Znev Stoghan

> "*When you get here, shoot that tin general Znev Stoghan first. He's been with the heretics since the beginning.*"
> ― Andan Nidario
>
>

**Znev Stoghan** was a militant involved in the heresy on the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Personality

many affluent supporters whose families had been politically indebted to his own for three generations.

swaggering and decisive actions

Stoghan had an ongoing relationship with an Andan-certified male courtesan.

Vahenz considered him striking, but also a nitwit and an easy target to pick on, noting his carelessness about personal security but enduring him for his usefulness to Zai. She felt that his military skills were overhyped. And also that he was overopinionated and liked to drone on about it.

## History

Stoghan's

Despite Vahenz and Zai, Stoghan lost the communications post in the Anemone Ward to loyalists, sending increasingly incoherent reports to Vahenz after the null swarm destroyed the Fortress's shields. Stoghan had also insisted on a strong presence in the Radiant Ward. A communication from Andan Nidario before the fortress was returned to Stoghan's people advised the Kel to shoot "that tin general" first.

When Nerevor was landed on the Fortress, "one of Stoghan's goons" injured her during the expensive operation of her capture. Stoghan's "lackeys" did get video of the troops that landed, allowing Vahenz to deduce from their body language that they were Kel.

Murdered Rahal found near Stoghan's troops by Kel Encampment 2; troops credibly deny responsibility.
Stoghan's popularity high due to 'swaggering decisivveness'
Stoghan ordered severe reprisals against civilians found to shelter Shuos snipers, even unawares; Vahens criticized this tactic as counterproductive. He also insisted that Jedao's propaganda drops were genuine threats and ordered his soldiers to treat them as such.

Stoghan was tailed by an agent of Vahenz, who learned that his Andan-certified courtesan was not a spy and that he was keeping a private prisoner whom her agent believed, unverifiably due to Stoghan's guards, to be a Kel. She reminded Zai that there were supposed to be no private prisoners, that Stoghan's connections were only beneficial in the short-term compared to the Hafn's power, and that could be replaced with another popular soldier. Nonetheless, Zai kept him on.

Stoghan and his forces made much of the success of the amputation gun, although the Kel still maintained a presence in the Umbrella Ward. His soldiers amused themselves by syncing videos of mutilated Kel to dance music, giving even Vahenz the creeps.

Stoghan organized parades to celebrate the Day of Drummers' Splendor, raising heretic morale but unknowingly aiding the work of Shuos instigators using the mock victory to shift the Fortress's calendrical values back toward high calendar norms.

After the death of Liozh Zai, Stoghan pulled his troops from the Umbrella Ward to deal with an internal crisis, causing resistance to collapse in the ward.

Two days later, Stoghan's body, cut into neat pieces and identifiable via gene-scanning, appeared in the center of the amputation gun's original zone of effect. Nobody claimed responsibility for the killing and Cheris did not investigate it.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 11
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 11,15
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 11
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 10
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 10
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 11
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 12
10. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13
11. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
12. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 16
13. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
14. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20