FOLLOWING HIS INDUCTION INTO the ranks of the Royal Knights Victorian, Hadrian Marlowe’s Red Company entered the service of His Radiance, William XXIII. They served the throne for decades at more than half a dozen battles, including Arae, Cellas, Thagura, Oxiana, and—most famously—at Aptucca, where Hadrian Marlowe slew the Cielcin Prince Ulurani. At its height, the Red Company numbered nearly 100,000 men, mostly plebeian soldiers kept in cryonic fugue aboard the ISV Tamerlane, an Eriel-class battleship. Marlowe’s Red Company is peculiar among companies in the Imperial service, in that its upper echelons were composed primarily of Norman foederati personally loyal to Hadrian himself and not Imperial loyalists, though this changed somewhat with the passage of time.

Here follows a list of those members of the Red Company mentioned in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

LORD HADRIAN ANAXANDER MARLOWE, Royal Knight Victorian, Lord Commandant of the Red Company, Hero of Aptucca. The Halfmortal, the Sun Eater, Starbreaker, Palekiller, Deathless. Notorious genocide responsible for the death of the entire Cielcin species.

—His paramour, VALKA ONDERRA VHAD EDDA, a Tavrosi demarchist and xenologist interested in the Quiet phenomenon. Scientific advisor to the Red Company.

—His myrmidons, friends and former coliseum fighters from Emesh:

—PALLINO OF TRIESTE, chiliarch and Hadrian’s bound armsman. A veteran of the Cielcin Wars, raised to the patrician class. Originally lost his eye in the Battle of Argissa.

—His paramour, ELARA OF EMESH, quartermaster for the ISV Tamerlane and Hadrian’s bound armsman. Raised to the patrician class.

—SIRAN OF EMESH, first centurion and Hadrian’s bound armsman. Raised to the patrician class.

OTAVIA CORVO, captain of the ISV Tamerlane, former Norman mercenary recruited during the Pharos Affair. Possibly a homunculus.

—Her First Officer, BASTIEN DURAND, commander, former Norman mercenary from Algernon recruited during the Pharos Affair.

—Her officers:

—RODERICK HALFORD, commander, the so-called night captain, in charge of running the Tamerlane while the rest of the crew rested in cryonic fugue, the seventh son of a minor palatine lord.

—LORIAN ARISTEDES, commander and tactical officer for the ISV Tamerlane. The bastard son of the Grand Duke of Patmos and one of his knights, a palatine intus plagued by idiosyncratic pain and connective tissue disorders.

—KARIM GARONE, called CRIM, lieutenant commander and Security Officer for the ISV Tamerlane, former Norman mercenary recruited during the Pharos affair.

—His paramour, ILEX, lieutenant commander, ship’s engineer. A dryad homunculus recruited on Monmara.

—FELIX KOSKINEN, lieutenant and ship’s helmsman. A young palatine officer.

—ADRIC WHITE, lieutenant and ship’s navigator. A young palatine officer.

—JULIANA PHERRINE, lieutenant and ship’s communications officer. A young palatine officer.

—LUANA OKOYO, lieutenant commander and ship’s chief medical officer. Former Norman mercenary recruited during the Pharos affair.

—TOR VARRO, Chalcenterite scholiast and scientific advisor.

Certain junior officers:

—PETROS OF PALLIOCH, CALLISTA OF ALTRIFAE, and DASCALU VOIVANEU, lesser chiliarchs, the latter of Durantine origin.

—CADE, DORAN, and ORO, centurions under the command of Pallino of Trieste.

—CASDON, a lieutenant in the security department on the Tamerlane.

—MALAG, Siran’s optio and second-in-command.

Certain enlisted men:

—BARO, BREDA, TENNER, GAERT, and VIDAN, soldiers under the command of Pallino of Trieste.

—RENNA, a soldier under the command of Pallino of Trieste.

—ARDI, an aquilarius.

—MARTIN, a batman in service to Hadrian Marlowe on the Tamerlane.

The Irchtani Auxiliary Unit:

BARDA, kithuun and chiliarch of the unit, an older Irchtani.

—His first centurion, UDAX, a brash young warrior.

—His compatriots, GAARAN, IVAR, and LUEN.

—His subordinate, MORAG.

THE AVENTINE DYNASTY & THE ETERNAL CITY

The planet Forum is an oddity: a gas giant, the presence of enormous, membranous creatures called pseudocnidae in the lower atmosphere has led to an enormous amount of nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere. In time, terraforming efforts have made the planet’s air breathable.

Construction on the Eternal City began early in the sixth millennium under the direction of Emperor Raphael IV while the Empire—and Avalon in particular—was still recovering from the devastation caused by Boniface Grael’s brutal interregnum. The City itself comprises several thousand floating barges, each held up by repulsors and monstrous balloons that float atop the denser air at the bottom of the habitable layer of Forum’s atmosphere. There is no place like it in all the universe. Each successive Emperor has added to its splendor until it sprawls across thousands of miles of open sky, all shielded by a series of cloth sails and Royse shields that protect it from the high-altitude winds. Nearly thirty billion people—nobiles, soldiers, servants, and court functionaries—call the city home, including the bulk of the Imperial family and the Emperor himself (with the rest remaining at the old capital on Avalon or else spread throughout the Imperium).

Here follows a list of those members of the Imperial Aventine House mentioned in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

His Imperial Radiance, the EMPEROR WILLIAM THE TWENTY-THIRD OF THE HOUSE AVENT; Firstborn Son of the Earth; Guardian of the Solar System; King of Avalon; Lord Sovereign of the Kingdom of Windsor-in-Exile; Prince Imperator of the Arms of Orion, of Sagittarius, of Perseus, and Centaurus; Magnarch of Orion; Conqueror of Norma; Grand Strategos of the Legions of the Sun; Supreme Lord of the Cities of Forum; North Star of the Constellations of the Blood Palatine; Defender of the Children of Men; and Servant of the Servants of Earth.

—His wife, EMPRESS MARIA AGRIPPINA AVENT, Princess of Avalon, Archduchess of Shakespeare, and Mother of Light.

—Her friend, LADY SIBYLLA, a Jaddian eali noblewoman.

—Their children:

—AURELIAN, Crown Prince and firstborn child.

—IRENE, second-born child.

—FAUSTINUS, thirteenth-born child. Famously said to resemble Hadrian Marlowe.

—MATTHIAS, thirty-fourth-born child.

—RICARD ANCHISES, forty-seventh-born child.

—PHILIP, fifty-second-born child, a notorious gambler and womanizer.

—His servant, IRSHAN, a Jaddian Swordsmaster of the Fifth Circle, in the service of PRINCE PHILIP AVENT, formerly the sulshawar protector of the Jaddian PRINCE CONSTANS DU OLANTE.

—ELEANOR, seventy-seventh-born child.

—ELARA, seventy-eighth-born child.

—SELENE, ninety-ninth-born child, potentially betrothed to Hadrian Marlowe.

—Her handmaids, CYNTHIA, KIRIA, and BAYARA.

—ALEXANDER, one-hundred-seventh-born child and squire to Sir Hadrian Marlowe.

—TITANIA, one-hundred-eighteenth-born child.

—VIVIENNE, one-hundred-twenty-sixth-born child.

—His ancestor, {KING WILLIAM VII WINDSOR}, called WILLIAM THE ADVENT, the God Emperor, Emperor of Avalon and Eden, Last King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King-in-Avalon, and Lord Sovereign of the Kingdom of Windsor-in-Exile. The first Sollan Emperor, deified by the Chantry.

—His predecessor and mother, {TITANIA AUGUSTA III}, whose reign first brought humanity into contact with the Cielcin. Fondly remembered for her hawkish response to the crisis.

The Imperial Council:

—PRINCE HECTOR AVENT, Supreme Chancellor of the Imperial Council, Prince of Aeolus, a brother of the EMPEROR.

—SYLVA, the Chancellor’s secretary.

—LORD AUGUSTIN BOURBON, Minister of War and member of the Lion Party. Son of the disgraced {PRINCE PHILIPPE BOURBON}, who attempted to usurp the rights of his late brother, {PRINCE LOUIS LIV}.

—SIR LORCAN BREATHNACH, patrician, Director of the Legion Intelligence Office.

—SIR FRIEDRICH OBERLIN, a junior functionary in the Legion Intelligence Office and possible member of the Halfmortal mystery cult.

—SIR GRAY RINEHART, a logothete in the Legion Intelligence Office.

—His cousin, PRINCE CHARLES LIV BOURBON, Lord of Verehaut, King of France, Duke of Anjou, Lion of Earth.

—LORD ALLANDER PEAKE, Minister of Justice, a member of the Lion Party.

—LORD PETER HABSBURG, Minister of Works, a member of the Lion Party.

—LADY LEDA ASCANIA, Minister of Public Enlightenment, a member of the Lion Party.

—LORD HAREN BULSARA, Director of the Colonial Office, a member of the Lion Party.

—LADY MIANA HARTNELL, Minister of Welfare.

—LORD NOLAN CORDWAINER, Minister of Revenue.

—LORD CASSIAN POWERS, Special Advisor on the Cielcin Question and Baron of Ashbless. The so-called Avenger of Cressgard, formerly a strategos in the Legions who led humanity to their first victory against the Cielcin in the Second Battle of Cressgard. A member of the Lion Party.

—His Holy Wisdom, VERGILIAN XIII, Synarch of the Holy Terran Chantry, First-Among-Equals of the Synod and the Choir, Grand Prior of Forum, Metropolitan High Priest of the Eternal City, and Speaker for the Vanished Earth.

Unnamed members of the Council:

—The LORD MINISTER OF RITES.

—The DIRECTOR OF THE HOME OFFICE, a member of the Lion Party.

Also in the Eternal City:

The GRAND INQUISITOR, a chief investigator of the Holy Office in Forum system.

—Her subordinate, GEREON, an Inquisitor.

PRINCE MARIUS HOHENZOLLERN, Lord of Swabian Prime, King of the Germans, King of Prussia and Brandenburg. A member of the Lion Party.

—His wife, PRINCESS WILHELMINA HOHENZOLLERN.

CARAX OF ARAMIS, a common legionnaire, veteran of the Battles of Aptucca and Hermonassa.

—His superior officer, {PETER THAILLES}, decurion, killed in the Battle of Hermonassa.

LORD ANDREW CURZON, a minor lord of House Curzon of Dhaka.

MANN, FEDER, CAMBIAS, CARRICO, MASSA, and GANNON, military officers and members of the War Ministry’s offices on Forum.

ON GODODDIN

The planet Gododdin has been of strategic importance to the Sollan Empire’s Colonial Office since humanity first began expanding into the Centaurus Arm of the galaxy. The Gododdin system lies midway between the Sagittarius and Centaurus Arms, in the midst of the great Sullen Gulf—an island on the otherwise decades-long route through empty space to the nearest settled system, making it an important trade hub and military base. For this reason, it has remained under direct control of the Sollan Emperor, who appoints a governor-general to oversee the territory. It is famous for the role it played in the Cielcin Wars, where it was the site of Emperor William XXIII’s last stand against the combined forces of the alien invaders—and the site of Hadrian Marlowe’s great and terrible victory.

Here follows a list of those persons appearing on Gododdin in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

LORD NICHOLAS AVENT, Governor-General of Gododdin, a cousin of the Emperor.

SIR AMALRIC OSMAN, Lord Castellan of Fort Din, supreme commander of the legionary forces in the Gododdin system.

—His Officers:

—RUAN INSEN, Strategos, Commandant of an orbital hospital and deployment station.

—MAHENDRA VERUS, Captain of the ISV Mintaka.

—CORNELIUS ELDAN, Captain of the ISV Pride of Zama.

—WEN ADINA, Captain of the ISV Cyrusene.

—MAGNUS YANEK, Captain of the ISV Androzani.

LODGE, a prisoner.

ON COLCHIS

Colchis is the primary moon of the planet SAG-8813D, colloquially known as Atlas. Human settlement on Colchis goes back to the fifth millennium ISD, following the Hundred Year Terror, in which House Avent was removed from the throne by Boniface the Pretender. In the wake of that civil war, the newly reinstated Emperor Gabriel II ordered the Imperial Archives moved from Avalon to the newly minted colony of Colchis, then a remote military outpost. Ever since, it has been the site of the Imperial Great Library and maintained by the scholiasts. Despite this crucial function, the rest of Colchis has remained relatively undeveloped, its human settlements scattered wildly across the planet’s many little islands. Large-scale settlement of the moon is forbidden by Imperial decree, and those not living in the Library and in the capital city of Aea are mostly descended from those few settlers whose presence on Colchis predated the construction of the Library.

Here follows a list of those persons appearing on Colchis in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

TOR ARRIAN, formerly LORD MARCUS AVENT, a cousin of the Emperor. Primate of Nov Belgaer athenaeum and master of the Imperial Library.

—His daughter, SISTER EKATERIN, an intus and palatine bastard. Serves as the primate’s secretary.

TOR GIBSON OF SYRACUSE, an archivist. Former tutor to House Marlowe of Delos and something of a father figure to Hadrian. Banished from Delos for abetting Hadrian’s escape from his father.

—SISTER CARINA, a junior archivist.

BROTHER VAN, a novice training to be a scholiast.

TOR IMLARROS, a scholiast specializing in engineering tasked with the maintenance of the gates.

{TOR ARAMINI}, ancient architect of the Great Library, the brother of Emperor Gabriel II.

LEM, a fisherman. The eolderman of the village of Racha.

HORIZON, a Mericanii artificial intelligence.

ON BERENIKE

The planet Berenike was first colonized by the Sollan Empire in ISD 13112 with the assistance of the Wong-Hopper Consortium. A tectonically dead world dominated by flatlands and shallow, algae-rich seas, the planet was an important mining colony and transit hub during the early phases of Sollan expansion into the Veil of Marinus, as well as a base of Legion operations during the wars of annexation between the empire and various freeholder territories. Due to its lack of mountains, enormous coriolis storms whip up around the equatorial regions, with winds reaching an excess of two hundred miles per hour quite regularly, forcing the planet’s settlements to be either underground or—in the case of Deira, the planet’s only major city—built into the planet’s largest canyon, the Valles Merguli. The so-called Valley of the Diver follows the track of the Mergo River from its headwaters down to the sea.

Berenike was never given over to a nobile house and remains a holding of the Solar Throne, and as such is ruled by a governor-general appointed by the Imperial Council. It fell from prominence after the conquest of Marinus shifted Imperial focus in the region, but remains a well-trafficked port on the route from the inner empire to the frontier.

LORD TITUS HAUPTMANN, Duke of Andernach and First Strategos of the Legions of Centaurus.

—His counselor, TOR JEANNE, a scholiast.

—LEONID BARTOSZ, Legate of the 437th Centaurine Legion.

—BASSANDER LIN, a captain of the 437th Legion and former Commandant of the Red Company.

—CORRAN, another Legion legate.

BANCROFT, Commandant of the Berenike Orbital Defense Force.

THE CIELCIN AND THEIR ALLIES

Se Vattayu, the homeworld of the Cielcin, has never been found. The Pale are a nomadic race, long since having abandoned any attempts to settle other worlds. Preferring instead to live in migratory clusters of starships that move from system to system in their constant forage for meat and resources, they have never stopped for long. Each fleet is its own nation bound together by blood and absolute subservience to their clan chiefs, the Aeta. For centuries, these countless tribes have assailed human space and the Sollan Empire in particular, pillaging without plan.

The Aeta Syriani Dorayaica was different. A keen student of human culture and strategy, the Aeta altered the face of the Cielcin Wars by making a series of calculated strategic attacks: crippling military production and fuel refineries, attacking supply lines, and making forays far deeper into Imperial space than any Cielcin clan previously. Imperial intelligence suggests the Aeta has gone to war with the other xenobite clans, and that it intends to make itself a king.

Here follows a list of those Cielcin mentioned in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

SYRIANI DORAYAICA, the Prophet of the Cielcin and Prince of Princes. Shiomu. Aeta-ba-Aetane. Blood of Elu. Blessed of Miudanar. Master of the Thirteen Tribes of Eue. Called the Scourge of Earth by the humans. A Cielcin conqueror responsible for the lion’s share of all Cielcin attacks on human and imperial space in the last several centuries, considered the greatest threat to the Empire.

—Its generals, the IEDYR YEMANI:

—IUBALU, the Four-Handed. One of Syriani’s vayadan, its servant and concubine, converted into a half-machine chimera with the aid of MINOS. Commander of the fleet at the Battle of the Beast.

—BAHUDDE, the Giant. One of Syriani’s vayadan, its servant and concubine. Converted into a half-machine chimera with the aid of MINOS. Commander of the vanguard at the Battle of Berenike.

—GORABA, a common soldier.

—Its human allies:

—URBAINE, a MINOS scientist.

—SEVERINE, a MINOS scientist whom Hadrian Marlowe encountered on Arae.

KOLERITAN and HASURUMN, the chieftain princes of two other clans.

{ARANATA OTIOLO}, former Aeta of the Otiolo clan, killed by Hadrian Marlowe at the battle aboard the Demiurge.

—Its child, {NOBUTA OTIOLO}, killed by Hadrian Marlowe at the battle aboard the Demiurge.

—Its servants:

—{CASANTORA TANARAN IAKATO}, a baetan, priest-historian of its clan.

—{ITANA UVANARI AYATOMN}, ichakta, captain of the ill-fated Cielcin expedition to Emesh.

{VENATIMN ULURANI}, former Aeta of the Ulurani clan, killed by Hadrian Marlowe in single combat at the Battle of Aptucca, allowing a nearly bloodless human victory.

{ELU}, a mythical figure. According to legend, the Cielcin High King who first brought its tribe into space.

THE WIDER WORLD

Many persons appearing or referenced in this volume do not belong to any of the groups referenced above. These have been divided by location where possible, including the planets Vorgossos and Delos, the Principalities of Jadd, and the Kingdom of Latarra.

Here follows a list of all those persons mentioned in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account not tied to the above locations:

KHARN SAGARA, called the UNDYING, King of Vorgossos. Presumably the same Kharn Sagara from ancient legend, making him more than fifteen thousand years old. Last seen divided into two bodies.

—His children: {SUZUHA} and {REN}, both clones. Dead; the mind and personality of Kharn Sagara has possessed both of their bodies.

—BRETHREN, a Mericanii artificial intelligence composed of human tissue confined to the underground sea beneath Vorgossos.

—CALVERT, Exalted magus in charge of the cloning program and body farms of Vorgossos.

—His servant, YUME, a golem or android.

LORD ALISTAIR DIOMEDES FRIEDRICH MARLOWE, Archon of Meidua Prefecture and Lord of Devil’s Rest, former Lord Executor of Delos System, and Butcher of Linon. Hadrian’s father.

—His wife, LADY LILIANA KEPHALOS-MARLOWE, a celebrated librettist and filmmaker.

—Their other children:

—CRISPIN ORESTES MARLOWE, presumptive heir to Devil’s Rest.

—SABINE DORYSSA MARLOWE, a daughter born to replace Hadrian after his exile.

—His castellan, SIR FELIX MARTYN, Commander of the House Guard and Master-at-Arms in charge of instructing the Marlowe children.

—His counselor, TOR ALCUIN, a scholiast.

SIR OLORIN MILTA, a Jaddian Maeskolos of the Ninth Circle and the sulshawar protector of LADY KALIMA DI SAYYIPH.

—His lieutenant, JINAN AZHAR, Hadrian Marlowe’s former lover.

CALEN HARENDOTES, the so-called MONARCH of Latarra, an Extrasolarian warlord gathering power in the Veil of Marinus.

EDOUARD ALBÉ, an Imperial intelligence officer.