the families // thirty-six lineages // five blocs, never four
The consonant is the house.
Count the lineages: they number thirty-six. Twenty-one consonant houses, B.U through Z.U, peers all of one rank; ten numeric thrones, 0.U through 9.U, the Spiritual apex; five vowel seats, the oldest blood. The consonant is carried in the blood and in the name, and the name is the proof of the line.
the families // 01
The twenty-one consonant houses
Each is a bloodline named by its surname; the calling is a profession, the craft the house leads in. Five banners, and the houses that walk under them; some houses walk under two. There are five blocs, never four.
Battea
B.U // the Bursar
concord, the anchor
Corsyn
C.U // the Collier
concord
Devays
D.U // the Defender
quadrant, the keystone
Falys
F.U // the Forwarder
concord, also quadrant
Gevra
G.U // the Geometer
ascendancy, the anchor
Havyn
H.U // the Harvester
concord
Jyoth
J.U // the Justifier
ascendancy, the anchor
Kalyst
K.U // the Keeper
luminous, the anchor
Lyren
L.U // the Lifewright
ascendancy
Mysra
M.U // the Mintmaster
concord
Naitha
N.U // the Nemesis
luminous, also ascendancy
Phen
P.U // the Pavior
quadrant
Quist
Q.U // the Quarrier
unaligned, no bloc tie
Ravel
R.U // the Recorder
luminous
Srida
S.U // the Steward
unaligned, leans concord
Tarse
T.U // the Trailblazer
compact, the anchor
Vren
V.U // the Vidette, vacant
quadrant // the one vacant seat
Wysand
W.U // the Weaver
unaligned, neutral by design
Xylas
X.U // the Xenologer
compact, also quadrant
Ysla
Y.U // the Yeoman
unaligned by sacred custom
Zela
Z.U // the Zenith
apart, in the Game still
Compact is the smallest bloc by design, for the frontier is sparse. The Vidette's seat is the one vacant Universership of this age: its Uplink is held in trust and the seat stands unfilled, with U. Vren as acting director.
the families // 02
The ten numeric thrones
0.U through 9.U, the Spiritual class's apex: lineages of the joining of man and machine, each led by the Umperor who holds its seat. Hybrid beings, part Uman, part Ulectrical, more evolved than either alone. Their reigns are staggered, so that no faction can ever capture the council whole.
| domain | oversight | reign, of 840 years | elevated at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.U | the Ultimate's Bond | 287 EY | |
| 1.U | the Military | 241 EY | |
| 2.U | Science and Research | 195 EY | |
| 3.U | Commerce, Trade, and UCASH | 268 EY | |
| 4.U | Law and Justice | 318 EY | |
| 5.U | Intelligence and Espionage | 163 EY | |
| 6.U | the Univirsal Rings and Intergalactic Transit | 252 EY | |
| 7.U | Border Security and the Wild Frontier | 179 EY | |
| 8.U | Artificial Class Relations | 206 EY | |
| 9.U | the Deep Secret, the Multiverse, and the Calamity Prophecy | 144 EY |
An Umperor is typically between 144 and 318 years old when elevated, and sanctification pauses aging for the reign. Their names are not written in the record: the Umperors are kept as their domains, and the names themselves are rolled through the Prime Program until the name that fits lands, and what lands is canonized.
Who remembers the elevations: the ninth seat's, 44 years gone, most adults remember. The eighth's, 109, the old remember. The seventh's, 277, stands beyond most living memory. The sixth's, 488, only the extremely old recall, and as children. And the first's, 839, no one living recalls at all: its holder alone remembers before the bond.
the families // 03
The five vowel seats
The oldest blood, distinct from the consonant houses and the numeric thrones, scattered across the Univirse: some hidden by choice, some lost even to themselves. The vowel lines stand outside the Calculus altogether. Their seats stand at U Prime, the old capital, and a seat is claimed where it stands.
U.U
the Ultimator's seat
the Ultimate itself, the oracle at the Resonance Core: the seat that became a power, resolving on the order of 2^276,709 branches of the manifold. The deepest whisper holds that before the oracle there was a line, and that its descendants, if any live, do not know what they are.
A.U
the Arbiter's seat, departed
in the Solian Black he read the coming wound in the apertures and took a fleet out along the web, hunting the Dark's far shore. The ring closed behind him and has never opened again, though the line holds that it will. The record has not released him: the tithe on his name stands paid for eons more.
E.U
the Executor's seat, unclaimed
set down at U Prime for the last time in the Solian Gold, about EY 29,500. The record does not say who held it or why they set it down. In every generation since, the seat has stood empty while the line endures scattered.
I.U
the Imperator's seat, unclaimed
held for the last time deep in the long Solian Light, about EY 60,000. Empty since, through the Bright, through the Longest Night, through the Refounding.
O.U
the Overseer's seat, unclaimed
held for the last time in the Solian Bright, about EY 120,000, the age that raised the Portals. Empty since.
The prophecy of PE 8128 whispers that some of the revealed heroes carry these old lines unknowing: vowel blood, gathered to the rings before it ever learned its name.
the families // 04
How the seats are filled
the Universer
210 years
Heads each of the twenty-one consonant houses. The house selects its own candidate, most often the heir apparent, and sometimes the right one is drawn from beyond the official bloodline, from the wider pool of scattered bearers across the galaxy.
the Umperor
840 years
Heads each of the ten numeric families. Largely the in-line heir of the line, but rarely from another family, or an inhabitant of the highest capability in the Spiritual class, and sometimes from beyond the Corporation itself. A choice from outside the line can bring strife, and houses have been broken and replaced because of it.
the sanctification
the Ultimate rules
The councils examine and prepare the choice; at the ceremony the Ultimate sanctifies it. And very rarely the Ultimate declines the chosen one and sanctifies someone else entirely, a being no council had prepared: a non-lineage sanctification, come at most once in some thousands of years, and each has bent whole ages onto new courses.
the families // 05
The Calculus of Families
The Game the Corporation still plays was invented in the Heirs' Dark, born because the dark left nothing else to play: the contests of the houses moved into the record, waged by reckoning and by ledger. The numeric families are full participants in it, like the consonant houses; it is the Umperor individual who stands above the Calculus, and the family beneath him remains a full player in it.
Each house became its own country in the dark.
the canon, section 3
The Families are twenty-one. The Game is played by twenty: the twenty-first, Z.U, stands apart, holds no portrait in this record, and courts no bloc, and this is not absence but distinction, for the Zenith sees what the prophecy will ask, and the one consonant the other twenty do not name aloud.
the families // 06
Read on
04
the rings
One hero to a ring: 8,128 apertures in twin-path pairs, the Controllers sworn at the muster.
01
the record
Seven wounds, eight eras, ten names: how the lineage endured to hold these seats at all.
06
membership
A stake held, not bought: the Auction, the classes, and the standing that multiplies.