recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Irriz the Assassin-Cat

**Irriz the Assassin-Cat** 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 vaas to the prompt "Shuos Zehun, assassin-cats," and will appear in Hexarchate Stories (2019).

## Summary

Shuos Zehun arrives for a visit with the family of their second daughter, Hragoshik Verrisen, bringing along their friendliest and most genial cat, Irriz. Listening to Verrisen's attempt to cajole, bribe, or order her youngest child, four-year-old Piri, to go to sleep, Zehun arranges the cat's accommodations and enjoys a moment of generational revenge, as Verrisen herself hadn't been one to turn in on a parent's timetable.

With Irriz contentedly shedding white fur on a black velvet armchair, Zehun checks on Piri, who complains to her gran that there are too many shadows. Zehun offers to take over from Verrisen, who had wanted to spend more time with her daughter instead of having a servitor put her to bed, but is grateful for her parent's help.

When Piri argues that candlevines under the bed won't fix the shadow problem, Zehun leads her out to collect Irriz, bringing both back to Piri's room. Zehun explains that Irriz is a very special cat: a Shuos assassin cat who "specializes in assassinating shadows." Comforted, Piri climbs into bed and Irriz settles down upon her blanket, ready to chase any threatening shadows away.

## Trivia

* Irriz is named after notorious assassin Shuos Irriz.
* Though the timeline of this story is unclear and it is Irriz's only appearance, mention of the hexarch's sweets suggests that it occurs within the reign of Hexarch Shuos Mikodez.

## Links

* Full flashfic at the author's Dreamwidth account.

## References

1. ↑ Irriz the Assassin-Cat
2. ↑ Author's blog: Hexarchate Stories due in June 2019
3. ↑ Irriz the Assassin-Cat
Erasure cannon

An **erasure cannon** was an exotic weapon which could be mounted on a warmoth in the Machineries of Empire universe. Erasure cannons appear in Ninefox Gambit and are mentioned elsewhere.

## Description

An erasure cannon is attached to its warmoth by means of a prominent spinal mount. A ranged weapon inaccurate during high-speed travel, it fires a kinetic projectile which punches through its target.

The cindermoths *Unspoken Law* and *Sincere Greeting* each had a spinal-mounted erasure cannon.

## History

*Sincere Greeting* used its erasure cannon to punch through the drive array of an enemy bannermoth.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
Hexarch

**Hexarch** is a formal title for each of the six faction leaders in the hexarchate. The equivalent title in the heptarchate was **heptarch**.

The most recent hexarchs of each faction were Rahal Iruja, Andan Shandal Yeng, Kel Tsoro, Vidona Psa, Shuos Mikodez, and Nirai Kujen.

## Overview

The leaders of the hexarchate's ruling factions were the most powerful people in the realm. Each held sovereign power over matters pertaining to their own faction, although they were obliged to cooperate with the other hexarchs for the preservation and administration of the high calendar and the realm entire.

Traditionally, the hexarchs of the high factions outranked the lower ones, and the Rahal hexarch outranked them all, traditionally speaking first during their meetings. In practice, however, Kujen's age and historical influence gave him unusual power.

## Succession

Each faction has its own process for passing leadership to the faction's next ruler. For the Shuos, assassination was the traditional way to gain the hexarch's seat. The Kel operated hierarchically, with the highest-ranking officer in Kel Command holding the position. The Nirai were unusual in maintaining a series of false heptarchs and hexarchs selected by Kujen to conceal his immortality from all but high-ranking individuals with appropriate security clearance.
Andan Lia

**Andan Lia** is an Andan agent on the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

During the Kel infiltration of the Fortress of Scattered Needles, Andan Lia was involved in a battle to secure a communications post in the fortress's Anemone Ward while her colleague Andan Nidario sent a message to Kel Command. Unlike Nidario, Lia was skeptical that the fortress was under attack by Shuos Jedao, desiring further proof of the undead general's identity.
Fenez

**Fenez** is a cat who belongs to Shuos Zehun. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

A calico cat with a coat resembling "a knitting project horribly awry," which Shuos Mikodez learned the hard way to beg off brushing, Fenez is the friendlier of Zehun's two current cats. Like all of Zehun's cats, she is named after an infamous Shuos assassin.

## History

Fenez was present when Zehun and Mikodez discussed Shuos Jedao in Zehun's office. After allowing Mikodez to pet her, she mewed and hopped up on Zehun's lap to have her mess of fur skritched, remained unimpressed by the tactical conversation, and writhed about comically on her back when lowered to the floor.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
Carp merchant troop

The **Carp merchant troop** was a trademoth troop in the heptarchate. It appears in the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## Overview

The eight *Carp* trademoths were numbered *Carp* 1-4 and *Carp* 7-10. *Carp*s 5 and 6 were lost before Churioi Haval took command of the troop. Each trademoth was painted with a distended orange-and-white carp. Each *Carp* vessel carried five shuttles.

The troop was used to transport approved cultural goods such as flower-arranging lectures, dueling tournament videos, and dramatic performances into the Gwa Reality for trade. It was also used for spying and special missions and carried Kel crewpeople, such as infantry lieutenant colonel Rhi Teshet, under assumed names. The crews were deliberately undisciplined to obscure their Kel ties, but their work was effective.

Outside the parameters of their missions, the crew genuinely tried to make a profit. One tactic they used was to carry contraband, such as illicit drugs, to be found by station authorities as a distracting cover for whatever the troop was really doing. The authorities would confiscate the drugs, take bribes to keep the matter quiet, and neglect to suspect the troop of other illicit activities.

## History

Shuos Jedao was given the *Carp* trade group to extract the crew of the *Moonsweet Blossom* from the Gwa Reality. Under the name Arioi Sren, he traveled as Haval's distant cousin by marriage who was on "vacation" after quarreling with his three spouses. At Jedao's suggestion, the group took on a cargo of Variable-coefficient lubricant, stripped and discarded the contents of all the shuttles, and traveled to Du Station in the Gwa Reality, where they were waylaid by Gwa-an special forces but escaped to approach the station without further incident.

At Jedao's orders, the cargo of lubricant was programmed to go from liquidity to full solidity upon receipt of a signal, and then loaded into the group's empty shuttles. When Jedao, escaping from the station, gave the word, the shuttles ejected the lubricant into the station's defensive turrets, where it hardened and prevented the station from attacking the trademoths. Together with the liberated *Moonsweet Blossom*, the trademoths hightailed back to the heptarchate.
Dosveissen Moressa

> "*Even when you laugh you never smile.*"
> ― Dosveissen Moressa
>
>

**Dosveissen Moressa** was a singer who was briefly married to General Kel Khiruev. She is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Moressa was beautiful and elegant, with a dazzling smile and an ability to come up with double entendres for engineering jargon. Her voice was calm even in frustration.

## History

Khiruev, at 37 years of age, was awestruck by Moressa, admiring her and bringing her gifts; Moressa's favorite was a restored music box with moving clockwork figures. The two dated for several months and contracted for a year of marriage, but rarely discussed long-term plans, and their affections cooled after five months. Later, Khiruev couldn't remember the subject of their final quarrel, except that the topic and emotional undercurrents were not parallel. Moressa, unable to bear Khiruev's unspoken refusal to open her emotional shields, stalked out.

The two communicated only once afterwards, not in person, over a minor detail of mutual finance. Khiruev never told her parents about the short-lived marriage, even after Moressa's death. Though she judged the marriage a disaster from the beginning, she later reflected that Moressa's "only transgression had been to tell the truth."
Kel Command

**Kel Command** is the governing body of the Kel, an unusual arrangement by which the faction is governed by a group rather than a single hexarch. It is mentioned throughout the Machineries of Empire continuity.

## Hivemind

[...]

The most recent Kel hexarch is Kel Tsoro. However, the Kel are usually administrated by **Kel Command**, a hivemind using composite technology and composed of Kel high officers who have been assimilated into the collective consciousness. Kel Command has been using composite technology for this purpose for centuries, growing increasingly paranoid, and is widely regarded to be psychotic. While every individual in Kel Command is a high officer, it is standard practice but not mandatory for all high officers to be assimilated into the hivemind.

On very rare occasions, a non-Kel is included in a Kel Command composite.

Composite Subcommand Two was part of Kel Command. High General Kel Aurel was part of Subcommand Eight.

The Kel hexarch's seat stands on hierarchy and seniority, usually falling to the highest officer in Kel Command.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
2. ↑ The Factions: Low Faction Kel
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 12
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
Andan Nidario

**Andan Nidario** was an Andan agent on the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appeared in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

During the Kel infiltration of the Fortress of Scattered Needles, Andan Nidario, a man with a warm, rich voice, was injured in action. He took painkillers and sent a message in the clear in all directions from the fortress's Anemone Ward, appearing with bruises and burns covering the right side of his face and the sound of gunfire in the background.

Addressing himself to Kel Command or anyone else who would listen and appending Andan observations to the message, Nidario reported that Shuos Jedao had battered down the fortress's shields of invariant ice and opened negotiations with the occupying heretics. He asked Kel Command to send someone to deal with the threat, believing, unlike his colleague Andan Lia, that the swift breaking of the infamous shields was proof enough that it was really Jedao. He also advised that the potential relief force shoot "that tin general" Znev Stoghan first for being on the heretics' side the whole time. Nidario then called for someone to cover the door before signing off, planning to grab a gun and make himself useful before the painkillers wore off.

Acting Commander Kel Hazan judged the message as desperate, remarking ironically that the Andan were usually more discreet. Jedao believed that the message would cause Nidario's death, but would raise Jedao's own credibility with the heretics.
Burrower

**Burrowers** are organic creatures bred to create airlocked tunnels between hulls of space stations or mothdrive vessels. They are seen in Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun.

## Description

Descended from voidmoth parasites, burrowers are an offshoot of the moth breeding program. Their lifecycle is quite short, lasting the span of their utility to humans. They are capable of consuming and exuding metalfoam to create airlock structures. Burrowers are sometimes released with other organisms that hatch from eggs to create imperfectly braided but navigable metalweave bridges from one moth to another.

Burrower eggs are ovoid with a dense black leathery surface, pulse faintly on scan, and are sold in batches of four, stamped with a code detailing quality control and lineage and a logo indicating the facility they were bred in. In use, an individual egg is loaded into gear that attaches it to the target surface and induces hatching, a process taking approximately eight minutes. The emergent burrower exudes a blister to keep the entry point airtight and gorges itself while gnawing into its target, going into hibernation once the breach is complete. The exuded blister has two compartments which pulse open and closed in an alternating cycle, serving as an airlock. If a burrower operates on a non-living material, it causes no pain to the living components of the structure.

Burrowers are rated according to burrowing ability, which correlates with size. Burrowers rated to tunnel into space stations are too large for their eggs to fit on a needlemoth. Those rated to burrow into a moth are about the size of a human torso.

## Trivia

* Burrower ammunition may have been developed from the same biological source as burrowers.
* Besides creating one-person airlocks, burrowers are also used to inject propaganda canisters into stations or fortresses. In infantry actions, heavy-duty burrowers can be used inside structures to clear a path to an objective.

## References

1. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 10,28
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 22
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 28
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter
5. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 10
6. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter28
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 18
Irriz

**Irriz** is a cat owned by Shuos Zehun. She is named after Shuos Irriz and appears in the flashfic Irriz the Assassin-Cat.

## Appearance and Personality

Irriz has splendid long white fur, which sheds copiously on every dark fabric surface. The friendliest and most genial of Zehun's cats, Irriz is well accustomed traveling with a harness and leash. She enjoys skritches, chasing shadows during the night, and trying to eat the Shuos hexarch's snacks.

## History

When Zehun's granddaughter Piri was four years old, Irriz accompanied Zehun on a visit to Piri's household. After visiting duly provided food, water, and litterbox, Irriz took possession of a black velvet armchair, raking it with her claws and sprawling comfortably across it.

Shortly afterwards, Zehun removed Irriz to Piri's room, where Piri was refusing to sleep. Piri recognized the cat and was persuaded to scratch her ears instead of pulling her tail. Purring away as Zehun explained to Piri that Irriz was a Shuos assassin-cat who would chase the scary shadows away, Irriz curled up on the relieved child's blanket to guard her through the night.

## Trivia

* Irriz was no longer among Zehun's cats by the time of Raven Stratagem.
Kel Nazhan

> "*Those spiderfucking web-looking Hafn things* effloresced *at us, sir.*"
> ― Kel Nazhan
>
>

Commander **Kel Nazhan** is a Kel commander who served with the Swanknot swarm. He appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Nazhan was the commander of Tactical Group Three. During the swarm's first skirmish with the Hafn invasion swarm, when six bannermoths from Tactical Three succumbed to a corrosion attack, General Kel Khiruev contacted Nazhan, who reported on the efflorescent Hafn attack which his engineering team believed had ruptured the moths' biotech innards and afflicted them with parasites or some kind of infection, though decontamination teams could not be dispatched to their aid in mid-battle.

## Trivia

* Nazhan did not mention fungal canisters in connection with the Hafn attack, but everyone made the connection.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6

Machine universal: the servitors who burned up evaporating the Radiant Gate changed into pillars of glowing numbers in Machine Universal, which Kel Naraucher recognized but could not read.

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
Kel Inesser

General **Kel Inesser** is a Kel soldier mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem. She will be one of the viewpoint characters in Revenant Gun.

## Appearance and Personality

As remembered by Shuos Mikodez, Inesser is vainglorious about her hair, fond of talking about her cross-stitch projects, and "adroit at manipulating conversations while pretending to be a typical blunt Kel."

## History

Inesser is the hexarchate's senior general, and widely considered among the most formidable. Her emblem is Three Kestrels Three Suns. One of Kel Brezan's sisters, Colonel Kel Miuzan, is on her staff.

Inesser was kept at arm's length by Kel Command for two decades due to Command's fear of her charisma and independence. Hexarch Kel Tsoro considered her an excellent logician and one of the best strategists the Kel had seen in two hundred years.

Inesser was on the other side of the hexarchate when the Fortress of Scattered Needles was compromised. Vahenz afrir dai Noum mentioned her as the "scariest" of the Kel generals. Though she was the only available general judged capable of retaking the Fortress, Kel Command declined to recall her, withholding the potential victory due to insecurity about Inesser's popularity and loyalty.

After the disappearance of Nirai Kujen and takeover of the Swanknot swarm by Shuos Jedao, Inesser was recalled from the High Glass border to retake the swarm if Jedao could be successfully removed. As the tactical situation changed, Inesser's swarm was one of six to converge on the Aerie; two of them were still there when Kel Command was destroyed.

## Trivia

* Before her Kel career, Inesser's name was Alaikko Inesser.
* A plot strand involving Inesser was planned for *Raven Stratagem* but removed for reasons of length.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 17
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 9
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
9. ↑ Raven Strategem, Chapter 26
10. ↑ Author's remarks
11. ↑ TheBookSmugglers interview: Oops, I Accidentally Wrote A Trilogy
Cobweb System

**Cobweb System** is a star system in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## Geography

Cobweb System is in the Severed March, not far from Minang System and Minang Tower. It has two settled worlds: **Cobweb 4**, a fully inhabited planet with a population of approximately four billion, and **Cobweb 3**, described by High Magistrate Rahal Zaniin as a "glorified moon" but also populated.

## History

When an invading Hafn swarm diverted from their course toward Minang Tower to head for Cobweb, High Magistrate Zaniin sent a message pleading with General Shuos Jedao to save Cobweb instead of protecting Minang Tower. General Kel Khiruev of the Swanknot concluded that the Sundered Spheres swarm was too far away to help Cobweb, but followed Jedao's orders to lay an ambush for the Hafn nearer to the Tower. When the Hafn realized that the Kel swarm was not following them, they turned back to engage them nearer the Tower, leaving Cobweb alone.
Axer

The **Axers** were a group of rebels in the heptarchate. Their banner was the Stone Axe and they are mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## World

The Axers were one of a number of rebel factions on a world which had lost its name; others were represented by such emblems as the Winged Flower, the Inverted Chalice, the Thorn-and-Circle, the Red Fist, and the Snake Defiant, each representing a different city, moon, or other jurisdiction. Their planet was beautiful even wracked by war, with curved hills, forever clouds, purple grasses, wind and sun, and fluttering luminous insects at dusk.

## History

The Axers and their world rebelled against the heptarchate 419 years before the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Kel forces were sent to put down the rebellion, battling in cities and fields alike. The Shuos sent teams to assassinate rebel leaders and position Shuos shouters for activation; Shuos drones could have accomplished the task, but the Shuos leadership was unwilling to reveal the drones' full capabilities to the Kel. Shuos Jedao and Shuos Sereset were dispatched as Shouter Team 5 to assassinate the Axers' general and put a shouter in place.

As the Kel fought the rebels for control of a city, Jedao and Sereset successfully carried out their mission. Sereset, however, was mortally wounded by a stray Kel tunneler bullet. When the shouters activated, Kel and rebels alike were affected, falling into total submission in the midst of battle and unable to control their war machines, which raged unchecked over the field. Over the next ten hours, while Jedao and the dying Sereset waited for a late pickup and new Kel troops handled cleanup and took prisoners elsewhere, the battlefield became quiet and cold night fell. Jedao was eventually retrieved by Fireflitter 327 after Sereset died.
Kaleidoscope bomb

A **kaleidoscope bomb** is a weapon used by heretics in the hexarchate. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

A kaleidoscope bomb uses a radial force multiplier to project multiple phantoms of any warmoth caught in its radius for as long as its radiation lasts. The blast appears as a rippling shatterglass sphere of light, shifting its targets around in a dizzying swirl before multiplying them exponentially. The phantom effect works on moths and weapons, though not on people.

The strength of the phantom effect depends on the strength of the radiation taken by an original moth in the multiplied swarm. Damage to the original moth reduces the firepower of all phantom moths based on it; they all move the same way as their original and cease firing when the original does, though they remain in existence until the bomb's radiation ceases.

## History

A scout swarm from the Fortress of Scattered Needles used a kaleidoscope bomb to multiply a swarm of five bannermoths, including the captured *Ungentle Paragon* and possibly *Forever Minus a Day*, to a hundred. Brevet General Kel Cheris figured out the bomb's dependencies from the behavior of the phantom bannermoths, which ceased fire when their originals were disabled.

Vahenz afrir dai Noum later assured Heptarch Liozh Zai that despite the claims of "those incompetents on Team Two," the possible involvement of Garach Jedao Shkan in the kaleidoscope swarm's destruction was a bigger problem than the speed with which it was dispatched.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9
Kel Nirrio

**Kel Nirrio** is a Kel soldier who served in Heron Company during the action on Dredge. Nirrio appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Nirrio was the secondmost junior soldier in the company until Kel Dezken died in the action on Dredge. After receiving the news that Doctrine would break up the company and that only some of them might be able to serve again, Nirrio, as the current most junior soldier, was first to recite name and date of service at the request of Captain Kel Cheris.

## Trivia

* Nirrio's gender is not specified in the text.
Kel Osara

**Kel Osara** is a Kel soldier who served on the cindermoth *Hierarchy of Feasts*. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

After infiltrating the *Hierarchy of Feasts*, High General Kel Brezan and Agent Andan Tseya met Osara walking past a dueling hall with Corporal Kel Merez, both looking bleary and ready to sleep. When Brezan addressed them, Osara immediately saluted. Both Kel confirmed that General Shuos Jedao and General Kel Khiruev were alive, but hesitated when Brezan asked if Khiruev was well; Merez answered the question. After receiving directions to Jedao's quarters, Brezan ordered Osara and Merez to barracks with instructions not to speak to anyone until he countermanded the order,. Though Osara appeared bemused, both Kel obeyed.
Ajenio

**Ajenio** was a customer of a confectioner in the Dragonfly Ward on the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance and Personality

Ajenio is round and florid, and capable of Andan-worthy poetics about cookies.

## History

The confectioner's manager instructed Shuos Haodan, who was under cover as a delivery person, to tell Ajenio about a new type of sesame cookie she was producing and of which she had included samples in his delivery parcel. She predicted that he would like them.

Upon delivery, Ajenio insisted on trying a sesame cookie right away and then offering one to Haodan, who declined. Haodan was twelve minutes behind schedule when Ajenio finally let him go.
Eyespike swarm

The **Eyespike swarm** was a Kel swarm commanded by General Kel Marish during the Hafn attack on the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem.

## History

The Eyespike swarm was pulled off sentry to assist General Kel Cherkad near the Jeweled Systems in her opposition of a full-scale Hafn invasion. Eyespike's scans reported an oncoming invasion swarm of eighty Hafn Lilacs (equivalent to bannermoths) and ten Magnolias (sized between bannermoths and cindermoths), but was destroyed delaying the enemy.

News of the Eyespike swarm's destruction reached the Fortress of Scattered Needles, emboldening the heretics there, but the delay prevented the Hafn from arriving in time to provide the heretics with reinforcements.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 14
2. ↑ Raven Strategem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
Secluded Necropolis of the Gods

That is an existence which transcended endless years. Rumor has it, people coming out of there, even those considered most ordinary, can exterminate a country on this continent in one move.

“It has been said that there was a struggle between experts of the Secluded place many years ago. They all died in the final charge; the bodies of the extremely strong practitioners were buried in the Secluded Necropolis of the Gods.”

Nangong Liuyun paused. A pair of beautiful abstruse eyes seriously gazed at Su Luo, “Including all the divine artifacts they had on their person; those were also buried in the Secluded Necropolis of the Gods.”
Bremis kai Meghuet

General **Bremis kai Meghuet** of the Lantern served during the Lanterner revolt against the heptarchate. She appears in the short story The Battle of Candle Arc and is mentioned obliquely in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Bremis kai Meghuet was a cousin of Bremis kai Erisphon, a well-known Lanterner leader.

During the Lanterners' rebellion against heptarchate control, kai Meghuet led a swarm at least 60 warmoths against General Kel Najhera's forces. The Lanterner swarm was able to surprise the Kel due to a distortion in their mothdrive formants which hid them from scans, and their opening salvo destroyed eight Kel moths almost simultaneously, although from that distance they could not differentiate between higher- and lower-value mothdrive targets. The swift strike, preventing Kel formation defenses, and Najhera's overreliance on exotics and neglect of invariant tactics resulted in Najhera's death and a spectacular victory for the Lanterners; only eleven Kel fangmoths escaped. kai Meghuet's aggressive exploitation of calendrical terrain led General Shuos Jedao to judge her "incandescently talented at calendrical warfare."

With reinforcements swelling her swarm to 91 warmoths, kai Meghuet attempted to force the heptarchate to cede a large swath of calendrical territory by proceeding to the Candle Arc battledrift to engage what they thought was the Kel Twin Axes swarm newly arrived from the Taurag border. However, upon entering the narrow corridor in which the calendar was in their favor, they were ambushed by the remains of General Najhera's swarm, commanded by Shuos Jedao. The Kel swarm's barrage of invariant weaponry decimated the Lanterner swarm, which, deceived by its inability to tell different classes of mothdrive vessels apart at a distance, had been advancing on a decoy swarm of noncombatant Rahal lensmoths.

The Lanterner swarm was completely routed by the small Kel force, and the crew of kai Meghuet's command moth, which the Kel had designated Hellmoth 5, mutinied. One of their number, Lieutenant Colonel Akkion Dhaved, contacted Jedao and offered kai Meghuet to the hexarchate as a high-profile hostage in exchange for letting the rest of the fleet go. Jedao refused, instead giving the Lanterners an insufficient seven minutes to flee before reengagement and ultimately destroying 49 of the swarm's hellmoths.

Jedao's choice to destroy the Lanterners prevented kai Meghuet from being tortured as an on-the-spot remembrance to solidify the calendrical terrain in the hexarchate's favor. The account was referred to by Rahal Zaniin several centuries later.

## References

1. ↑ The Battle of Candle Arc
2. ↑ Raven Strategem, Chapter 19
Kel Ajerio

**Kel Ajerio** is a Kel soldier who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Ajerio was part of Infantry Battalion Three, Company Two which was assigned to take and hold the Hall of Stochastic Longings in the Drummers' Ward. When the company advanced to take out the Hall's guards, Ajerio unwisely dashed forward and was seriously injured.
Akkion Dhaved

> "*We all know what the heptarchate does to heretics, don't we?*"
> ― Akkion Dhaved
>
>

Lieutenant Colonel **Akkion Dhaved** was a Lanterner mutineer. He appeared in The Battle of Candle Arc.

## History

Dhaved served on the Lanterner swarm's command moth, which Kel scans had designated Hellmoth 5, during the Battle of Candle Arc. He had a sardonic voice.

Upon realizing that his swarm had been defeated, Dhaved participated in a mutiny against its general, Bremis kai Meghuet. He then ceased fire and contacted General Shuos Jedao, offering to trade kai Meghuet, alive and intact, for a safe retreat, citing the general's family connections to demonstrate her value as a hostage. His rationale for the betrayal of his general was that she had lost the battle and the other survivors did not wish to be tortured by the heptarchate.

Jedao refused, cutting off communications and giving the Lanterners seven minutes before reengaging and destroying every Lanterner vessel that could not escape.
Badger's Stripes

**Badger's Stripes** was a Kel warmoth in the null swarm. It is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

*Badger's Stripes* was among the moths destroyed when the bannermoth *Coiled Stone* hit the swarm with a carrion bomb. Infantry Colonel Kel Ragath was supposed to be on board at the time, but missed his shuttle due to a riot on the Fortress of Scattered Needles and therefore survived the attack.
Carrion glass

> "*I don't* think *they can force-feed someone a ghost corpse, but to my knowledge it's never been tried.*"
> ― Shuos Jedao
>
>

**Carrion glass** is what remains after a human, revenant, or other living creature is hit by a carrion bomb or carrion gun. It is seen in Ninefox Gambit.

## Description

Pillared spindles of carrion glass, containing images of the victims' memories, remain after a death by a carrion weapon. The spindles are reflective and fragile, easily warping and falling into splinters, some small enough to float in the air as glass dust.

### Revenants

The carrion glass of a revenant is left sharded around their anchor after taking a hit from a carrion weapon. It is invisible but piercingly sharp, and can transmit the revenant's memories if ingested or be collected for return to the black cradle. Shielded by the revenant's death, the anchor would survive, free of the revenant but vulnerable to future exotic attacks.

Revenant carrion glass which is ingested can be ejected by means of a machine at Avros Base. After undergoing this process, the glass is visible, appearing as black shards hissing with malicious voices. This new glass can be ingested in turn, transferring their contents to someone else, albeit with some side effects.

## Trivia

* Since mothdrive vessels are biotechnical in nature, carrion weapons affect them severely but do not destroy their life-support or artificial gravity.
* If some but not all of a revenant's carrion glass shards are eaten, memories contained in the missing shards are not available to the consumer.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 22
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 23
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 21
4. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 23
Glasswood

**Glasswood** is a material used in interior decoration in the hexarchate. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

See also: cloudwood.

## History

A desk made of glasswood was among the furnishings of Kel Cheris's quarters on the boxmoth *Burning Leaf*. A cool, solid material, its reflective surface was was patterned with whorls and eddies.
Burrower ammunition

**Burrower ammunition** is a type of projectile ammunition used in the heptarchate. It is mentioned in Extracurricular Activities.

## Description

Burrower rounds are high-powered projectiles capable of penetrating walls and armor and doing considerably more damage to organic targets than regular ammunition.

## History

Shuos Jedao disliked burrowing ammunition for its effectiveness, and had several bad scars on his torso from nearly being killed by it. His hypothetical assassination plans for General Kel Essier on Station Muru 5 included using a high-powered rifle to shoot burrowing ammunition through several walls and a door.

## Trivia

* Burrowing ammunition may have been developed from the same organism as burrowers. It may also be associated with tunnelling ammunition.
Heretical Geese

**Heretical Geese** is a two-page tabletop roleplaying game nominally associated with the Machineries of Empire universe. Written by Yoon Ha Lee and Ursula Whitcher, it was published in June 2019.

## Description

*A two-page tabletop roleplaying game for a cunning Fox (or GM) and wary Geese (or players). Can the Geese achieve moral insights before being assimilated?*

## Trivia

* The game does not require familiarity with the Machineries of Empire continuity.
* The game is implied, though not specified, to be set at Shuos Academy, with the players representing a class of students training to join an elite assassin corps ("Foxes"). The instructor, interested in games, geese, and ethics, is implied to be Shuos Jedao.
Kel Jiang

**Kel Jiang** was a Kel soldier who served with Shuos Jedao and is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Jiang was present when Jedao killed Kel Gized during the Hellspin Fortress massacre. Unfortunately placed between Jedao and crack shot Kel Gwe Pia, who did not think of firing through another officer to get Jedao, Jiang unwittingly gave Jedao the opportunity to fire do exactly that, firing with his Patterner 52 and killing both soldiers at once. After their deaths, Jedao was able to remember both their names, but not Gized's.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 12
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 21
A Belated Blessing

**A Belated Blessing** 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 redsixwing to the prompt "Jedao, Shparoi favorite tradition."

## Synopsis

Shuos Jedao, excusing himself on the pretext of looking in on his mother's cat, slips away from the table where his family is drinking and telling tall tales. Having missed his brother's wedding due to his own military duties, he intends to belatedly fulfil the old Shparoi good-luck tradition of painting a fertility blessing on the new couple's hovercar, forestalling the bad luck of the tradition not having been followed at the time of the wedding.

Following Jedao, his sister Garach Nidana accuses him of just wanting to throw paint around, but accepts the extra paintbrush he offers her. Jedao decides to paint a dragon-and-phoenix blessing, representing a happy union and fertility. Nidana remarks that with his art skills, "their kids are doomed."

## Links

* Full flashfic at author's Dreamwidth account.
Hachej

**Hachej** was a technician who is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Hachej took apart a gene scanner because it was making a "weird intermittent gleeping noise," leaving two medics without a scanner when they were reviving Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan and seconded personnel from the Swanknot swarm from the sleeper units they'd been placed in.

## Trivia

* Hachej is mentioned, but never seen. The two unnamed medics, a fidgety man with a deep voice and a small, pale individual with a high-pitched voice and extremely cynical eyes, were not faction-affiliated and Brezan never found out what happened to them after he left their custody.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 3
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 12
Dustways

The **dustways** were an ancient term for lawless areas of the pre-heptarchate spaceways. They appear in The Chameleon's Gloves.

## Description

Dustways were space lanes outside of normal civilized areas. Computational networks tracked ships by the eddies they left, enriching great houses of the time with their monopoly on the processing and sale of such data.

The dustways were a difficult place to survive in, and it helped to have a partner. Besides hostile or lawless humans, their dangers included super-fast particles; the unexplained but long-known phenomenons called wandering maws; and vortices that caused hallucinations by filtering light even in dreams.

The ancient Kel used the term "dustways" to refer to any area outside the Kel sphere of influence, regarding non-Kel space and people as suspicious by default.
Feast of Drownings

The **Feast of Drownings** was a remembrance day observed in the heptarchate. It is described in The Battle of Candle Arc.

## Observance

On a moth ship, the remembrance is observed by the moth's ranking officer and Doctrine officer, both of whom stand as the ranking officer recites a series of verses. An icelight is used as a meditation focus, representing lungs filling with fluid.

## History

The Feast of Drownings was instituted by the Rahal heptarch three years before the Battle of Candle Arc in response to heretics in one of the heptarchate's larger marches who wished to build shrines to their ancestors, which, according to the Rahal, would upset the high calendar's master equations. The heretics were tortured to death by having their lungs slowly filled with caustic fluid.

Shuos Jedao observed the Feast of Drownings with Captain-magistrate Rahal Korais shortly before the Battle of Candle Arc.

## Trivia

* The Feast of Drownings was Jedao's least favorite remembrance day.
City of Firefly Desires

The **City of Firefly Desires** is a city in or near the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Vahenz afrir dai Noum enjoyed a vintage drink from the City of Firefly Desires which she considered delightful. In a letter to Heptarch Liozh Zai, she said facetiously that she would give up a few cases of the vintage to find out where General Shuos Jedao had gotten his primary gunner.
Courtesan

A **courtesan** is a person in the heptarchate or hexarchate who is licensed to provide clients with therapeutic intimacy and conversation. Courtesans are mentioned in Raven Stratagem and the short story Extracurricular Activities.

## Mentions

* Courtesans certified by the Andan and Shuos take the Introduction to Seduction class in their respective faction academies. Andan-certified courtesans are widely regarded as superior.
* Rhi Teshet watched a badly acted and mildly pornographic drama about a famous courtesan from 192 years before his time, claiming that its historic nature made it educational.
* The heretic general Znev Stoghan had a relationship with an Andan-certified courtesan.
* Khiruev was reading a courtesan's rambling memoirs before the Swanknot swarm's first engagement with the Hafn.
* The Citadel of Eyes was well staffed with courtesans of varying specialties. Vauhan Istradez always indulged between but not during missions. Though sex did not interest Hexarch Shuos Mikodez, he saw courtesans regularly, including himself in his requirement for all his people to see trained conversationalists/therapists. He was frustrated that he couldn't send a licensed courtesan to the *Hierarchy of Feasts* to provide therapy for General Shuos Jedao, although Jedao's problems would have required an extremely well-qualified and expensive practitioner.
* Though licensed as a courtesan, Shuos Spirel had taken the infantry track in Shuos Academy instead of the courtesan track.
* Agent Andan Tseya is expected to appear as "The Courtesan" in Hexarchate Tarot.

## References

1. ↑ The Factions: High Faction Andan
2. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 9
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 11
9. ↑ Author's blog
Glover Marches

The **Glover Marches** are a region of space in the hexarchate. They are mentioned in The Battle of Candle Arc.

## Geography

The Glover Marches lie on the Ivenua border dividing the hexarchate from Hausse space. On the hexarchate side, the Glovers are between Hellspin Fortress on one side and Station Mavi 514-11 on the other.

Smokewatch 33-67, Candle Arc, and the Outspecker Colonies are in the Glover Marches.

## History

Before the heptarchate became the hexarchate, the Glover Marches were surrounded by a border shell toward which a Lanterner force was moving after the death of General Kel Najhera. Kel Command ordered General Shuos Jedao to stop them before they reached the Glovers and secure the border by any means possible in order to avoid ceding vast swaths of territory to the Lanterners. This necessity led Jedao to choose the calendrical choke at Candle Arc to head them off.

## Trivia

* The area is referred to as the Glover Marches or Glovers in the text, and labeled the Glover March on the Hexarchate Map. This could mean that the area's name was changed between the time of the Lanterner Rebellion and Revenant Gun.
* Although Jedao was ordered to stop the Lanterners before they reached the Glovers, he stopped them at Candle Arc, which was inside the Glovers at the time of the Hafn invasion. This may mean that the area's border geography changed over the years.

## References

1. ↑ Hexarchate Map
2. ↑ The Battle of Candle Arc
Day of Broken Feet

The **Day of Broken Feet** was a calendrical remembrance day briefly instituted in the heptarchate. It is described in The Battle of Candle Arc.

## Observence

Heretics or criminals tortured as calendrical foci for the Day of Broken Feet had filaments needled into their feet to work their way up to the brain, sometimes taking weeks between insertion and death.

## History

The Battle of Candle Arc took place on the Day of Broken Feet, causing a calendrical choke in the battledrift: whoever won would bend the calendar in their favor. When the Lanterners, defeated, offered their general in exchange for a safe retreat, Captain-magistrate Rahal Korais suggested torturing her to cement the calendrical victory. However, due to the orders of General Shuos Jedao and the subsequent complete destruction of the Lanterner swarm, no heretics were left available for torture.

Instead, Doctrine provisionally declared a new remembrance day to commemorate Jedao's victory, involving candle-burning as a focus instead of torture and replacing the Day of Broken Feet.
Kel Meriki

Major **Kel Meriki** was a Kel soldier posted to the Swanknot swarm. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Meriki was head of Operations for the Swanknot swarm. She had a crowd of children. When the swarm was taken over by Shuos Jedao, Meriki remained uncommunicative despite Jedao’s chattiness at first high table with the swarm.

She attended Jedao's first staff meeting and reflexively jumped from her chair to shield Jedao from an attack by an assassination drone. She got off one shot, which ricocheted. When the drone was shot to pieces, Meriki was hit in the eye by a fragment and slumped dead across the staff table. She was succeeded as head of Operations by Major Kel Berimay. General Kel Khiruev wrote a notification to her family, but Jedao prevented her from sending it so as not to get the family in trouble.

## Trivia

* Meriki's rank is not specified in the text.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 23
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
Kel Raika

Brigadier General **Kel Raika** is a Kel high officer who served during the Battle of Terebeg. She appears in Revenant Gun.

## History

Raika was one of the high officers warned by Protector-General Kel Inesser that Ajewen Cheris might be involved in the defense of Terebeg 4 from the Deuce of Gears swarm.

Raika was contacted by Cheris while overseeing ground troops defending Terebeg's capital from the invading swarm's infantry. Correctly attributing Jedao's redoubled orbital bombardment to Cheris's proximity, she answered with exaggerated pleasantries as Cheris, about to crash on the planet's surface, hurriedly requested new, unorthodox formations for the ground troops. Staying on the line until Cheris responded again, Raika noted that the new formations would amount to a suicide run for Company 182-33, but passed along the orders and sent a team to extract Cheris from the crash site.
Kel Miugo

Captain-engineer **Kel Miugo** is a Kel soldier who served with the Swanknot swarm. Miugo appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Miugo is a rakish man with a strong stomach and hair pinned up in braids.

## History

Miugo is head of the Engineering department on the cindermoth *Hierarchy of Feasts*. He was pointed out to General Shuos Jedao by Colonel Kel Stsan at Jedao's first high table with the swarm, mentioning that some swarm servitors who enjoy hunting leave their kills at Miugo's door like cats.

During the swarm's first engagement with the Hafn, Jedao ordered the release of the swarm's twelve threshold winnowers into orbit around the Fortress of Spinshot Coins. Miugo called the command center and recommended stepping down to eight due to lack of available crew for the winnowers, and Jedao clarified, despite Miugo's concern and clipped tone in status reports, that the winnowers were to be uncrewed.

## Trivia

* Although Miugo is otherwise referred to with "he/him" pronouns, Stsan first refers to Miugo as "her."

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2