Parren

parren characters are featured in Kantovan Vault, Defiance, Croma Venture and Rando Splicer

Physiology[]

humanoid
cognitive functions: all parren have extreme mental discipline and self-control (KV-21)
all parren capable of psychological phase focus and flux
no body fat
Wide indigo eyes, flared cheekbones, slitted nostrils (KV-1, Aristan)
smaller than humans, slighter build, but fierce
most parren (in House Harmony, anyway) have indigo blue eyes
hairless, parren prefer baldness
more humanoid than tavalai and kuhsi:

It was literally a revelation to see how closely the parren body mirrored the human, save for longer arms, narrower waist and that strange, flat-topped head with the narrow jaw and wide cheekbones. Tavalai were also humanoid, to use the chauvinistic term, but far less-so than this, and even kuhsi had those double-articulated ankle-joints and short, padded feet for extra spring. Seeing Milek in civvies was almost enough for Dale to reconsider his disdain of those crazy conspiracy-cultists who insisted that all humanoid aliens had a common ancestor whose seed had been spread about the galaxy by the Ancients many millions of years ago...(KV-21)

Phase Flux[]

Explained in Kantovan Vault ch 11

Parren civilisation was dominated by the fear of changing moods
- parren called it a ‘phase’
”It (psychological phase) is fundamental to their daily lives, and they’ve fought wars over states-of-mind as humans have fought wars over political ideology.” (KV-2)
There were five primary parren phases, and it was no accident that there were also five primary parren Houses, one for each:
- Acquisitive, Creative, Enquiry, Fortitude, Harmony
Each phase was a personality, and most parren switched personalities several times in a life
Switching between phases was called a troidna, meaning a ‘flux’
When a parren switched phases, they moved from one of the great parren Houses to another.
When common-folk fluxed, it caused little concern.
When great leaders fluxed, the foundations of great institutions rattled.
And when huge numbers of parren all switched together at the same time, in response to some calamitous event…(KV-11)

Five Houses[]

House Harmony, House Creative, House Enquiry, House Fortitude, and House Acquisitive. There were five primary parren phases, and it was no accident that there were also five primary parren Houses, one for each. (KV-11)

Each house is subdivided into various denominations. For example, House Harmony denominations include Domesh, Tookrah, Incefhad, ancient obsolete Tahrae, etc etc
“Today the dominant House is House Fortitude. House Enquiry rules second, then House Harmony. (KV-2)
each house has 15-20 denominations (D-7). The Domesh denomination of House Harmony has long been the most despised and feared because of its alliance with drysine machine race 25,000 years ago
mass psychological flux can bring down the House

Dress[]

The Domesh wear black robes and hoods
Incefhad wear white robes
others in full color, big head pieces, etc:

A row of robed figures emerged from each doorway, yet these were not the black and austere robes of Aristan’s kind. These were dazzling, red and gold and blue, their hems sweeping the black-scarred pad surface. Jewellery gleamed on tanned parren arms and fingers, and indigo eyes fixed on Lisbeth beneath headdress and crests of gold and other, precious decoration. (KV-11)

Parren-Drysine Alliance and Divorce[]

25,000 years ago, Machine-race factions were at war, drysine vs deepynine
Drakhil, head of House Harmony and leader of the Tahrae denomination, convinced other parren house leaders to ally with the drysine faction, because deepynines seemed far worse

In the Age of the Machines, House Harmony was dominant. It was the philosophy of harmony that lead the great Harmony leaders of the day to seek harmonious relations with the dominant AI-factions. The machines were not always interested, but the drysine faction was. They created the drysine-parren alliance, and drysine and parren fought side by side in the Great Machine War against the deepynines. (KV-2)

Parren and drysine allies wiped out the vicious deepynines (only one survived in hiding)

Then the parren betrayed their drysine allies, whose numbers were greatly diminished after battling deepynines. Only the Tahrae, Drakhil’s denomination, stayed true:

“When the final victory came, a parren named Drakhil was the leader of House Harmony. The other parren houses were persuaded by other species, particularly the Chah'nas and the Tavalai, to turn on their drysine masters following their terrible casualties against the deepynines. All turned, save for one faction of House Harmony —that faction led by Drakhil. The Tahrae, they were called." (KV-2)

The Fall of the Tahrae Denomination

“Drakhil was the leader of House Harmony in the last great wars of the Machine Age. He sided his faction, the Tahrae, with the drysines against the deepynines, and fought against his own people and all other organics for the continued supremacy of the machines. For this, parren history has never forgiven him, nor his House. He is the ultimate traitor to the opposing parren Houses and denominations. (KV-2)

“These relics of the Tahrae, who sided with the machines to end the lives of billions of their own people? You lost nearly ten billion in the destruction of Earth. The parren lost nearly forty! Forty billion! Entire worlds turned to ashes! Systems in ruins! And you seek to bring it back!” (KV-33)

Drakhil’s Legacy

Drysines in defeat trusted Drakhil with their data core, for safekeeping for future use

“The Drakhil I knew was a scholarly man...a most reluctant warrior who saw two paths before his people, and liked neither. Drakhil believed that his people owed the drysines a debt, and he disliked and distrusted aliens more than he disliked the drysines. We know that Drakhil was granted the drysine data core that we seek by the last drysine command, twenty five thousand years ago, before the last fall of the Drysine Empire. (KV-2)

Drakhil’s diary, with information on the drysine data core, was found in Tonchalda System, which belonged to parren House Harmony / Tahrae denomination about 25,000 years ago. Legendary tavalai scholar Cheliratanga found Drakhil’s diary — a 25-stamp-job stored in the Kantovan Vault (KV-8)

The Fall of Fortitude[]

Fortitude concealed their shameful acts during historic machine wars
An ancient city was recently uncovered beneath House Fortitude temple in Shonedene, on planet Naraya, revealing a dark secret 25,000 years old (CV-18)
House Fortitude had no right to judge Drakhil, or the Tahrae denomination

"Fortitude was rocked, shaken to its core. In this system alone, parren were phasing in their millions. Beyond this system, as starships carried video and other news to neighbouring systems and across all parren space, likely hundreds of millions more. Perhaps billions. Not all were phasing to House Harmony —- the flux was not so convenient for the politically disruptive as that. But mostly they were abandoning House Fortitude en masse as the suppositions that had once underpinned the greatest of parren houses for the last twenty five thousand years fled away." (CV-22)

Deepynine queen Nia was last seen in parren space: “She was last sighted leading the defence of Neth System, which is now known as Centala, on the far edge of where parren space adjoins barabo space.” (RS-8)

Lisbeth Debogande[]

At first she served variously on Phoenix. Then in book 3 Kantovan Vault she met the parren leader of House Harmony’s Domesh denomination, Aristan. In book 4 she becomes Special Advisor to Gesul of Domesh-House Harmony. She’s an engineer, a shuttle co-pilot, and she speaks fluent porgesh. She understands parren culture: house-denomination-phase - flux. Her brother is Erik Debogande. Her parren security and other staff are Timoshene, Semaya, Lior, Neyafa, Shonteel, Hosinth, Rejelan, Toriel, Alarin. (some die) Her human bodyguard among the parren is Hiro

Characters[]

HOUSE HARMONY in alpha order:

Aristan - Head of the Domesh denomination of House Harmony
Drakhil - long-dead leader who collaborated with the drysines 25,000 years ago (see Machine-race)
- in Machine Age, Head of House Harmony and head of the Tahrae denomination. He knew Styx
Gesul of the Domesh - Domesh denomination; second to Aristan, but ideological differences:

Your brother, Lisbeth Debogande, may have found the truth. About the Domesh, about Drakhil, about the drysines even. Some of us welcome truth. Others do not. I will rescue this truth, and with it, the soul of the Domesh, and the true soul of House Harmony." (D-8)

Golev — a Domesh acolyte, one of Aristan’s most trusted, with his partner Milek (KV)
Juneso, Ambassador, in Tookrah Denomination, the Domesh denomination’s biggest rivals in House Harmony. He’s on parren warship Coroset.
"Juneso's scared the crona are winning," Skah said bluntly. "They're not supposed to win. Strong crona are a threat to parren space. Juneso's scared he's going to be blaned for it."
(QD-CQ)
Lior — bodyguard, works for Gesul protecting Lisbeth Debogande
Milek - a Domesh acolyte (KV), LT Dale's "Mystery Boy" (KV-25)
Orun - Lisbeth’s Chief of Communications (CV)
Rehnar - leader of Incefahd denomination House Harmony after Tobenrah died defending Defiance, when Incefahd ruled all of House Harmony. He tried to kill Gesul of Domesh denomination / Harmony (CV-5)
Semaya - bodyguard assassin to Lisbeth, serving Gesul. She later becomes Lisbeth’s Chief of Staff. Lisbeth’s staff includes Orun, Risa, Dolumev, and Timoshene as bodyguard. As Togreth, Semaya serves all of House Harmony, not only Domesh denomination, with expertise in history.

Like all high-class parren, Semaya was impossibly graceful. Her robes were light and silken, of subtle blues and greens, and tasteful jewellery on her wrists and ankles. Unlike the Domesh of this temple, she did not wear black, and made no attempt to cover her appearance. Slender and utterly hairless, Lisbeth thought her very beautiful, in that ethereal, alien way of her people.” (KV 13)

Timoshene - Lisbeth’s Tokara, charged to guard her and possibly kill her. He serves Gesul
Tobenrah - leader of Incefahd denomination, Harmony's largest denomination, thus ruler of House Harmony, too (see Kantovan Vault and Defiance)
- succeeded by Rehnar (see Croma Venture)

HOUSE AQUISITIVE, 25,000 years ago:

Jin Danah, head of House Acquisitive, betrayed drysine allies, coveting their technology, etc. (D-31)
“He (Jin Danah) was deposed by Molary, of a rival denomination of House Acquisitive, followed by war between House Acquisitive and House Fortitude, then further instability, until Sheray arose as leader of House Acquisitive from a new denomination, and a period of stability as ruler of all the Parren Empire” (D-31)

HOUSE FORTITUDE:

Alired - Fortitude’s ambassador to Defiance. A hard-edged woman (CV)
Sordashan - Head of House Fortitude (CV)