Kisu Plot

*see Kisu Sword Family*

The Kisu Plot is a colloquial reference to the events resulting in the execution of Diejenne Renbuke and ordaining of the Kisu Sword Family. In actions constituting the attempted murder of agents of the Bureau of Applied Paranoia, Diejenne Renbuke was found guilty by Holy Review of heresy. His targets included Cell A724 and particularly Kijat Renbuke, who posed a potential threat to his attempts to assure inheritance by Cenkie Nadhill after his eventual death.

## Precipitating Factors to the Plot

### Diejenne's Children

Diejenne Renbuke fathered several children, most of whom were unable to inherit their father's position and wealth by the rules of the Renbuke theopolitical family. The Renbuke family allows for the open rearing of children born out of wedlock under the surname Nadhill. These individuals would be disallowed to formally inherit Renbuke assets or positions, wear or make use of Renbuke seals on armor or documents, and partake in the traditional sword training of the clan.

Diejenne's eldest son, Soljurn Renbuke, was properly heir until his death seventeen years prior to the Kisu Plot at the age of eighteen. Inheritance of the family follows "the eldest son of Renbuke," often leading to the ascension of a nephew of the current Lord if that relative was born earlier than any of the Lord's own sons. Having no legitimate sons following Soljurn's death the heir apparent was Deake Renbuke, a son of Lord Diejenne's brother Kohal Renbuke.

### Kijat Renbuke

Also of concern was the contested legitimacy of Kohal's eldest son, Kijat. While trained in swords and privy to key family secrets, Kijat was never formally named either by Nadhill nor Renbuke. The truth of the matter is known only to Kijat's mother, Duielle Renbuke, and likely Diejenne as well.

Circulating theories include:

* Kijat is the son of Duielle and Diejenne, leading to an controversy of the legitimacy by way of adultery. While still Renbuke by blood, the transgression itself may weigh Kijat to be illegitimate.
* Kijat is more simply the actual legitimate heir of the family, but in Kohal's loyalty to family over personal glory, obeyed his brother's prohibition of revealing that fact.
* Kijat is actually illegitimate, fathered by Kohal and another woman. Owing to Kohal's unique status as having abdicated his inheritance of leadership to his brother, he leveraged Kijat into receiving a quasi-legitimate acceptance into the family proper.
* Kijat is a commoner adopted by Kohal during the Siege of Reijhalis. Renbuke Bravi accounts detail a moral conflict in their commander at the collateral within Omegan citizenry during the campaign, and speculation holds he may have chosen to adopt an abandoned child.

### Kidnapping of Vita Kisu

Suspicious of her brother-by-marriage, Duielle Renbuke coordinated the theft of the sword Vita Kisu. The sword conflated in Renbuke tradition with the position itself. This left Diejenne in a much less capable state regarding his engineering a heir descended of his blood. Realizing the potential preemptive strategy afoot, Diejenne decided that he would have to act immediately or lose the initiative.

## Timeline & Events

### Recruiting Calicot

From the same ties used to employ Kijat Renbuke with the Bureau of Applied Paranoia, Diejenne had delivered a letter to Kijat almost immediately preceding the enlistment of Cell A724. The letter, text found here, hinted at a fully recognized legitimacy in return for the murder of Jappel Calicot.

It warned that the information on Jappel's location somewhere on Inlaka could not be shared and the mission should be accomplished alone. Kijat ventured to Inlaka, leaving with little notice to his command and discarding the letter into the *Suspicious Dame's* woodfire oven. The Cell's resident bureaumancer, Professor Potinue, rescued it from immolation. It bore no immediate information because it, like all internal Renbuke documents, was written in Renulect.

Having secured Inquisitor Calicot's assistance via the political ties between the families, the rest of the Cell was ordered to assist in the discovery of the "kidnapped" Vita Kisu. Stemming from the reflexive treatment of the swords as living souls, it was not obvious to the Cell that it was a sword they were after. However, Diejenne was not seeking their actual assistance with the matter. He had already dispatched more elevated and single-minded investigators from an unnamed close client family of the Renbukes.

### Duielle & The Tombs

The kidnapping had been executed on behalf of Duielle Renbuke by her most trusted Bravi, a man named First Bravi Sennalec. Sennalec had earned this trust by serving under her husband for the entirety of his career unto becoming First Bravi of Kohal's army. The position placed him in Kohal's personal bodyguard and charged him with the highly secret duty of ensuring that Kohal's own Nia Kisu would be safely returned to the clan following his death.

Being privy to the then-secret Kisu Sword Family and having faithfully honored his duty with one before, the highly-respected Bravi made the capture without event two weeks prior. Since, she had been informed of the Cell's recruitment and left for *Locus Ren*, where she correctly anticipated their arrival. Meeting with the Cell, Duielle was shown the letter from Diejenne to Kijat. In this, Potinue also revealed that he had cracked the highly obtuse secret language and that Diejenne clearly meant to have Kijat killed. Duielle informed them that Inlaka was a planet stronghold of the Potts family. She departed to arrange for Kijat's rescue, anticipating Diejenne alerting the Potts to his presence on-world. In this Diejenne would have achieved Kijat's death without having to directly earn the worst guilt to the Renbuke's moral codes - kinslaying.

Meanwhile, the Cell discovered that Kohal's grave had been moved to *Lord Manor*, the Renbuke estate on Locus Ren. This was inappropriate to Renbuke tradition as he should be interred at *Dital High*, Kohal's own estate. Traveling there, the Cell discovered a tomb marked Nia Kisu, unwittingly revealing the Kisu secret in the form of a grave housing only the sword itself.