THE MEIDUA RED COMPANY

FORMALLY CONSTITUTED AS AN Imperial special company after Hadrian Marlowe’s defeat of the Cielcin Prince Aranata Otiolo in ISD 16227, the Meidua Red Company served at the front of more than a dozen major engagements during the Cielcin Wars, from Thagura, to Arae, to Aptucca, to the famous Battle of the Beast on the road to Nemavand and the legendary Battle of Berenike. After a sojourn to the Demarchy of Tavros on a private mission, the Red Company returned to battle several times, most notably at the horrific siege of Senuessa, and later at Sybaris, where Lord Hadrian Marlowe was arrested by the Holy Office of the Inquisition and taken to Thermon for trial. Marlowe’s famous trial was inconclusive, and after twelve years the Chantry simply tried to assassinate the man, but Marlowe survived, and the Emperor—intervening to save the life of his servant—had Hadrian put under guard in a country manor on Nessus, where Lord Marlowe served as advisor to the Magnarch Karol Venantian on all things relating to the Cielcin. Lord Marlowe remained on Nessus until ISD 17006, when an attack on the fuelworks at Eikana prompted the Emperor to order the Red Company back into combat for the first time in over century.

Here follows a list of those members of the Red Company mentioned in this 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, afflicted by an Extrasolarian mind virus.

—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.

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 rests 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.

LEON, an ensign newly assigned to the Red Company.

GALBA, OTHO, BARO, and GARAN, enlisted men.

{UDAX OF JUDECCA}, an Irchtani xenobite and First Centurion of the Irchtani Auxiliary Unit attached to the Red Company, killed at the Battle of Berenike.

—His commander, BARDA OF JUDECCA.

Dating back to the House of Windsor and Earth’s Golden Age, the Aventine Dynasty has ruled over the Sollan Empire and mankind since the defeat of the Mericanii in antiquity. The reigning Emperor of Lord Marlowe’s day, William XXIII, took the throne as a young man in ISD 15826 after the passing of his mother, the Empress Titania Augusta, and ruled for an unprecedented thousand-year reign—spending much of his time in transit around the Imperium, unlike most of his predecessors. He began one such tour in ISD 16989, sailing with a Legion fleet from Forum to Gododdin to Nessus, and then in a circuit about the Centaurine provinces to assess the damage dealt by Cielcin invasions and the general war-readiness of the provinces. This tour required the uprooting of much of the Imperial court, as well as an escort of several Martian Legions.

Here follows a list of those members of the Imperial Court mentioned in this 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.

—AURELIAN, Crown Prince and firstborn child.

—SELENE, ninety-ninth-born child, potentially betrothed to HADRIAN MARLOWE.

—ALEXANDER, one hundred seventh–born child and former squire to Sir HADRIAN MARLOWE.

—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.

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

—LORD RAND MAHIDOL, Minister of War, a member of the Lion Party.

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

—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.

—The LORD MINISTER OF RITES.

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

{LORD AUGUSTIN BOURBON}, former Minister of War and member of the Lion Party. Son of the late Prince Philippe Bourbon. Killed on HADRIAN MARLOWE’s orders in retribution for his role in a failed attempt to assassinate Lord MARLOWE.

—His ally, SIR LORCAN BREATHNACH, former Director of the Legion Intelligence Office. Convicted for conspiracy to murder HADRIAN MARLOWE and sentenced to life on the prison planet Belusha.

LEONORA, an Archprior of the Holy Terran Chantry. The EMPEROR’s personal confessor.

NICEPHORUS, the EMPEROR’s butler, an androgyn homunculus.

There are thousands of legions constituted under the Imperial banner, broadly divided by geography, with the various Perseid, Orionid, Sagittarine, and Centaurine Legions comprising the bulk of the force, in addition to the Norman Legions (greatly reduced in number due to the fighting with the Cielcin) and the Martian Legions tasked with the protection of Forum, Avalon, and the various other estates of the Aventine House itself. The smallest legion may number as few as thirty thousand men—naval officers, flight crewmen, and troopers—or as many as three hundred thousand. These legions are loyal to the Emperor, and are composed primarily of recruits raised on direct Imperial holdings (those with Governor-Generals and not under the auspices of a feudal lord), although in wartime levies have been extracted from feudal demesnes. The Legions are not to be confused with the private armies of said lords, who are not answerable to the Emperor in themselves.

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

{LORD TITUS HAUPTMANN}, Duke of Andernach and former First Strategos of the Legions of Centaurus, killed in action at the Battle of Berenike.

SIR LEONID BARTOSZ, strategos and military advisor to the EMPEROR. Former legate of the 437th Centaurine Legion.

SENDHIL MASSA, Legate of the 409th Centaurine Legion.

BASSANDER LIN, a tribune in the 409th Centaurine Legion and captain of the ISV Tempest, formerly attached to the 437th Legion. A longtime associate of HADRIAN MARLOWE, present at his death in the battle against ARANATA OTIOLO.

—His former commander, {DAME RAINE SMYTHE}, a tribune of the 437th Centaurine Legion, killed in action by Prince ARANATA OTIOLO.

By the dawn of the seventeenth millennium ISD, the Sollan Empire stretched across much of four of the galaxy’s spiral arms, half a billion habitable worlds, and billions of airless moons and station outposts. Comprising innumerable ethnic groups, countless religions, hundreds of thousands of nobile families—palatine and patrician—and tens of millions of soldiers, its total population cannot be counted, but the best estimates put the number at more than one quintillion human souls.

Founded approximately two thousand years after the development of space travel, the Sollan Empire began when William, King of Avalon, defeated the last bastion of the Mericanii Empire at Earth. Crowning himself Emperor of Man on the Aventine Hill in Rome, William Windsor launched the greatest dynasty in human history. The renamed Aventine House has ruled for sixteen thousand years in line unbroken, maintaining its control of the lesser nobility through a careful breeding program that has wrested reproductive control from the nobile houses and placed it in the hands of the Imperial Office. His line and Empire have endured several threats throughout its long history, none greater than the invasion of the Cielcin.

Here follows a list of those people appearing in various settings throughout the Sollan Empire mentioned in this volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

ON NESSUS:

Conquered by the Sollan Empire late in the ninth millennium, the planet Nessus has remained under the direct control of the Imperial House through the person of the Magnarch, an appointed representative of the Emperor. A pastoral world, Nessus was originally settled by the ancestors of the Normans, among them a devout Cid Arthurian community, who trained warrior monks in the highlands. Since falling into Imperial hands, it has been an agricultural and industrial center, producing starships and provisions, as well as a training ground for legionnaires in the region. Through Nessus and the Magnarch of Centaurus, the Emperor has exerted his control over the far provinces, and even pressed into the Norman Expanse, but that control has for centuries been jeopardized by the arrival of the Cielcin.

LORD KAROL MARCUS VENANTIAN, Magnarch of the Centaurine Provinces, Viceroy of Alicante Province, Governor-General of Nessus, Archon of Sananne Prefecture, appointed by His Radiance, the EMPEROR.

—SIR ANDERS LYNCH, Commandant of Alden Station in orbit above Nessus.

—SIR DAVETH KARTZINEL, Commandant of Fort Horn on Nessus.

ANJU, chief of HADRIAN MARLOWE’s domestic staff at Maddalo House.

ON COLCHIS:

The primary moon of the planet SAG-8813D, called Atlas by the locals, Colchis was settled in the fifth millennium ISD, then the furthest settled world from Earth. Following the Hundred Year Terror of Boniface Grael, Emperor Gabriel II ordered the Imperial Archives moved from Avalon for safekeeping. Despite this critical function, Colchis is largely underdeveloped, with the majority of its population—primarily members of the Legions and Imperial civil service—living in the capital city of Aea. The remaining locals are primarily fisherfolk descended from the original colonists.

LORD VELAN DORR, Governor-General of Colchis, an Imperial appointee.

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

{SIRAN OF EMESH}, formerly a companion of HADRIAN MARLOWE, one of his myrmidon companions. Retired to Colchis. First Keeper of Thessa. Deceased.

—Her husband, {LEM OF COLCHIS}, once eolderman of the village of Racha, a native Sevrastene.

—His former apprentice, EJAZ, an elderly fisherman.

—{ELARA OF COLCHIS}, Second Keeper of Thessa, named for ELARA OF EMESH.

—{AMARTA OF COLCHIS}, Third Keeper of Thessa.

—{BAGOS OF COLCHIS}, Fourth Keeper of Thessa.

—His children:

—IMRAH OF COLCHIS, Fifth Keeper of Thessa.

—ALVAR OF COLCHIS.

—Their cousin, GINOH.

TOR GIBSON OF SYRACUSE, a scholiast. 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.

According to this account and their own legends, the Cielcin were delivered from their homeworld, Se Vattayu, to the planet Eue by the High King, Elu, who with its adherents, the thirteen Aeta, constituted a kind of Cielcin Empire on the far side of the galaxy. After Elu’s death, the various Aeta turned on one another, their armies fracturing into tribes. Each Aeta, or clan-chief, could at one time trace its lineage by blood or conquest back to one of the original thirteen. By Hadrian’s day, those thirteen had fractured to more than a thousand different clans, each calling home a fleet of interstellar ships, some large as moons, and all distributed across the galactic volume in the Norman Expanse and the farther regions beyond the galactic core.

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

SYRIANI DORAYAICA, the Prophet of the Cielcin and Prince of Princes. Shiomu. Aeta-ba-Aetane and Aeta-Prince of the Itani Dorayaica. Supreme Ruler of Dharan-Tun. Blood of Elu. Blessed of Miudanar. Master of the Thirteen Tribes of Eue. Called the Scourge of Earth by the humans.

—Its Generals, the IEDYR YEMANI, or White Hand:

—VATI INAMNA, the First Sword. Closest companion of the Prophet. One of SYRIANI’s vayadan, its servant and concubine. Converted into a half-machine chimera with the aid of MINOS. Chief Admiral of the Prophet’s forces.

—Its lieutenant, GORRE.

—HUSHANSA, the Many-Handed. One of SYRIANI’s vayadan, its servant and concubine. Converted into a half-machine chimera with the aid of MINOS. Capable of occupying several bodies at once.

—TEYANU, the Unbreakable. One of SYRIANI’s vayadan, its servant and concubine. Converted into a half-machine chimera with the aid of MINOS.

—AULAMN, the Wings of Despair. One of SYRIANI’s vayadan, its servant and concubine. Converted into a half-machine chimera with the aid of MINOS.

—{IUBALU}, the Four-Handed. One of SYRIANI’s vayadan, its servant and concubine. Converted into a half-machine chimera with the aid of MINOS. Slain 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. Slain at the Battle of Berenike.

—Its slave, GURANA, a common soldier.

—UGIN ATTAVAISA, the Blue. Aeta-Prince of the Itani Attavaisa. Commander of the fleet at the Battle of Perfugium.

—GURIMA PELEDANU, Aeta-Prince of the Itani Peledanu, Lord of the Fiftieth Branching of the Line of Imnun. Commander of the Fleet at the Battle of Ganelon.

—AVARRANA IAMNDAINA, Aeta-Prince of the Itani Iamndaina, an opponent of DORAYAICA.

—ELENTANI HASURUMN, Aeta-Prince of the Itani Hasurumn, an opponent of DORAYAICA.

—AJIMMA, Lord of the Seventeenth Branching of the Line of ZAHAKA, formerly vayadan to UTAIHARO. An opponent of DORAYAICA.

—RAIAZU and TUANOLO, Lords of the Seventeenth Branching of the Line of ZAHAKA, both formerly vayadan to UTAIHARO.

—ONASIRA, a prince from far away. Noted for raiding the hakurani beyond the core.

—MUZUGARA, once battled HADRIAN MARLOWE at the Battle of Thagura.

—VANAHITA, an opponent of DORAYAICA.

—KOLERITAN, ELUGINORE, and NETANEBO.

HEIUN ORALO, Aeta-Prince of the Itani Oralo, Lord of the Thirty-First Branching of the Line of Dumann. Principle Cielcin chief of the approximately forty to reject DORAYAICA’s summons to the Aetavanni on Eue. An opponent of DORAYAICA.

—Its fellow exiles, BALAGARIMN, KUTUANU, and LOREGANWA, each the chiefs of their own clans. Opponents of DORAYAICA.

{ARANATA OTIOLO}, Viudihom, Aeta-Prince of the Itani Otiolo, Lord of the Seventeenth Branching of the Line of ZAHAKA. Slayer of and former vayadan to UTAIHARO. Once supreme ruler of the worldship Bahali imnal Akura. Killed by HADRIAN MARLOWE in the battle aboard the Demiurge.

—Its child, {NOBUTA OTIOLO}, killed by HADRIAN MARLOWE in the battle aboard the Demiurge.

—Its former master, {UMNA UTAIHARO}, last scion of the Line of UTAIHARO, a branch of the Line of ZAHAKA.

—{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 brought its tribe through space to the planet Eue. Blessed of MIUDANAR.

—Its mate, {AVARRA}, sacrificed to MIUDANAR according to Cielcin legend.

—Their offspring, {UMNA}, the First Aeta.

—Its followers, {DUMANN}, {IMNUN}, {ZAHAKA}, and {INUMGALU}, among the first Aeta, and the progenitors of various lines of Cielcin succession.

{ARAXAIKA}, the Almost-Blessed, another mythical figure. Brought an end to the Kinslaying, a civil war between the Cielcin clans attested to in this account. Failed to unite the tribes.

For as long as the Sollan Empire has existed, there have been those eager to escape it. Tracing their descent back to survivors of the Mericanii and of the Mandari corporate clans, the Extrasolarians are not truly a people. The term is rather an umbrella capturing innumerable disparate factions dwelling in the spaces between the stars, on asteroids and rogue planets, on black-site stations and on huge migratory starships called Sojourners. They may be part of microstates or planetary kingdoms, or part of no state at all, many being anarchists and economic adventurers. They are united only in their opposition to the Sollan Empire and in their willingness to use technologies forbidden by the Chantry.

Multiple factions and agencies among the Extras are referenced in Lord Marlowe’s account; here follows a list of those described:

ON VORGOSSOS:

According to legend, the planet Vorgossos was settled in ancient times by the ancestors of the Extrasolarians fleeing the early Empire. Lord Marlowe’s account indicates that the settlement of the planet may go back even further, and that the city he visited may have been an outpost of the Mericanii Empire during the Foundation War. What is more, Marlowe’s account insists on there being some truth to the legend of Kharn Sagara, insisting that the ancient warlord found a manner of immortality by relying on abandoned Mericanii technology and has ruled the planet since antiquity, providing a hideaway for pirates, mercenaries, and for all manner of unsavory activity, notably the black-market genetics and cybernetics trades.

KHARN SAGARA, called the UNDYING, King of Vorgossos. Presumably the same Kharn Sagara from ancient legend, a man 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 them.

—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.

—YUME, a golem or android.

OF MINOS:

Virtually no reference to an Extrasolarian organization called MINOS exists in the Imperial record outside Lord Marlowe’s account, casting some doubt as to whether or not they are another of his inventions. It is the case that the Cielcin Prince Syriani Dorayaica contracted various Extrasolarian agencies during the wars to construct equipment and soldiers for its armies, but Marlowe’s claims of an order of magi capable of traveling between bodies and across light-years cannot be corroborated.

The Elect-Masters of MINOS, comprising several magi, their total number unknown:

—URBAINE, Elect-Master of MINOS, nominally an advisor to Prince SYRIANI DORAYAICA. Infected VALKA ONDERRA with a dangerous mind virus at the Battle of Berenike.

—SEVERINE, Elect-Master of MINOS, nominally an advisor to Prince SYRIANI DORAYAICA. Encountered HADRIAN MARLOWE at the Battle of Arae.

—IOVAN, Elect-Master of MINOS, serving as an agent among the Lothrians, disguised as the man in the NINTH CHAIR.

The origins of the Lothrian Commonwealth are little understood. Believed to have been settled by Extrasolarians in the late fifth or early sixth millennium, the planet Padmurak has always been an inhospitable place. Some historians believe the settlement goes back even further, that the Lothrians can trace their descent to Mericanii refugees fleeing the Foundation War, but this has never been successfully demonstrated. A hermit state for much of its early existence, the teachings of the Lothriad book of laws and its partisans certainly dates back to the sixth millennium, but it wasn’t until the tenth millennium that the Lothrians began to stir and expand from beyond their isolated star cluster in the Upper Sagittarius. Radically totalitarian and collectivist, the Lothrian language has abolished all means of personal reference in an effort to fundamentally alter the nature of human society, and if Lord Marlowe’s account is to be believed, human biology as well. They have been stalwart opponents of both the Sollan Empire and the Jaddian Principalities on the galactic stage, especially with regard to territory in the Upper Perseus near the outer rim.

Here follows a list of those members of the Lothrian Commonwealth mentioned in this volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

THE LOTHRIAD, the central legal text of the Lothrian Commonwealth, comprising two volumes: the first containing the laws of the Commonwealth, the second a collection of all approved words and phrases, constantly revised. Nominally, the text is the supreme authority in the Lothrian state.

—The Lothrian Grand Conclave, comprising thirty-four ministers, called CHAIRS:

—FIRST CHAIR, the nominal head of the Conclave.

—THIRD CHAIR.

—SIXTH CHAIR.

—NINTH CHAIR, the leader of a radical pro-Lothriad faction on the Conclave. In reality the Extrasolarian magus IOVAN, an Elect-Master of MINOS.

—His ally, THIRTEENTH CHAIR, another MINOS plant.

—SEVENTEENTH CHAIR, a scholiast-trained man named LORTH TALLEG, head of the more moderate wing of the Conclave.

—TWENTY-FIFTH CHAIR.

LORD DAMON ARGYRIS, Chief Consul and Director of the Sollan Imperial Consulate on Padmurak, a member of House Argyrisof Anxia.

CARRY, a scavenger and boatman dwelling in the tunnels beneath Vedatharad.

—His child, LOOKER, an androgyn. One of the Lothrian new men.

MAGDA, a physician and Museum Catholic convert.

—Her mentor, {FATHER DIAS}, a Museum Catholic priest and missionary, dead for several years.

A small number of the persons mentioned in Lord Marlowe’s account are difficult to group with the others due to their remoteness from the events he describes.

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

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, {LILIANA KEPHALOS-MARLOWE}, a celebrated librettist and filmmaker, deceased.

—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.

EDOUARD ALBÉ, an Imperial intelligence officer.

Lord Marlowe’s account makes frequent references to entities not attested to by science or the historical record. These may be broadly divided into two groups: the Quiet, previously described as an extinct race of xenobites of great antiquity, and the Watchers, initially assumed by Lord Marlowe to be the pagan idols of the Cielcin people. Lord Marlowe’s account claims both these groups are real, and that their reality is common knowledge among the Cielcin. It is impossible—from studies of Cielcin writings and artifacts—to conclude that both the Quiet and Watchers are anything but religious fetishes promulgated by the Cielcin faith. That there are the ruins of many ancient races across the galaxy is not disputed in athenaeum. The ruins on Emesh, for instance, exist as Lord Marlowe describes. That these ruins are related to sites on other worlds—such as the Marching Towers of Sadal Suud—has never been corroborated by scholiast research, though I grant this may be the result of Chantry interference in our work. The so-called Quiet hypothesis has existed for thousands of years, but cannot be examined due to Inquisition censors and oversight of our colleges. In any case, Lord Marlowe’s claims that the Quiet is a singular entity, and that the ruins on these worlds are anti-entropic structures traveling backward through time, likewise cannot be corroborated. Further investigation is needed.

As for the Watchers, the names of these various deities do appear in numerous Cielcin sources captured during the war, but no artifacts have been positively identified as confirming the existence of these creatures. The planet Eue, attested to in this account, has—to the knowledge of the Imperial Library—never been located, nor the bones of Miudanar found. These Watchers are therefore, in the opinion of the translator, wholly fictional, and Marlowe’s account is to be regarded as highly fanciful and mythologized. Nevertheless, their names and roles are recorded here:

THE QUIET, called UTANNASH, the LIAR, by the Cielcin, believed by them to be the author of the universe itself and eternal enemy of the Watchers. An entity of pure will aligned with humanity, protector of HADRIAN MARLOWE. Previously assumed to be an extinct species of ancient xenobites.

MIUDANAR, the DREAMER, chief god of the Cielcin pantheon, a massive one-eyed serpent with many arms, once worshiped by the Enar. Gave technology to the Cielcin and brought Elu to Eue. Apparently dead.

—IAQARAM, who it is said hears all things. Occupies a place of honor in Cielcin worship second only to dead MIUDANAR.

—SHAMAZHA, Father of Giants.

—NAZHTENAH, PTHAMARU, SHETEBO, and USATHLAM, of whom little is known.