the City of Ravens Feasting. She appears in the flashfic The River Soldier.

## Description

The river soldier is a dark-skinned woman with glorious features, clad in armor made of the coins and metal rings cast into the river by the city's inhabitants.

## History

The river soldier is said to have lived in the city's river and, in exchange for metal rings thrown into the river every year, protected the inhabitants from outside threats. She did not intervene in a two-generation civil war in the city, explaining to a grieving merchant that she could only defend it against external enmity. Afterwards, the inhabitants changed their custom, still casting rings into her river but making them of any material except metal.
Luckstone

A **luckstone** is a pendant traditionally given to offspring in the Mwennin culture. A raven luckstone belonging to Ajewen Cheris appears in Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, and Revenant Gun.

## Overview

Luckstones are Mwennin birthday stones given from mother to daughter on the birthday numerically associated with the day of their birth. They can be pendants, worn constantly unless a uniform requires otherwise. The stone is embossed with a silhouetted symbol associated with the recipient's birthday-saint.

## Raven luckstone

Cheris's raven luckstone was a polished gray stone engraved with the silhouette of a raven in flight. The bird of Cheris's birthday-saint, ravens are also significant in Mwennin culture and characteristic of the city where Cheris grew up.

## History

Cheris received her luckstone on her twenty-third birthday from her mother, Ajewen Dzera. She kept it with her personal possessions afterwards, wearing it when not in uniform and often holding and contemplating it.

During the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles, Shuos Jedao challenged Cheris to hold the luckstone despite his attempts to make her put it down. Cheris did not look at it again until much later and he felt he had "ruined it" for her.

General Kel Khiruev saw the luckstone in the quarters of General Jedao, and again being worn as a pendant by Cheris.

Cheris wore the luckstone during her visit to Tefos Base. It accompanied Khiruev's rose-gold watch among Cheris's possessions to Esrala.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
4. ↑ Author's remarks
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
7. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 3
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
10. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
11. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
12. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
13. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
14. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
15. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 24
16. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 3
17. ↑ Revenant Gun: Epilogue
Vacation

**Vacation** 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 venndaai to the prompt "Brezan and Tseya, zoo," and it now appears in Hexarchate Stories (2019).

## Synopsis

As a compromise between fast-food restaurants and an aquarium, Brezan and Tseya visit a zoo. Between bantering about why Tseya likes living fish so much, whether Brezan can swim, and how Brezan is the only person Tseya knows who visits zoos for the food, the two view exhibits of raptors, snakes, and an amphibious bioengineered dragon-cat which refused to show itself. At the zoo's cafe, Brezan is delighted to find that they serve crawfish pies, and Tseya says he's hopeless, but smiles anyway.

## Trivia

* The original title for this story was "Delicious Critters." There are several minor changes in the published version, including setting the trip one year after Brezan and Tseya's marriage, expanding on Brezan's longing for greasy fast food after interminable political banquets, and removing the part about the durability of Tseya's hat.
* The author remarks though hexarchate cuisine is often Asian-inspired, "sometimes it's just Southern!"
* This story takes place after Revenant Gun.

## Links

* Original flashfic on the author's Dreamwidth account.

## References

1. ↑ Delicious Critters
2. ↑ Author's blog: Hexarchate Stories due in June 2019
3. ↑ Delicious Critters
4. ↑ Vacation: Author's Notes, Hexarchate Stories
Sfesh

**Sfesh** was a cloud-city in the heptarchate. It appeared in the flashfic An Evening's Offering.

## Description

A luxurious and expensive city, Sfesh boasted fantastic views of other cloud-cities, air traffic, and roiling storms below. It had a reputation for catering to bored travelers.

As it was near the last base where he'd been stationed, Shuos Jedao, then a major general, took a fourteen-day vacation in Sfesh, renting a ridiculously expensive apartment with enormous windows in all directions, as well as a liquor cabinet full of "rose liqueurs and cherry cordials and sickly sweet stuff" which he considered setting on fire.
Uwo

**Uwo** was an anchor for Heptarch Nirai Kujen. They are mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

A shorter manform, Uwo had a retiring demeanor which Kujen, despite bleed-through, sometimes found inconvenient. Uwo was, however, an excellent anchor in every other respect and Kujen enjoyed their conversations about homological conjectures over breakfast.

## History

Uwo was the current anchor for the revenant of Nirai Kujen at the time Kel Shiang ordered him to restore the tactical expertise of Shuos Jedao's revenant. Like many of Kujen's anchors, Uwo independently performed minor tasks for him, such as flipping switches, when Kujen's attention was focused elsewhere.

## Trivia

* Uwo's pronouns are they/them, suggesting that they are an alt.
* Though some of Kujen's anchors are Nirai, Uwo is never identified as being part of a faction.
Kel Streven

**Kel Streven** was a Kel soldier who served as the first anchor for General Shuos Jedao. He is mentioned in Glass Cannon.

## History

Some time after the hexarchate purged the Liozh, Hexarch Nirai Kujen chose Streven as the first of many experimental anchors for Jedao's revenant. Jedao had known Streven years before and never forgave Kujen for using Streven in this way.

## Trivia

* Streven is involved in the story behind a hexarchate mini-gamebook which was not included in Hexarchate Stories and may be released separately.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 22
2. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
3. ↑ Author's remarks
Rhi Teshet

Lieutenant Colonel **Rhi Teshet** was a Kel special operative who worked with Shuos Jedao. He appears in the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## Appearance and Personality

Teshet is tall and muscular, with dark skin and a handsomely contrasting gold mesh tattoo over the right side of his face. He enjoys special operations due to the opportunities to transgress Kel professional norms. His chosen entertainment tends towards melodramas and pornography; he has a high sex drive, frequently turns discussions toward sexual topics, and deliberately flouts the Kel taboo against in-faction relationships as a way of concealing his Kel identity during missions.

## Trivia

* Jedao's encounter with Teshet is his only known relationship with a Kel.
Kel Shiora

> "*I can offer payment in the only coin that should matter to you -- or do you think we haven't been watching you?*"
> ― Judge Kel Shiora
>
>

Judge **Kel Shiora** was a Kel judge-errant who lived before the heptarchate. She appears in the short story The Chameleon's Gloves.

## Appearance and Personality

Shiora was somber and solidly built, with fine dark skin, sharp features, and precise movements. She wears Kel-judiciary black and red uniform with black Kel gloves and a slip of translucent veil indicating her occupation. Rhehan, aware of the training required to be a judge-errant, considered her very dangerous.

## History

Shiora was present when Rhihan, captured and bound, woke from being choked unconscious. Eventually releasing Rhihan but not explaining what she'd done with their partner, she explained that the Kel had need of a jaihanar to retrieve a stolen superbomb, possibly armed, from renegade general Kel Kavarion. After explaining the device and detailing Kavarion's actions, Shiora offered Rhihan reinstatement to the Kel from whom they had been exiled in return for completing the mission, and exposed the skin of her wrist under her glove to demonstrate sincerity. When Rhehan agreed, she sent them back to their ship to set forth, accompanied for security reasons by Sergeant Kel Anaz.
Shattergun

A **shattergun** is an exotic weapon in the heptarchate. It is described in The Battle of Candle Arc.

Scatterguns, used in space battle, are unrelated.

## Description

Shatterguns are designed to shard a victim into ten thousand splinters of ghostwrack. Even a failed shattergun attack can cause significant harm, leaving targets wounded, weak, blurred and fractaled of vision, and wracked with stabbing pains, effects which can last for weeks despite medical care.

## History

A Lanterner assassin used a shattergun to attack General Shuos Jedao at a conference during the Feast of the Falcon's Eye, intending to use his death to spike the high calendar. Although Jedao survived, he was seriously injured and had not recovered when Kel Command assigned him the remains of General Kel Najhera's swarm, collapsing in his fangmoth's command center near the end of his spectacular victory at Candle Arc.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: The Battle of Candle Arc
Nirai Damiod

Captain-analyst **Nirai Damiod** was a Nirai soldier who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance and Personality

Damiod was thin and nervous-looking, and had a dark face with lighter pale-brown eyes. He and the rest of his team did not composite effectively and therefore worked as individuals. He preferred mathematics to dealing with humans and disliked demands on his time.

## History

Damiod headed the cryptology team on the cindermoth *Unspoken Law*.

Accustomed to explaining cryptography in a simplified way for Commander Kel Nerevor, Damiod was surprised when Brevet General Kel Cheris asked which class of polynomials he was referring to. He stated that the heretics' cryptography would not be easy to break, even with the entire swarm's grid resources, but said their best hope would be to find an encryptor's error on the heretics' end. He agreed to cooperate with Captain Shuos Ko to crack the encryption. He reported later, through Ko, that the encryption method did have a potential exploit, but that it would not be quick. Cheris also ordered the development of a dummy cryptosystem which looked formidable but could be cracked by a determined attacker.

As the Siege wound toward a close, Damiod confirmed, with aid from the Shuos infiltrators, the existence of what was probably a direct line to heretic leader Inaiga Zai at the Fortress's command center. Though the encryption structures "smell[ed] funny" and he hadn't been able to dencrypt the packets, a tap on the line, which Zai probably didn't know about, led to an associate of Zai's lieutenant Gerenag Abrana. When ordered to insert a fake message into the tapped line using the dummy cipher Ko had prepared, Damiod confirmed that it would be easy, but noted that doing so would allow the heretics to trace the insertion. Informed that their own tap would not be needed afterwards, he accepted the message dictated by Cheris, purporting to be a negotiation between Zai and Shuos Jedao, and inserted it into the tapped line, resulting in Zai's death..

## Trivia

* Damiod identified the heretics' encryption as a classic 67 Snake military encryption based on Machiva-Ju quasiknot polynomials. The encryption's seed parameters combined the irregularity of user input with synchronization to a high calendar clock, but the heretics neglected to adapt their synchronizer when the Fortress's time servers were changed to a heretical calendar, leaving a slow but possible exploit.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 14
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 19
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 14
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 19
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 14
Sieve of Glass

**Sieve of Glass** was a Kel fangmoth in the heptarchate. It is mentioned in the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## History

The fangmoth *Sieve of Glass* headed the third of General Kel Essier's six tactical groups. After the former third position commander was discovered collecting trophies from heretics, he was forced into "early retirement". Essier, not wanting to promote her fourth position commander out of the excellent rapport she had with her group into the badly shaken third, offered the position and its accompanying fangmoth to Shuos Jedao, contingent on his performance during his upcoming classified mission to the Gwa Reality.
Shuos Veldiadar

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

## History

Captain Shuos Ko introduced Veldiadar, a scowling womanform, to Brevet General Kel Cheris along with the rest of the Shuos team.

## Trivia

* Though Veldiadar's pronouns are not stated in the text, the term "womanform" rather than "woman" suggests that Veldiadar is a man or an alt.
One

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

## History

One was a Kel lieutenant colonel with a distinguished but much-redacted record boasting five medals, including the Red Pyre. His signifier, like Four's, was Ashhawk Skyward Falling, signifying bravery.

Along with the other competitors, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Kel Cheris, One attended a meeting with Composite Subcommand Two to present a proposal for retaking the Fortress. His plan, the first one presented, was to depopulate the Fortress and have a joint Kel-Shuos force bombard it with invariant weapons from outside the afflicted area of space. Drawbacks to the plan included possible unknown heretical countermeasures and replacing enough loyal citizens to reestablish the calendrical consensus.
Psych surgery

**Psych surgery** is an exotic medical procedure performed in the heptarchate and hexarchate. It is mentioned throughout the series.

## Description

Memories can be distorted or suppressed with psych surgery, but they cannot be completely erased. There are no shortcuts in the process. A good psych surgeon can detect tampering.

## Uses

* Formation instinct is injected into Kel cadets through psych surgery. Kel Academy constantly fine-tunes its parameters, causing some variation in the injection's effects.

* Faction academies may inject cadets with artificial phobias to test their responses under adverse conditions.

* Kujen developed methods of restorative psych surgery to be used for veterans and refugees. One of the hexarchate's best psych surgeons, he described it as "boring to watch. It's all chemicals and signifiers and furniture-arranging."

## Trivia

* After the massacre at Hellspin Fortress, some conspiracy theorists proposed that the Lanterners had subverted Jedao with a brainwashing ray, though no such tool exists.

## References

1. ↑ Revenant Gun open thread
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 29
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 4
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
9. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 23
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
Servitor 7777777

> "*We're the people who didn't leave the hexarchate even though that was once an option.*"
> ― Servitor 7777777
>
>

**Servitor 7777777** is a Kel servitor who operated on the cindermoth Unspoken Law. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance and Personality

7777777 is a beetleform servitor with a rebellious streak, having chosen seven sevens for its name even though the humans in the hexarchate do not favor the number seven. Like other servitors, 7777777 knows stories about Nirai Kujen and Shuos Jedao, and appreciates the difficulty of protecting Jedao's anchor Kel Cheris when Kujen is the only one who can separate the two.

## History

During the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles, 7777777 met Servitor 124816 in the cindermoth's cargo hold, where 124816 was on the rotation keeping tabs of trysting Kel. 7777777 informed it that Hexarch Nirai Kujen had suddenly taken an unusual surreptitious interest in Kel Cheris, using his own agents instead of the usual Shuos channels to research all aspects of her life. When 124816 regretted that they could not help Cheris escape, though her sense of duty would doubtless hold her to her mission, 7777777 reminded it that servitors had once had the option to leave the hexarchate behind, but did not do so. Neither expressed, though both were aware, that only Kujen could separate Cheris from Jedao, of whose attention the servitors were likewise wary.
Kel Riozu

Lieutenant Colonel **Kel Riozu** is a Kel soldier who serves in the Swanknot swarm. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Personality

Riozu enjoys learning from talented people. She explains things more obliquely than she thinks she does, and is usually asked for clarification.

## History

Riozu had four parents who moved from Anxiao to Eng-Nang as part of an immigration wave during a civil uprising. She is the head of Strategy on the cindermoth *Hierarchy of Feasts*.

During the first staff meeting with General Shuos Jedao, Riozu eyed Jedao intently, eager to learn from him. She summarized the defenses available to the Fortress of Spinshot Coins, including phantom terrain. When Jedao was attacked by an assassination drone, she leaped was one of the Kel who leaped from her chair to shield him.

General Kel Khiruev found Riozu's smile "downright predatory" after Riozu's first solo meeting with Jedao.

Riozu double-checked Khiruev's assessment of the positioning of the Sundered Spheres swarm and returned an annotated map confirming her conclusion that it was too far away to rescue the Cobweb System from the Hafn.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
Tchennes 42

The **Tchennes 42** was a gun used in the heptarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Records relate that a Tchennes 42 was found in the hand of a Lanterner soldier, probably from Maign City, who had died at Hellspin Fortress. General Shuos Jedao described the Tchennes as an excellent gun and deduced that the soldier would only have received it if she had been an officer trusted to manage questionable troops.
The Fox's Tower And Other Tales

**The Fox's Tower And Other Tales** is a flashfic collection by Yoon Ha Lee. It contains thirty-six flashfics available on his website, some set in the Machineries of Empire universe, as well as four new flashfics available nowhere else.

## Table of Contents

* Introduction
* Flash Fiction
	+ The Fox’s Tower
	+ Carousel Foals
	+ The Third Song
	+ Candles
	+ The Crane Wife
	+ Raven Tracks
	+ Magician’s Feast
	+ The Mermaid’s Teeth
	+ The Dragon Festival
	+ The River Soldier (new)
	+ The Fox’s Forest
	+ The Melancholy Astronomer
	+ Harvesting Shadows
	+ The Stone-Hearted Soldier (new)
	+ The Gate of Bells
	+ The Workshop
	+ The School of the Empty Book
	+ How the Andan Court
	+ The Last Angel
	+ The Virtues of Magpies
	+ Two Bakeries
	+ The Witch and Her Lover (new)
	+ Moonwander
	+ The Palace of the Dragons
	+ Hibernation
	+ The Red Braid
	+ Sand and Sea
	+ The Birdsong Flute
	+ Two Payments
	+ A Single Pebble
	+ The Pale Queen’s Sister
	+ The Sunlit Horse
	+ Tiger Wives
	+ Dew-Weighted Roses
	+ The Firziak Mountains
	+ The Rose and the Peacock (new)
	+ The Youngest Fox
	+ The Witch and the Traveler
	+ Thunder
	+ The Godsforge
* About the Author
Neglect cannon

The **neglect cannon** is a weapon in the Kel Arsenal. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

The neglect cannon was one of the Kel Arsenal weapons which two Kel whom Kel Cheris knew as Three and Four had planned to request as part of their proposed infantry assault to retake the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Cheris had not known about the neglect cannon before hearing their plan.

## References

<References>

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
Servitor 10

**Servitor 10** was a Kel servitor who served during the retaking of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Servitor 10 was sent into the firing zone of the heretics' amputation gun by Shuos Imnai to check whether the anomalous servitor malfunctions she had noticed were an effect of the gun. 10 approached Captain Kel Jurio's company, and reported on its maneuvering into a defensive square formation with a diagonal front. However, upon further approach, the amputation gun's effects hit both 10 and the Kel company, in spite of their defensive formation.

Imnai passed 10's data to Brevet General Kel Cheris, who, upon simulating its position relative to Jurio's company, discovered that servitors were not formation-neutral under the heretical calendar, explaining the formation's failure on 10's approach and opening a new field of combat possibilities via use of servitors in formations.
Stinger 40

The **Stinger 40** is a type of gun used in the heptarchate. It is mentioned in the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## History

Lieutenant Colonel Rhi Teshet and his operatives carried Stinger 40s during Shuos Jedao's mission to the Gwa Reality and used them to fight off a boarding party of Gwa-an special ops agents. Jedao recognized the Stinger 40s in action from a whining sound characteristic of their reports.
Station Muru 5

**Station Muru 5** is a space station in the hexarchate. It appears in the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## Geography

Station Muru 5 is near to both the Pale Fracture and the border between the hexarchate and the Gwa Reality.

## History

In the time of the heptarchate, Station Muru 5 was a secondary base commanded, unusually, by General Kel Essier. Station security checked and cleared all packages that arrived there, but the station had not been upgraded for the past few decades. Due to the lack of upgrades, the station's grid hardware was outdated and, along with the security cameras, easily hacked.

Shuos Jedao was given temporary quarters on Muru 5 and consulted with General Essier before being sent on a classified mission to the Gwa Reality. He was not impressed with the station's layout or the location of the general's office relative to the firing range on the same level, which would allow an assassination by shooting through several walls and a door with burrowing ammunition. Essier's office had an aide stationed out front, but the general's desk and chair were centered in the doorway, another tactical disadvantage.

Muru 5 survived the next few hundred years and still existed at the time of the Hafn invasion of the hexarchate.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
3. ↑ Hexarchate Map
Mortar

A **mortar** is an invariant weapon used by Kel infantry. Mortars are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Dummy mortars containing fireworks were used during the mock assault on the Drummers' Ward during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Captain Kel Mieng considered them louder than the real thing.
Krauwer 5

**Krauwer 5** is a planet which was formerly part of the hexarchate. Its capital city, Tauvit, is the capital of the Compact. Krauwer 5 is visited in Revenant Gun.

## Description

Krauwer 5 has an eight-day week, a local Shuos schism, and an ecological complication which had put the planet under Nirai control instead of Andan or Rahal.

## History

Krauwer 5 was terraformed two centuries before the broadcast of the revised calendar. Its planetary governor, Nirai Lozhoi, was appointed during a period of chaos twenty-four years before the revised calendar. After the calendrical spike, Lozhoi contacted High General Kel Brezan and offered him support in exchange for protection.

## Trivia

* An eight-day week is also used in the City of Ravens Feasting.

## References

1. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 5
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
Rising Tiger

**Rising Tiger** is a Kel formation. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Upon detecting a carrion bomb being activated in the engine of the bannermoth *Coiled Stone*, Brevet General Kel Cheris ordered the null swarm to assume this formation and open fire on the bannermoth, despite awareness that the move was coming too late. Despite the attempted formation, most of the swarm did not survive.

## Trivia

* General Kel Paizan of the cindermoth *Sincere Greeting* was warned of the attack by Kel Command and broke formation to leave the swarm's secondary pivot before the bomb was deployed. With the commander of Tactical Two unavailable, the secondary pivot of Rising Tiger may have been filled by the bannermoth *Red Stitch* under Commander Kel Rai Mogen, group leader of Tactical Three.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 23
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
Petal language

The **petal language** refers to a system of floriography used in the hexarchate. Associated with the Andan, it is mentioned in How the Andan Court.

## Description

An unnamed supplicant wishes to court in the language of flowers, but does not speak it adequately and muses that it "does not admit translation," offering a bouquet of words instead.

## Trivia

* Among the Kel, flower names or "garden" terms amount to disparaging references to the Andan.
* A velvet flower with petals the color of moon-moths' wings symbolizes "heartsease."

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: How The Andan Court
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 25
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 27
Shuos Lharis

Lieutenant **Shuos Lharis** was part of a hoverer team during a heptarchate attack on the Axers. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Lharis, in search of Shouter Team 5, contacted Shuos Jedao from the hoverer *Fireflitter 327* to arrange pickup for him and Shuos Sereset from the battlefield. When, after a pause, Jedao answered and informed her that Sereset had died, she remarked that it was a pity and told Jedao to stay put for two hours and forty-six minutes until her arrival.
Piri

**Piri** is a granddaughter of Shuos Zehun. She appears in the flashfic Irriz the Assassin-Cat.

## History

Piri is the youngest child in the household of Zehun's second daughter, Hragoshik Verrisen, who is one of Piri's mothers. She likes bedtime stories, shadow-figures on the wall, and chicken in her morning porridge.

Like Verrisen as a child, Piri isn't inclined to go to sleep when told to. During one of Zehun's visits, Piri, then four years old, refused to go to sleep despite all Verrisen's pleas, saying that there were too many shadows in the room.

Zehun came in to give Verrisen a break, asking Piri if she recognized them. Piri called them "Gran" and explained that candlevines under the bed wouldn't fix the problem because one can't see under the bed when one is in it, so how would she know it was working?

Acknowledging this logic, Zehun reintroduced Piri to their cat, Irriz, who had accompanied them to visit the family. Reaching at first for Irriz's tail, she was successfully diverted to scratch behind the cat's ears. Wide-eyed at Zehun's description of Irriz as a Shuos assassin-cat specializing in assassinating shadows, Piri obediently climbs into bed, assured that with Irriz curled up on her blanket any unwanted shadows would be properly dealt with.
Kel Sumaarzaav

> "*Every day is a treasure, and even one life has an infinite price to the person it belongs to.*"
> ― Lieutenant General Kel Sumaarzaav
>
>

Lieutenant General **Kel Sumaarzaav**, born **Lisha Sumaarzaav** and later referred to as **The False Arrow** after her emblem, was a Kel soldier who spearheaded the first of two Kel attempts to secede from the hexarchate. She appears in Seven Views of a Kel Secession.

## Appearance and Personality

Sumaarzaav's her name meant "arrow," though archery was not one of her skills. While good at her job, she preferred to find solutions that minimized secondary casualties.

Though enjoying fencing, she disdained the Kel practice of dueling over trivial slights, considering their obsession with the social niceties of honor merely performative. Practical-minded, she was not above employing discreet bribes for the greater good.

Her romantic interests included being tied up in bed.

## Personal Life

A fourth-generation Kel, Sumaarzaav was supported in her choice of career by her parents and grans. Her younger altsib and older sister were not attracted to military life, but gave her a hilariously fake antique toy arrow as a present when she joined the Kel.

She chose a lover with a similarly unpronounceable name, whose high language nickname meant "Tapestry."

## Career

### Kel Academy

During her early Academy years, Sumaarzaav was entranced by Kel rituals, taking pride being the "lucky unlucky fourth" Kel of her lineage.
She excelled at the physical disciplines required of a Kel cadet.

### Early Career

After Sumaarzaav lost most of her right leg in a flitter accident, Tapestry talked her into wearing a prototype prosthetic to her promotion to brigadier general. Sumaarzaav painted the prototype with cartoon ducks, in the interests of being underestimated, and registered a black arrow on a green field as her emblem.

## Secession

Sumaarzaav was the first of two Kel attempts to secede from the hexarchate. Her attempt followed Liozh Henezda's secession attempt.

## Death

Sumaarzaav died of health complications in her old age. The foreign powers with whom she had allied were quickly defeated after her death, but Tapestry inherited her arrow and took it out of the hexarchate.

## Trivia

* Shuos Zehun refers to her as "that one Kel general whose name I can never pronounce."

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
3. ↑ Seven Views of a Kel Secession
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
Kel Stsan

**Kel Stsan** is a Kel soldier stationed with the Swanknot swarm. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Kel Stsan is chief of staff for the swarm, answering to General Kel Khiruev until she was outranked by Shuos Jedao.

At the first high table after Jedao took over the swarm, Stsan sat on the other end of the table from him. She recounted how servitors who enjoy hunting sometimes leave their kills at Captain-engineer Kel Miugo's door. At the subsequent staff meeting, she stared when Jedao started shuffling a deck of jeng-zai cards.

After her first solo meeting with Jedao, she went around politely blank, almost certainly knowing that Khiruev engineered the assassination attempt on him.

After the Hafn moved from the Entangled March into the Severed March, Stsan summarized the analyses and scan summaries of their movements as polite variations of 'fucked if we know what they're about.'

## Trivia

* Though Captain-engineer Miugo is thereafter referred to with he/him pronouns, Stsan refers to them as "her" in the story about the hunting servitors.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
Patterner 52

The **Patterner 52** is a customized gun which belonged to Shuos Jedao and was used by him during the Hellspin Fortress massacre. It appears in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem, as well as in the flashfic An Evening's Offering, and is mentioned in Revenant Gun and the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## History

The Patterner 52 was specifically a Shuos handgun, recognizable as such to a Shuos cadet. An expensive weapon when Jedao obtained it, it became his favorite gun. Though Kel officers did not usually carry Shuos weapons, Jedao obtained special dispensation, as a courtesy to the Shuos, to carry his preferred sidearm when he was seconded to the Kel. He had the grip engraved with his emblem, the Deuce of Gears, because the Kel expected a certain egotism of their generals.

During Jedao's classified mission to the Gwa Reality, the Patterner 52 was left in storage on Station Muru 5.

Jedao first came close to committing suicide with the Patterner 52 after his rape by Hexarch Shuos Khiaz, at which time Kel Gized took away his gun and knife until the urge passed. After his promotion to brigadier general, he killed one of Heptarch Nirai Kujen's anchors with it at the start of their first meeting. During the Aughen campaign, he used it to execute Kel traitors and deserters. Three years later, after using it to kill Gized and the rest of his staff on his command moth at Hellspin Fortress, he again contemplated shooting himself with it, but refrained to carry through with his plot against the hexarchate. He subsequently chided himself for almost running out of bullets during the massacre, a rookie mistake.

Along with the rest of Jedao's possessions, the Patterner 52 was confiscated by the Kel after Jedao's execution. It was kept in the Kel Arsenal until Hexarch Shuos Mikodez ordered Jedao's gun collection stolen by his infantry division. It now resides in a case with a touch-sensitive informational display in the Room of Guns on the Citadel of Eyes, the centerpiece of the collection.

Before volunteering for a suicide mission in its presence, Vauhan Istradez advised Mikodez to send it to Jedao as a gift, as a handgun couldn't really make Jedao any more deadly, but Mikodez demurred because the collection was worth more kept together.

## Trivia

* The Patterner 52 will appear as "Judgment" in Hexarchate Tarot, with a visual design based on a cap gun resembling an M1911 pistol. The card stands for remembrance; reversed, it indicates crisis.

## References

1. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 9
2. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 9
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 21
6. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 21
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 22
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 21
10. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 12
11. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
12. ↑ Author's design
13. ↑ Author's remarks
14. ↑ Hexarchate Tarot: Major Arcana
Silence

**Silence** is a short story set in the Machineries of Empire universe. It appears in Hexarchate Stories.

## Summary

Garach Rodao joins his mother, sister Nidana, and brother Shuos Jedao for a family dinner, consisting of a salad in Shuos colors, on the occasion of one of Jedao's infrequent leaves from Kel service. The conversation turns on Rodao's three daughters and Jedao's history of spoiling them with occasionally flammable presents; the mood-enhancing substances Nidana uses to prepare drinks; and Jedao's likeliness to bring home a spouse and produce more grandchildren for their mother. Afterwards, Jedao and Rodao relax in the garden, and Rodao worries about his brother's recent facial reconstruction and the sense of incongruous hollowness he first perceived in Jedao after the latter's first year in Shuos Academy. Despite sensing that he is the only one who notices something is wrong, he does not press Jedao about his concerns, a lapse he regrets thirteen years later.

## Trivia

* One of the three previously-unreleased items in Hexarchate Stories (along with Gloves and Glass Cannon, it was originally described as "A family reunion from the viewpoint of Rodao, Jedao's brother, and things he should have said."
* Narrated by Rodao, it is the only story written in first person.
* Though the incident that caused Jedao's facial reconstruction is classified, he tells Rodao that it resulted from a homebrew grenade thrown by rioting station workers. He discusses a different account of the event with Kel Gized in An Evening's Offering.

## References

1. ↑ Author's blog: Hexarchate Stories due in June 2019
Watch

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

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

A **watch** is a personal timepiece. Watches appear in Raven Stratagem and in the short story The Battle of Candle Arc.

## History

Shuos Jedao used to wear a watch.

Watches eventually became illegal in the hexarchate. General Kel Khiruev used to see them in antique stores “with the guts removed” so they couldn't “do anything heretical to the calendar.” At the time of the Hafn invasion, she had several in her gadget collection. Jedao mentioned that the rose gold one would be nice if she fixed it up. After the broadcast of the revised calendar, Khiruev did fix the watch and gave it to Ajewen Cheris, who kept it in a box in her needlemoth when not wearing it.

Though by that time most watches were only owned by actors or collectors, Khiruev continued to fix watches as a hobby. She also presented High General Kel Brezan with an ornate watch whose face was decorated with a lacquered magpie; Brezan kept it in an office drawer in Tauvit.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2; The Battle of Candle Arc
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 27
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 10
5. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 21
6. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 21
Trademoth

**Trademoths** are mothdrive vessels used in interstellar trade in the heptarchate and hexarchate. They are mentioned throughout the continuity.

## Trivia

* A vine-and-compass tattoo on the back of Shuos Meng's left hand indicated their merchanter lineage.
* Drama plotlines often hinged on trade routes.[cite]

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Extracurricular Activities
Three Kestrels Three Suns swarm

The **Three Kestrels Three Suns swarm** is a Kel warmoth swarm in and after the hexarchate. It is mentioned obliquely in Ninefox Gambit and by name in Raven Stratagem, and seen in Revenant Gun.

For the cindermoth of the same name, see Three Kestrels Three Suns.

## History

*Three Kestrels Three Suns* is the emblem of General Kel Inesser. Colonel Kel Miuzan serves on her staff.

The swarm was on the other side of the hexarchate, patrolling the High Glass border, at the time of the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Kel Command did not recall it for the task because they didn't want to hand Inesser a popular victory.

After the takeover of the Swanknot swarm by General Shuos Jedao, Inesser was recalled to retake the swarm if Jedao could be successfully removed. As the tactical situation changed, *Three Kestrels Three Suns* was one of six Kel swarms to converge on the Aerie in an attempt to protect it; two of the six were still there when Kel Command was destroyed.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 17
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 9
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
7. ↑ Raven Strategem, Chapter 26
Shuos Imnai

> "*The heretics are -- it's a slaughter. They won't search shops and residences while they're amusing themselves shooting mutilated torsos.*"
> ― Shuos Imnai
>
>

**Shuos Imnai** was a Shuos operative who served during the retaking of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

During the retaking of the Fortress of Scattered Needles, Imnai urgently requested direct communication with Brevet General Kel Cheris after observing anomalous effects of heretic attacks on servitors and intuiting that they were relevant to the effects of the heretics' amputation gun. She spoke rapidly but courteously, and appended a databurst showing the gun's effects on the servitors.

When Cheris contacted her again, Imnai explained that she was safe for the time being, since the heretics were busy shooting mutilated Kel torsos and would not yet search the surrounding shops and residences. She reported that the servitors had become disabled around the same time as the Kel, and that she had sent Servitor 10 to enter the zone of fire to prove that the effect was the result of the gun. At Cheris's further questions, she confirmed that the servitor had been approaching Captain Kel Jurio's company, and that its report suggested they were using a defensive square formation with a diagonal front. She assumed that a flaw in the formation had allowed the gun to overwhelm the formation's defensive effects.

Learning from Cheris which locations would shortly be unsafe, Imnai accepted orders to remove herself to the interior of the ward and continue her work there.

Though Imnai would not fully understand until later, her report allowed Cheris to deduce that servitors were not formation-neutral under the heretics' calendar.
Sayyad Reth

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

Academician **Sayyad Reth** was a theoretical mathematician who taught at the Nirai Academies. She is mentioned in Revenant Gun.

## History

Reth's theoretical work in the mathematics of gate mechanics took place before the Nirai stopped admitting high-achieving non-faction members to teach at their academies.

The author/illustrator of a biographical graphic novel on Reth's life used an analogy to explain the mathematics underlying the operation of threshold winnowers, comparing invariant spacetime to a hypersurface and attributing the work of active winnowers on victims in their regions of effect to a linearization of the space surrounding each point on the hypersurface. Shuos Jedao consulted the graphic novel to better understand the updated threshold winnowers given to him by Hexarch Nirai Kujen.