recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Invariant technology

**Invariant technology** is any technology which is not based on exotic effects and thus works under any calendrical regime. Invariants are used throughout the Machineries of Empire continuity.

## Overview

Unlike exotic technology, invariant technology does not rely on calendrical mechanics to operate. Despite the advantages of exotic attacks, defenses, and methods of transportation, regimes employ invariant technology as a backup to serve in calendrical territory inimical to exotic engines, such as situations of calendrical rot or unfriendly or null calendrical terrain.

Since full-scale instances of calendrical rot are uncommon, the hexarchate lags in developing invariant technology.

## Invariant drive

Invariant drive has a much shorter range and is slower than mothdrive. Although invariant drives are insufficient to meet the needs of so enormous a polity as the hexarchate, mothdrive vessels are also equipped with invariant drive as a safeguard against the failure of the moths' harnesses.

Hafn outriders' invariant drives are suitable only for in-system maneuvering.

## Invariant weapons

Invariant weapons are considered a necessity by the Kel, despite the temptation to focus on calendricals. Kel warmoths use railguns and bombs, and mortars are used by Kel infantry. Many personal firearms are also invariants.

## Trivia

* Brevet General Kel Cheris would normally have composed her swarm based on calendrical considerations, but felt that invariant weapons would be more applicable in calendrically unstable terrain.
* Invariant ice was so named in order to convince citizens that it was an invariant substance; however, it was not actually an invariant.
* In mathematics, an invariant is a quantity which remains unchanged under certain classes of transformations.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
6. ↑ The Battle of Candle Arc
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter
Heron Company

**Heron Company** was a company of Kel soldiers who served in the action against the Eels on Dredge. They appear in Ninefox Gambit.

## Overview

Heron Company, 109-229th Battalion, was a company of infantry Kel under Captain Kel Cheris. As part of the Chain of Thorns swarm under Brigadier General Kel Farosh, the company took part in an action against a heretic force on the planet Dredge. After the rest of the battalion was destroyed by a directional storm, the company, spared due to a field grid error delaying them, proceeded forward and captured the heretics' directional storm generator, but was evacuated directly afterwards and broken up by Doctrine due to the nonstandard formations required to make exotic effects work under the heretics' calendar.

## Kel

There were at least six squadrons of soldiers in Heron Company. Known Kel include:

* Senior Lieutenant Kel Verab
* Lieutenant-engineer Kel Dineng, communications officer
* Lieutenant Kel Ankat, Platoon Three
* Kel Inoe
* Kel Zro, Squadron Three
* Kel Nirrio
* Kel Chriferafa (d?)
* Kel Nikara (d)
* Kel Dezken (d)

Squadron Four, commanded by a lieutenant who had served in the Drowned March and at the Feathered Bridge of Makhtu, was excluded from the company during battle for refusing to participate in critical nonstandard formations, and died on Dredge.

## Servitors

Heron Company's servitors were collectively designated Sparrows by the humans.

Twelve servitors, including Sparrow 3 and Sparrow 14, fell on Dredge, and were unofficially commemorated by means of metal flowers. Sparrow 8 may have survived, and Sparrow 2 and Sparrow 11 were seen later waiting for the mothgrid to receive instructions for the rest of the company.

## Trivia

* Cheris later asked some servitors from the black cradle facility to give her regards to the Heron Company servitors. A beetleform mischievously completed the routing information she had begun to provide, having already been aware of Cheris and her connection with her former company's servitors.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
Esfarel 5

**Esfarel 5** was a physical reproduction of Heptarch Nirai Esfarel, created after the original's immurement in the black cradle. He is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Esfarel 5 was the last copy of Nirai Esfarel to have the original's body language, which Nirai Kujen omitted as requiring too much work in later models.
Esrala

**Esrala** is a Mwennin colony world in the Compact. It appears in Revenant Gun and Glass Cannon.

## World

The planet had wild-growing purple-green forests and worn-down mountains.

## Settlement

The planet boasted a small settlement where Mwennin refugees and adoptive Mwennin were free to practice their beliefs. Its Welcome Committee organized starting packages of Shuos-provided resources for new settlers. Immigrants and visitors arrived by shuttle, and interpreters were provided for those unfamiliar with Mwen-dal. Due to the splintering of extended families, many single Mwennin with no relatives to live with were housed together.

## History

After being purged from Bonepyre by the Vidona, the surviving population of approximately 5,000 Mwennin were resettled by the Shuos, forming a community on an out-of-the-way planet.

The Mwennin refugees adopted the revised calendar and became part of the Compact. Over the next decade, the settlement began to accept immigrants and grew into a thriving community. Their school was short of teachers, and Ajewen Cheris retired to teach there after the Compact merged with the Protectorate.

## References

1. ↑ Revenant Gun, Epilogue
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Epilogue
Kel Rai Mogen

Commander **Kel Rai Mogen** was a Kel bannermoth commander who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Rai Mogen appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

The senior bannermoth commander of the null swarm, Rai Mogen commanded *Red Stitch* and led the swarm's third tactical group.

During the swarm's assault on the Fortress's shields, General Shuos Jedao ordered Tactical Three to watch for visual chaff on the shields and respond by firing on the shields in the pattern of the chaff's antonym, stressing the importance of Rai Mogen understanding that a fast response was more important than a certain one.

When Tactical Three's firepower diminished to 75% during the attack on the no-longer-protected fortress, Rai Mogen asked if the group should alter formation. Brevet General Kel Cheris ordered the group to assume heretical formation 8 and alert her if any more Kel broke down at the use of a heretical formation.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 10
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 16
Kel Menowen

> "*One less day for publicly torturing criminals.*"
> ― Kel Menowen
>
>

Commander **Kel Menowen** was a Kel soldier who served during the Lanterner rebellion. She appears in The Battle of Candle Arc and is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance and Personality

Menowen is a stocky woman with swan-black hair, unsmiling eyes, and an expressive mouth. She carries herself with punctilious correctness and overenunciates when doubting another's effectiveness. Despite Kel custom, she questions or argues orders if she believes it necessary, though only when the situation permits. She values honorable behavior and dislikes needless cruelty.

## History

Menowen held a grudge against the Shuos because one of her aunts had died as a secondary casualty to a careless Shuos assassin.

During the Lanterner rebellion, Menowen commanded the fangmoth *Fortune Travels in Fours* in a swarm led by General Kel Najhera against a force of at least 60 Lanterner warmoths. In the ensuing rout, General Najhera was killed and Menowen's *Fortune* was one of only eleven fangmoths to escape.

Despite her feelings about the Shuos, Menowen held herself to high standards of behavior when General Shuos Jedao, realizing that she would be difficult to win over, chose *Fortune* as his command moth. Due to his recent injury in an assassination attempt, they exchanged few words until the day of the Feast of Drownings.

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When Jedao's wounds overtook him, Menowen backed his orders, ensuring that no heretics were left alive for torture.

Menowen visited Jedao in medbay later with a report on the battle, telling him he'd found another Kel ally. She also gave him the symbolic candles for a new remembrance supplanting the Day of Broken Feet, which would not involve torture.

Commander Menowen served in the Tactical Eight group during the siege of Hellspin Fortress. As the threshold winnowers destroyed his Kel swarm, Jedao heard a desperate query from Menowen over the communication links, then static.

## Trivia

* The author adds that Menowen, as a colonel commanding *Fortune Travels in Fours*, broke formation at Hellspin Fortress and got her fangmoth out of danger, becoming one of "very, very few" to survive the infamous massacre and believing in Jedao's innocence for the rest of her life.

## References

1. ↑ The Battle of Candle Arc
2. ↑ The Battle of Candle Arc
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 21
4. ↑ Author's blog: hexarchate comic noodling
Composite

> "*For a few muddled seconds, Brezan tried to work out if there was any non-insubordinate way to say that he would rather kill himself with a wooden spoon than join the Kel hivemind.*"
> ― Raven Stratagem
>
>

A **composite** is a technologically connected hivemind of two or more people. Composite technology is used in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem.

## Overview

Composite technology creates a hivemind with a sense of “utter humming conviction, of belonging,” and a sense of being subsumed in a single will. Outwardly, humans involved in a composite sit still and quiet, gazing at nothing, while operating digital or physical marionettes which can take any appearance. An operation beyond usual augmentation is necessary to technologically augment a person for composite work.

Command stations on warmoths are usually held by composite marionettes. However, it is axiomatic among the Kel that compositing is most effectively used for internal discipline outside of battle and is not a useful tool for coordinating while in action. As the technology is exotic and relies on a stable calendar, composites are not used in areas where calendrical rot has taken hold.

Long-term abuse of composite technology may lead to paranoia or psychosis, and memories retained by extremely long-term composites can degrade over time.

## History

* Composite Subcommand Two and Subcommand Eight are part of Kel Command.
* General Shuos Jedao had the composite wiring on the *Hierarchy of Feasts* shut down after taking over the Swanknot swarm because the body of Ajewen Cheris was not wired for composite work.
* General Kel Khiruev likes the experience of being part of a composite, though less the experience of controlling one.
* Kel Brezan functions indifferently as part of a composite.

## Trivia

* Though the term may be different in the high language, "marionette," used for a puppet controlled by a composite, is also used for the anchors of Hexarch Nirai Kujen, stressing their role as puppets controlled by his revenant. The term may originate from a pre-hexarchate term for a class of non-Kel humans whom the Kel did not count as living beings and used as puppets or props in training exercises.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
11. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
12. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
13. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
14. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
15. ↑ The Chameleon's Gloves
Battle of Spiral Deluge

The **Battle of Spiral Deluge** was a battle which took place in the heptarchate. It is mentioned in Raven Stratagem.

## History

After the death of General Shuos Jedao, High General Kel Shiang recalled him as a "cocksure bastard" who had once bet a fortune that he could get his army through the Battle of Spiral Deluge with under 10% casualties. Jedao had won the bet, keeping casualties under 7%.
Kel Dezken

**Kel Dezken** was a Kel soldier who served in Heron Company during the assault on Dredge. Dezken appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Dezken, scarcely out of Kel Academy, was the youngest soldier in the company. Trying to share a bad joke with a friend, Dezken fell out of position and was killed by an Eel bullet as the company retreated. Captain Kel Cheris noted the terrible timing in passing: Kel luck was often bad.

The next most junior Kel in the company was Kel Nirro.

## Trivia

* Dezken's gender is not specified in the text.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
Cindermoth

A **cindermoth** is a type of warmoth used in the hexarchate. Cindermoths appear throughout the series.

Notable cindermoths include *Unspoken Law*, *Sincere Greeting*, *Hierarchy of Feasts*, and *Three Kestrels Three Suns*, the only cindermoth in Kel history to be named after a general's emblem.

## Description

Cindermoths were the largest and most expensive mothdrive vessels in the hexarchate. They project calendrical stability, are mathematically agile, and have a synergistic effect on one another.

Some cindermoths are equipped with spinal-mounted erasure cannon.

Command center stations on cindermoths include Weapons, Communications, Sensors (Scan), Engineering, Navigation, and Doctrine, and are often operated by composite marionettes.

## History

The current class of cindermoths were partially designed by Heptarch Nirai Kujen. At the time of the calendrical spike, only six cindermoths existed. Due to the staggering expense and certain Andan monopolies, the Kel could not afford to build more.

Only two of the hexarchate's moth construction yards were capable of building cindermoths. Both were destroyed shortly after the end of the Hafn invasion.

Of the six cindermoths, *Unspoken Law* and *Sincere Greeting* served at the siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles; *Unspoken Law* was destroyed there by a carrion bomb, while *Sincere Greeting* was warned and escaped. During the Hafn invasion, *Hierarchy of Feasts* was commandeered by Shuos Jedao and played a significant role in thwarting the Hafn.[cite]

After the calendrical spike, *Hierarchy of Feasts* remained under the control of the Compact, while the other four surviving cindermoths were held by the Protectorate.[cite]
The Vonner Salient and Isteia Mothyard [etc] *Hierarchy of Feasts* was destroyed in a heated action several years later, and *Three Kestrels Three Suns* was heavily damaged defending Isteia Mothyard.[cite]

## Trivia

* Before the *Unspoken Law*, Ajewen Cheris had never served on a cindermoth.
* Hexarch Shuos Mikodez offered to give High General Kel Brezan a shadowmoth to name himself as a way of making up for *Three Kestrels Three Suns* being named after Protector General Kel Inesser's banner, but Brezan declined.[cite]

## References

1. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 12
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
4. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 7
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 27
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
Carrion Strike

**Carrion Strike** is a Kel grand formation. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Carrion Strike can be created with a grand swarm of ninety-three warmoths. A ghost formation based on Carrion Strike and associated with the Rahal scrywolf was used to break the shields at the Fortress of Scattered Needles.
Garach Ledana

**Garach Ledana** was a Shparoi agricultural researcher who was the mother of Shuos Jedao and his two siblings. She is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, and the short stories Bunny, A Belated Blessing, and Extracurricular Activities, and appears in the flashfic Omens.

## Appearance and Personality

Ledana wore her hair short for reasons of convenience, supplementing it with a curly wig on fashionable occasions. She liked watching dramas about invasions of giant tentacled gate-space creatures, where "the only survivors are stalwart country people with big guns and loyal, delicious farm animals." She was a fair shot. Ledana had spidery handwriting.

## History

Ledana inherited a necklace of black pearls and onyx from her grandmother.

Despite considerable technical skills in her field, Ledana did not join the Nirai, finding them squeamish about personally slaughtering livestock for holiday dinners.

Against Shparoi cultural mores, she had three children with three different sires, picking them carefully for desirable traits and contracting to retain sole custody. Her oldest son was Garach Rodao; he was followed by Jedao and their younger sister Garach Nidana. Ledana also flouted Shparoi tradition by naming Jedao after his father.

Although her research facility had perfectly good milking machines, Ledana made Jedao learn to milk cows manually.

Ledana lived in hope that Jedao would settle down with someone nice and provide her with more grandchildren.

Ledana learned that Jedao was being transferred to Station Muru 5 to be promoted and assigned to a warmoth, though his mission and location had been classified and he had not been told about the promotion or assignment yet. She sent him a container of goose fat rendered from a descendant of his childhood pet goose, assuring him that the goose had been delicious.

Ledana was murdered by someone unknown while Jedao was being interrogated after Hellspin Fortress.

## References

1. ↑ Omens
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
3. ↑ Omens
4. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
5. ↑ Omens
6. ↑ Omens
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
8. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
9. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
10. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter
Jedao the Calico Cat

**Jedao**, named after Shuos Jedao, is a calico cat belonging to Shuos Zehun. She appears in Revenant Gun and Six Things... and is mentioned in Glass Cannon.

## History

In a rare indulgence of superstition, Zehun originally refused to name a black kitten after Jedao despite their tradition of naming cats after infamous Shuos assassins, but finally gave a calico kitten the name nine years after the death of Jedao's revenant.

Jedao was Zehun's newest cat at the time of Hexarch Nirai Kujen's death. A hyperactive, uncoordinated kitten, she was present in the office of Hexarch Shuos Mikodez when he and Zehun reviewed the interrogation of the new, resurrected Shuos Jedao. She enjoyed chasing a feathered cat toy, bumping into walls, and attacking dust motes.

Despite Zehun's concerns, Mikodez facilitated play-dates between Jedao-the-kitten and her namesake. Jedao-the-person, though unfamiliar with cats and worried about harming her, snuck treats to the kitten, participated in her leash training, and occasionally fell asleep while holding her.

Over the next two years, the kitten matured into a lazy furball frequently petted by Mikodez in the interest of keeping Zehun happy. A subdisplay on Mikodez's workstation has a background photo of her sleeping in a sink.

## Trivia

* Zehun picked a female kitten for the name because the "Jedao" people knew at that time was Cheris.
* Hemiola's lights go orange upon seeing a picture of Jedao-the-cat, possibly indicating friction between the two.
* While hexarchate and post-hexarchate technology is likely capable of genetically engineering cats of any color and gender, almost all naturally occurring male calicos need two X chromosomes along with their Y chromosomes to produce the distinctive calico colors, a genetic condition which usually leaves them sterile.
* Cloud, the author's cat, is a model for Jedao-the-cat.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
2. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 21
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 36
4. ↑ Six Things...
5. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
6. ↑ Author's remarks
7. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon, p.218
Robert Daly

**Robert Daly** ist der Hauptantagonist von USS Callister. Er wird von Jesse Plemons gespielt.

Robert Daly hat die erfolgreiche Tech Firma Callister Inc. zusammen mit seinem Partner James Walton gegründet, der mittlerweile allerdings die Lorbeeren für sich einstreicht, obwohl Daly quasi die gesamte Arbeit geleistet hat, die dem Unternehmen zugrunde liegt. Robert hat keine Freunde und wird von seinen Angestellten nicht respektiert. Als die neue Angestellte Nanette sich ihm vorstellt, ist er sofort von ihr hingerissen, doch es dauert nicht lange, bis Walton und andere Mitarbeiter einen Keil zwischen die beiden treiben. Doch Daly hat trotzdem die Möglichkeit, Zeit mit Nanette zu verbringen - indem er sie zu einem digitalen Charakter in seinem Spiel USS Callister macht.
Fireflitter 327

**Fireflitter 327** was a hoverer retrieving Shuos shouter teams from the Axers' battlefield. It appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Shuos Lharis, searching the battlefield for Shouter Team 5 ten hours late, contacted Shuos Jedao from Fireflitter 327. The hoverer arrived two hours and forty-six minutes later and retrieved him from the battlefield.
Kel Belleren

Major **Kel Belleren** was a Kel soldier who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. He is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Belleren went to Kel Academy with Kel Mieng. The two were once locked in a bank while visiting a mutual friend when someone adjusted an ink painting manually and triggered an alarm.

After making major, Belleren led a company in Infantry Battalion Three during a mock assault on the Drummers' Ward. As the battalion fell back, six of its companies, including Belleren's, were left behind to die and convince the heretics that the attack had been real, thus providing a reason for a celebration which would spike the heretics' calendar. Mieng volunteered her company to help Belleren hold, but was refused by Infantry Colonel Kel Ragath.
Citadel of Eyes

The **Citadel of Eyes** is a star fortress in the Stabglass March which houses the central administrative offices of the Shuos. It is visited in Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, and the short story Gamer's End.

Notable residents of the Citadel include Shuos Mikodez, Shuos Zehun, Vauhan Istradez, and Andan Niath.

## Description

The Citadel orbits a planet upon which is located Shuos Academy Prime, along with significant civilian populations. Unlike the Aerie, the Citadel's location is not secret. It is defended by weapons installations and varying numbers of shadowmoths.

The station has variable layout and comprises the heart of Shuos bureaucracy and analysis. The heads of various Shuos departments, including Propaganda, Intelligence, and Accounting, hold conferences there. Most of the Citadel is not decorated in Shuos red-and-gold, since the color red tends to increase tension. The Room of Guns is an exception.

## Administrative Offices

Mikodez has several offices. His favorite was converted to an office by a long-ago Shuos heptarch as a test of variable layout. He keeps a cache of weapons in his desk, along with knitting projects and stashes of candy.

Zehun has an office suite cheerfully decorated with cats, cat toys, and ink paintings from various young relatives. They provide cookies and other treats for meetings with Mikodez, and use a teapot painted with stabbed roses which he gave them after they survived an Andan assassination attempt.

## Residences

Istradez resided in a luxurious apartment whose windows looked out into a garden where there were dragonflies. Shuos Spirel, his frequent lover, had a couch in the apartment upon which no shoes were allowed.

## Room of Guns

The Room of Guns, whose official designation is no longer used even by Zehun, houses Jedao's gun collection, a private arsenal formerly held by the Kel and stolen by Mikodez's operatives during the reign of Hexarch Kel Vaura. The room is accented in gold and decorated in livid red with deeper red tapestries. The collection's centerpiece is Jedao's Patterner 52, which is kept in a display case with an informative touch-activated text description. Very few people are authorized to enter the room.

## Shuos Archives

The Archives contain a restricted section, so well guarded that even Mikodez can't access it, which is rumored to store an ancient heptarch's collection of heretical calendrical erotica.

## References

1. ↑ Gamer's End
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 11
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 11
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 11
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 26
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
Kel Cherkad

General **Kel Cherkad** is a formidable Kel general. She is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Cherkad is a highly effective general who served with the Andan. Vahenz afrir dai Noum considered her the most dangerous Kel general who might be available to deal with the heresy at the Fortress of Scattered Needles, and mentioned in a letter to Liozh Zai that Cherkad's emblem, a "bizarre spiral pattern," induces migraines.

Cherkad was given charge of the campaign against the incoming Hafn invasion, with General Kel Marish ordered to assist near the Jeweled Systems, and considerably delayed their progress toward the Fortress of Spinshot Coins.

## Trivia

* In Chapter 2 of Raven Stratagem, the name Cherkad occurs in reference to a Kel general who was assassinated by the Hafn and who is otherwise named Kel Chrenka in the text.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 14
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 12
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
Glory of Roses

**Glory of Roses** is a Kel grand formation. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

A ghost formation based on the pivots of Glory of Roses and associated with the Andan kniferose, but lacking the seventy-nine more warmoths required to achieve the grand formation, was used to weaken the shields at the Fortress of Scattered Needles.
Kel Muris

Colonel **Kel Muris** is a Kel officer who served on the cindermoth *Hierarchy of Feasts*. He appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Muris is reliably businesslike during action and usually unreadable. He exudes faint disapproval at humor in the command center. While normally conservative, he fixates on telescoping formations as faster ways to close with the enemy. He did not often work with General Kel Khiruev to manage swarm geometry during battle, but was extraordinarily efficient when doing so.

## History

Muris was executive officer to Commander Kel Janaia. His distant ethnicity includes the Moionna.

Muris was present on the *Hierarchy of Feasts* when the Swanknot swarm was taken over by Shuos Jedao. During the swarm's first engagement with the Hafn, Muris conferred with Doctrine.

As the swarm approached Minang Tower and a second engagement, Muris was troubled by Jedao's failure to appear in the command center. After Janaia's breakdown during the engagement, Khiruev appointed Muris acting commander in her stead. Muris was consulting a bannermoth gap in Tactical Six with Communications when Jedao arrived. Jedao later confirmed with Khiruev that Muris would remain acting commander for the duration.

Muris attended a staff meeting with High General Kel Brezan after he had retaken the swarm. Upon arriving, Muris, who had not been informed of the change, saluted immediately and calmly summarized the swarm's activities to date. However, he avoided looking at Khiruev when she and Brezan visited the command center later, not knowing what her fate would be.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 23
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 24
Calendrical heresy

**Calendrical heresy** consists of activity which, by action or omission, affects local consensus mechanics in a way that weakens a state-mandated calendar. Calendrical heresies appear throughout the Machineries of Empire continuity.

## Overview

Calendrical heresy is distinguished from ordinary crime or misbehavior by the way in which it affects a local calendar. Individuals not living in accordance with a given realm's calendar may seriously weaken the effects of local consensus mechanics, leading to calendrical rot. The larger the group of individuals who flout the local calendar, the greater the corrosive effects of the heresy on the calendrical terrain.

The types of behavior or beliefs that constitute heresy under a particular calendar are usually strictly legislated. In the heptarchate and hexarchate, the Rahal oversee the functioning of the high calendar, updating its Doctrine to reflect any necessary adjustments.

## Heretics

Heretics are individuals who commit or contribute to calendrical heresy. The term is also applied to foreigners whose regimes do not use the state-mandated calendar, or, in broadest terms, any undesirable or enemy of the state.

## Sentencing

Those who are branded as heretics may be subjected to severe consequences, potentially including conquest, imprisonment, mandatory reeducation to bring them in line with the calendar, summary execution, or ritual torture in a remembrance.

In the hexarchate, the Rahal have jurisdiction over judgment and sentencing of calendrical heresies. Larger heretical groups may be subjected to Kel military action until the population is ready for the Vidona to handle reeducation and torture.

## Heresies within the heptarchate/hexarchate

The following cultural groups have, at one time or another, been identified as heretical under the heptarchate and hexarchate's high calendar.

* The Axers
* The Aughens
* The Lanterners
* The Gheffeu
* The Liozh
* Followers of The False Arrow
* The Society of the Flourish
* The Liozh revival at the Fortress of Scattered Needles
* The Mwennin
Kel Aurel

High General **Kel Aurel** was a Kel high officer who was part of Kel Command. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## History

Aurel had pale brown eyes, beautiful posture, and hands which still had some of their old strength. She had brought some musical instruments to the Aerie with her in the early years, favoring viols. The last time she had used them, she had played snatches of a concerto.

Thirty-one years later, Aurel was part of Subcommand Composite Eight, sitting motionless and unseeing in a minimalist metalglass chair as Servitor sin *x^2*, secretly aware of the Aerie's impending destruction, whisked into the room to be with her in their last moments. The Aerie exploded one minute and eight seconds later, killing them both.
Kel Kavinte

Commander **Kel Kavinte** is a Kel bannermoth commander who served during the Hafn invasion of the hexarchate. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Kavinte has an extremely pretty face, symmetrical and graceful, but her eyes intimate a casual ruthlessness that reminds General Kel Khiruev of Shuos Jedao. Her profile indicates argumentativeness and she has a standing interest in obscure formations.

## History

Kavinte leads Tactical Group 5 in the Swanknot swarm, commanding the bannermoth *Singe the Hour*. Although Khiruev warns Jedao of Kavinte's argumentative nature, he selects her to scout the number of incoming vessels in their first encounter with Hafn outriders. Though Kavinte scoffed at his informal way of giving orders, she accepted his challenge to show him how good her tactical group is at Lexicon Secondary.

Using obscure formations, Tactical Five confirmed that the incoming Hafn vessels were responding to scan formants but not visual data. Kavinte updated Jedao with terse reports as Tactical Five destroyed the outrider flock, and let him know that one outrider had been retrieved intact. Kavinte laughed at the imaginary threat of "death spores or haunts" inside the outriders, but passed along Jedao's instruction to open it very carefully. Tactical Five then rejoined the rest of the swarm.

Three hours and twelve minutes later, Kavinte sent Jedao an eyes-only message detailing what her engineering team found in the casket.

During the battle near Minang Tower, Kavinte alerted General Kel Khiruev to a formation break caused by the Hafn traitor's lance formation, and was ordered to prioritize the destruction of fourteen afflicted bannermoths from Groups Five and Three. As the battle continued, she passed along visuals showing how the traitor's lance had infected the bannermoths.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
Kel Naraucher

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

## Personality

Naraucher is the first Kel in his family. He hates smoked food, likes parades because no one gets killed, and enjoys playing with his brother's dogs. He is companionable with his fellows as long as they aren't grumpy. While he has an active imagination, is prone to daydreaming, and has never ascribed warmth to the hexarchate's government, he adjusts well to reality and follows orders.

## History

During infantry action on the Fortress, Naraucher was posted under Captain Kel Zhan Goro behind Major Kel Ula's company, which was ordered to by Colonel Kel Ragath to pass through the Radiant Gate and draw out an attack on a factory in the Radiant Ward long enough for threshold winnowers to be set up in the ward.

Landing in a captured bay, Naraucher was uneasy when servitors arrived to take their places in the heretical formations the Kel would be using, realizing that he felt inadequate before their effortlessly precise motions but accepting their presence as ordered by the brevet general and thus appropriate. After a period of daydreaming, pondering beverages for servitors, and appreciated Shuos sabotage of the heretics' corrosion gradient generators while the companies were shuffled up to account for servitor attrition, Naraucher and his company passed through a dank Nirai-burrowed tunnel and approached the Radiant Gate. Its light gave him a headache.

Ula's company sorted out its formation and bannered, but as the companies approached the gate, Naraucher realized that both it and the people and servitors at Ula's non-pivot points were evaporating. Naraucher's eyes hurt, but he did not cry while passing through the shriveled remnants of the gate his fellow Kel had burned up to destroy; all he could do was follow orders and take the opening they had died to give him.
Kel Gherion

Commander **Kel Gherion** was a Kel bannermoth commander who served in the Swanknot swarm. He appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Personality

Gherion was good at autonomous action and enthusiastic about engaging the enemy sooner rather than waiting.

## History

Gherion commanded the bannermoth *Stormlash Glory*, and was the lead group commander of Tactical Group Two. Lieutenant Commander Kel Brezan liked him and had once invited him over for dinner; he enjoyed Brezan's roast stuffed pheasant.

Gherion was with the swarm when it was taken over by General Shuos Jedao. On General Kel Khiruev's recommendation, Jedao detached Tactical Two to destroy some Hafn outriders at several locations on the approach to the Fortress of Spinshot Coins. While leery of Jedao's intentions, Gherion acknowledged and followed his orders, afterwards taking up a formation to minimize scan shadow and heading for the predetermined rendezvous point near the Fortress. Tactical Two arrived just after the Hafn swarm had fled, and Jedao ordered them to drive the Hafn off, modulating formation as they wished. Gherion chose Black Lens to allow their dire cannon to make contact, immediately slowing and modulating into a shield formation afterward. Jedao recalled Tactical Two, along with Tactical One, when the Fortress mired the rest of the swarm in phantom terrain, keeping the swarm together.

During the swarm's second engagement with the Hafn, near Minang Tower, Khiruev detached Gherion and Tactical Two to attack the auxiliary vessels the second Hafn swarm was guarding by any means necessary, though both she and Gherion knew that doing so would subject Tactical Two to heavy fire. She ordered Gherion not to concern himself with the rest of the swarm until she recalled him, and he acknowledged. Gherion chose to use Kiora's Stab, losing moths even as the formation destroyed several more Hafn moths. Despite rapidly growing respect for Kiora's Stab, the Hafn continued to block Gherion from reaching the auxiliaries.

Two more of Tactical Two's moths burned up as Jedao requested sixteen bannermoths for a suicide run at the auxiliaries to prevent them from jumping out, getting eleven volunteers and choosing the rest by lottery. When a Hafn detachment attempted to bar the sixteen moths from reaching the web, Gherion, who had heard Jedao's speech, had Tactical Two use Kiora's Stab to facilitate their passage, flaring into a pillar that sliced through part of the web. The sixteen bannermoths successfully spiked the jump, while Gherion and Tactical Two were evaporated as the formation destabilized.

Brezan was upset upon learning of Gherion's death, but was told that Kiora's Stab had been the commander's own choice and had acted as he had intended.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 23
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 23
Jienji

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

## Appearance and Personality

A wriggly orange tabby, Jienji is prone to shedding hair on the carpet, exploring previously-explored areas, and missing when jumping from one piece of furniture to the next. She is predictable in her movements and prefers wandering or hiding to being held. Like all of Zehun's cats, she was named after an infamous Shuos assassin.

## History

Considering Jienji stupid even for a cat, Shuos Mikodez once asked Zehun if the name was a remark on the intelligence of Shuos assassins; Zehun merely smiled.

Zehun carried Jienji with them to Mikodez's office when informing him that Nirai Kujen was missing. Prevented by Mikodez from prowling on his desk, she was followed around the carpet by a servitor attempting to clean up her shedding fur. When Zehun attempted to pick her up again, she leaped for a table, missed, and was eventually cornered in her usual spot by a shelf.

Jienji was present later when Zehun and Mikodez discussed Shuos Jedao in Zehun's office, but did not come out of hiding.

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 4
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
Kel Jaghun

Captain **Kel Jaghun** was a Kel infantry captain who served during the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Jaghun's infantry company was one of several which provided a diversion in the Fortress's Radiant Ward so that Nirai teams could set up threshold winnowers. When the winnowers were ready, the Kel companies retreated, but Jaghun's company was one of three slow ones which were not clear before Captain Nirai Weinat had to order the winnowers activated. Jaghun set up video feeds before the radiation reached her company. Video of one soldier's unsuccessful attempt to survive by clawing out her eyes reached Colonel Kel Ragath and Brevet General Kel Cheris after Jaghun's company died.

## Trivia

One of the other slow companies was led by Captain Kel Iziade. The leader of the third company is not known.
Entangled March

The **Entangled March** is one of the central marches of space in the hexarchate. It is visited in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem.

## Geography

As one of the hexarchate's central marches, the Entangled March is both tactically and calendrically important. It is adjacent to the Severed March, the Stabglass March, and the Gray Marches, and lies on the border between the hexarchate and an area of space held by the Society of the Flourish. It is across the hexarchate from the High Glass border.

The Fortress of Scattered Needles is in the Entangled March, located in a stretch of empty space for calendrical reasons. The closest system to the Fortress is the Footbreak system.

The planet Dredge is near hexarchate's border in the Entangled March.

## Trivia

* The area of space affected by calendrical rot emanating from heresy at the Fortress of Scattered Needles was 21.3 days away from the black cradle facility in the Gray Marches, assuming a mothdrive swarm taking the most direct route in a stellate formation.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 17
3. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
4. ↑ Hexarchate Map
5. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 8
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
8. ↑ Hexarchate Map
Genial gun

The **genial gun** is an exotic weapon in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and Revenant Gun.

## History

The genial gun is one of two exotic weapons which can kill both a revenant and their anchor at the same time. The other is the snakescratch dart. Due to their uniquely hazardous nature to revenants, Hexarch Nirai Kujen had the schematics for both weapons suppressed.

## Trivia

* Despite Kujen's tight control of information regarding weapons dangerous to revenants, Hexarch Shuos Mikodez was aware of the potential existence of genial guns.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 5
2. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 21
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
Kel Dineng

Lieutenant-Engineer **Kel Dineng** is a Kel soldier who served during the assault on Dredge. He appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

Dineng was a communications officer in Heron Company. During the company's action against the Eels on Dredge, Captain Kel Cheris asked him for a report over subvocal field grid relay; he replied that Sparrow 8 was investigating the storm ahead and that there was nothing to report from the other servitors. He sent another Sparrow into the storm to confirm that it was fatal; the Sparrow was minced into cubes by the falling light.

Cheris, observing Eel soldiers later in the battle, noted that one of them could have been Dineng's brother if not for the pale eyes.

After the action on Dredge, Doctrine broke up Heron Company. Cheris was told that some of the Kel might still be able to serve depending on the magistrates' assessments.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2
Discusión General

Levelup es una de mis páginas favoritas de videojuegos porque su diseño y la forma en que esta organizada me parece muy agradable a la vista y su comunidad suele ser muy unida y amistosa. Pero ultimamento veo desinterés en mejorar su contenido y centrarse más en la ratiza de youtube.

Quisiera que me recomendaran más páginas en español plz.
Kel Marish

> "*I'm Kel, sir, but I have a brain to think with.*"
> ― Brigadier General Kel Marish
>
>

Brigadier General **Kel Marish** is a Kel soldier who appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## Appearance and Personality

Marish is described as having a card-shark's appearance, "aescetic angles and unreadable eyes in a blunt dark face." She wears her uniform casually, though with no crease out of place. Despite her Kel training, she does not scruple to criticize Kel Command, and is both willing and able to act outside its intentions when she believes it necessary.

## History

Marish's emblem was the Eyespike and her command moth was *Higher Higher Highest*. She was once court-martialed for "overly creative interpretation of orders" while fighting the Haussen heretics, and successfully shouted the charge down.

Marish was pulled off sentry and sent to the Jeweled Systems to assist General Kel Cherkad's opposition of an unexpected full-scale Hafn invasion, and prepared to follow orders despite believing they would lead to her death.

Upon realizing that Kel Command had not informed Brevet General Kel Cheris of the invasion despite the strategic importance of her campaign at the Fortress of Scattered Needles, Marish chose to tell her about it so she could do her job, theorizing that Command half expected Cheris to turn coat and that a Shuos in one of the subcommand composites had fouled their judgment. After describing the Hafn invasion, Marish advised Cheris to either take the Fortress as fast as possible or destroy it to deny it to the Hafn.

She then asked to speak to General Shuos Jedao, and addressed him directly upon seeing his ninefox shadow behind Cheris. Criticizing Kel Command's "insipid indecisive shit" in fielding soldiers without trusting them with information necessary to succeed, she noted that Jedao was unconstrained by formation instinct and asked him to fix what needed fixing in the hexarchate, stating that he was the weapon they had left.

The Hafn subsequently destroyed the Eyespike swarm. They were uncertain whether Marish survived, but they were assured by Vahenz afrir dai Noum that "Kel generals rarely choose to survive the deaths of their swarms."

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 17
Bonepyre

**Bonepyre** is a small, backwater planet in the hexarchate. It is mentioned in Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem, and appears in the short stories Birthdays, The Robot's Math Lessons, and Cheris and the Sea. It is notable for being the home planet of Ajewen Cheris.

## Geography

Bonepyre is in the Ausser March, on the other side of the hexarchate from the Severed March.

## Description

Bonepyre has at least two continents and an ocean, and is so minor a planet that most people haven't heard of it. Its weather is scheduled and servitors keep citiesand shoreline clean. Local wildlife includes ravens, gulls, terns, and fish.

Two cities had significant concentrations of Mwennin: the City of Ravens Feasting, a port on a small peninsula, and the City of Hollow Processions. The hexarchate's estimated population of 58,000 Mwennin were concentrated on Bonepyre, and were a minority even there.

## History

Ajewen Cheris grew up in the City of Ravens Feasting.

The planet's Mwennin were purged by the Vidona after the takeover of the Swanknot swarm. Approximately 5,000 Mwennin were evacuated by the Shuos and remained alive.

## Known Residents

* Ajewen Cheris
* Ajewen Derow
* Ajewen Dzera
* Boherem Roni
* Moroish Nija

## References

1. ↑ Raven Strategem, Chapter 13
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
3. ↑ Cheris and the Sea
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 27
5. ↑ The Robot's Math Lessons
6. ↑ Cheris and the Sea
7. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 16
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
10. ↑ Raven Strategem, Chapter 27
11. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 1
12. ↑ Raven Strategem, Chapter 27
Kel Farosh

Brigadier General **Kel Farosh** was the head of the Kel expedition to Dredge. Her emblem is the Chain of Thorns. She appears in Ninefox Gambit.

## History

The 109-229th Battalion, which was slaughtered on Dredge except for Heron Company under Captain Kel Cheris, was part of Farosh's swarm. Heron Company was delayed due to a field grid error and survived to accomplish the battalion's mission of taking the heretics' directional storm generator.

Immediately afterward, Farosh notified Cheris that her company would be extracted from Dredge in twenty-six minutes, leaving the generator. After adding that the heretics' local air defenses had been knocked out for the moment, Farosh assured her that the capture of the generator was a job well done but no longer her company's problem, and signed off.