Nirai Faian

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> "*I wish I knew why anyone would capitulate to Jedao to the point of giving up her own existence.*"
> ― Nirai Faian
>
>

Hexarch **Nirai Faian** was the most recent Nirai hexarch. She is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and Revenant Gun and appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Faian had a face like fine ivory framed with wavy shoulder-length hair. She was quiet and usually mild-mannered. Selected by Hexarch Nirai Kujen for her administrative ability and "a certain narrow genius" in calendrical mechanics", she was strong-willed, stubborn, had a legalistic streak, and appeared to believe that immortality could be a benefit to humanity. Hexarch Shuos Mikodez felt that Faian's "disturbing honest streak" was going to doom her.

## History

Faian ascended to the position of false hexarch twelve years after Mikodez's ascension. Her predecessor, who had been embezzling from the budget, turned up later, "much prettier, and much more docile," as a technician on Kujen's personal staff.

General Kel Inesser once consulted Faian about whether formation shields could be made to last longer than a few minutes; Faian returned a list of research sources and a note reading, "The short version is no."

As false hexarch of the Nirai, Faian was meant to run the faction in public so Kujen could focus on research. However, she was suborned very quickly by Hexarch Rahal Iruja to work on a form of immortality that could replace Kujen's black cradle. According to Mikodez's sources, the two ran a calendrical experiment in the Fortress of Scattered Needles which inadvertently aided heretics in taking over the fortress.

After Kujen's disappearance, Faian frantically attempted to determine what had happened and whether she should sieze power in his absence. An emergency meeting was held, in which she was promoted to true hexarch, though she had difficulty getting the respect due her rank from the other hexarchs.

In their next meeting, she questioned how Shuos Jedao had gotten off the *Unspoken Law* after the carrion bomb hit. She felt it was unfortunate that Cheris had allowed Jedao to possess her and that the cindermoth should have been physically destroyed as well to make sure of their death. She also noted that the Kel swarm had authenticated from the wrong thing, since all of Jedao's anchors had experienced bleedthrough, but that though a good actor or infiltrator could fake Jedao's mannerisms, it was more worrisome that the anchor had inherited his skills. She felt, though, that if Cheris still lived she was psychologically unstable, and objected to the other hexarchs' plan to pressure Cheris by threatening to exterminate the Mwennin. While frustrated when the plan was adopted, she said nothing further, and merely reported on her progress and technical difficulties interpreting the mess of private notes she had stolen from Kujen and was using to refine her prospective immortality process.

Faian turned down Shandal Yeng's request to extend the offer of immortality to Andan Nezhe, leading Shandal Yeng to secretly apply to Kujen instead, without success.

Faian built her new immortality device on Station Mavi 514-11 and planned to receive the other five hexarchs there to use it on them. When Tsoro, in an emergency vidcall, declined immortality on behalf of the Kel, Faian reacted as though she had been slapped, but proceeded to adjust the equations to exclude Tsoro.

The Rahal, Vidona, and Andan hexarchs arrived at Station Mavi 514-11 as planned, and Faian believed she received a communication from Mikodez, who was arriving on a shadowmoth, welcoming him by rote and letting him know he was the last hexarch to arrive. However, the shadowmoth made a suicidal attack on the station and all hexarchs present were killed.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 11
6. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 31
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
11. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
12. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26