Factions in Revelation Space
Encyclopedia
This is a list of fiction
al factions in Revelation Space. The human
factions
are found in the Revelation Space
universe
, the setting for a series of stories and novels by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds
.
in the early 22nd century with the uses of technology in augmenting consciousness prompted her to begin experimenting with allowing her subject's implants to communicate — triggering the event known as the Transenlightenment, and the beginnings of the Mother Nest and of the Conjoiners. After losing a war with the remainder of humanity, the first Conjoiners later escape the Solar System with the help of Nevil Clavain and colonise other star systems. They then progress to a technological level considerably ahead of the rest of humanity, although still far behind many alien cultures in nearby space. The Conjoiners function as a single society for centuries, before the events of Redemption Ark
result in them splintering into numerous factions and disappearing from the affairs of baseline humanity by the time of Absolution Gap
, by which point they are engaged in the war with the Inhibitors. With the "Rise of the Greenfly", other human factions are wiped out, leaving an isolated enclave of Conjoiners as the last humans in the galaxy, along with the Ultranaut Irravel. Even they are forced to flee eventually, as the Greenflies' grip on the galaxy increases.
Conjoiners use technology to create a localised group mind
. Individual identities are retained, but the group generally functions as a single unit working harmoniously toward its goals. All Conjoiners possess, at the minimum, a net of nanomachines that mimic their host's brain structure and thus augment the host's neural capabilities. Artificial enhancements such as vision overlays are not uncommon, and Conjoiners can communicate neurally through fields generated by their implants, which may or may not be amplified by background systems depending on the situation. Most Conjoiners use only neural communication with other Conjoiners and do not physically speak. Their implants also offer them a host of other abilities, such as the ability to hack into and operate a considerable amount of advanced machinery; they have little trouble overriding most software security protocols save their own, and can reprogram weapons to attack their users. They also typically modify their own bodies (often using muscle fibres based on those of chimpanzees) to make themselves physically stronger. Also, at least by the 26th century, more modern Conjoiners possessed a cranial crest
. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, it allows dissipation of the huge amounts of thermal energy their super-charged brains produce.
Conjoiners are typically used to being part of a group mind, and most experience disquiet or worse if cut off from other Conjoiners. The few who are capable of operating by themselves are viewed with ambivalence by the rest of Conjoiner society. Notable individuals with this capability include Clavain, Khouri, Skade, and Remontoire. Clavain and Khouri joined at older ages than normal, and Clavain would have had early generation implants (though not uniquely so); Skade was trained in isolated operation, and later was supported by the alien construct Mademoiselle.
Although Conjoiners seem monolithic and even like a hive mind
to outsiders, they each possess their own varied and distinct personalities and deep divisions of thought and opinion still persist amongst them. Clavain later tells other characters that each Conjoiner is in fact different and has a different mind as all humans do; normal humans simply cannot see it.
The Conjoiners were first introduced in the short story "The Great Wall of Mars", which was first published in Spectrum SF #1, in February 2000, but republished in the collection of short Novellas, Galactic North
(2006). At this point, the Conjoiners lived on Mars
and the Transenlightenment was relatively recent. The story includes Nevil Clavain, initially an outsider, meeting Galiana and Remontoire, and then joining the Conjoiners. The Conjoiners are barely mentioned in the novels Revelation Space
(2000) and Chasm City
(2001), but are the centre of the short story "Glacial", first published in Spectrum SF #5 in March 2001, again republished in Galactic North
(2006), which takes place at humanity's first interstellar colony. The Conjoiners are the central focus of the next novel, Redemption Ark
(2002), and feature prominently in the following novel, Absolution Gap
(2003).
In the afterword of Galactic North
, Alastair Reynolds comments that the Conjoiners are not an entirely new concept, and may owe some of their origin to the Human Hive-mind culture from Michael Swanwick
's Vacuum Flowers
.
, or Demarchy
. According to Reynolds' short story "A Spy in Europa
", the Demarchy functions by means of a neural implant that constantly seeks the user's opinion on aspects of Demarchist life. This constant prompting eventually fades away into the user's neural background, much like the ticking of a clock might fade away into background noise for most people. The Yellowstone Demarchy, which is the main Demarchy in human space by the time of the events in Revelation Space also uses such a technique. The nature of the Demarchy's political process is further explored in The Prefect
. The voting process is run by "Polling Cores" in Demarchist cities and space stations. Each core is tasked with collecting and processing votes, and also determining whether or not the elected decision was the best one in previous elections (voters who continually make "good" decisions are rewarded by having their vote count for more than one standard vote). Other known Demarchies include the Haven and Europan Demarchies (the latter appears to have risen and fallen multiple times) as well as Fand, Grand Teton and many other colonies in other star systems.
Until the time of the Melding Plague, there were several powerful families within the Yellowstone Demarchy, one of the most influential being House Sylveste which controlled SISS or Sylveste Institute for Shrouder Studies, as well as SIAM or Sylveste Institute for Artificial Mentation (before it was destroyed by Panoply during The Clockmaker incident). It later organized the archaeological expedition to Resurgam. They were immensely wealthy, being the closest thing to royalty in the Yellowstone system. Notable characters from House Sylveste include Dan Sylveste, who led the Resurgam expedition, and Calvin Sylveste, who is known for the Eighty.
The Demarchists (particularly the Yellowstone Demarchy) used to have expertise in nanotechnology, life-extension, and biological alterations, among other things. They also utilised a sophisticated information network known as abstraction. Abstraction was used to simulate environments and co-ordinate servitors and other robots. The height of Demarchist society, the Belle Époque
, was only brought low by the Melding Plague, which pushed Chasm City, the main city of the Yellowstone Demarchy, into a Dark Age lasting forty years.
Later, after the Conjoiners stepped in to help revive Chasm City, the Demarchists, unhappy with their new role as second fiddle, declared war on the Conjoiners, a war which first went well as the Conjoiners, thanks to their hive-mind nature, became predictable on the battlefield. The return of the war-hero Clavain ended that, and by the time of the events in the book Redemption Ark
only the most partisan of Demarchists would even deny an eventual Conjoiner victory. In any case, human civilisation around Yellowstone was destroyed by the time of Absolution Gap
by the Inhibitors.
Demarchist weaponry, among other things, consists of antimatter
munitions (or "pinhead" bombs, called such as the tiny amount of antimatter necessary for such weapons can be stored in minute vessels), typically antilithium, and massive rail guns that accelerate foam-phase metallic hydrogen
to a massive speed using a series of timed detonations along a barrel. They also utilise various ionisation-particle weapons and compact "fold-out" beam weapons.
In the afterword of Galactic North
, Alastair Reynolds
comments that the Demarchists are not his own invention. He credits the Joan D. Vinge
book The Outcasts of Heaven Belt as the inspiration for the Demarchist Society.
of Skyjacks tethering themselves to comets and drilling test bores. An unnamed Skyjack is also featured in Absolution Gap
as the architect of the glass bridge that spans gap. After the bridge is destroyed a video message of the Skyjack is transmitted across the moon lamenting the loss of the bridge. Reynolds makes only a few references to Skyjacks in his novels. The only Skyjack ever mentioned by name is Trollhattan, a master glassblower famous for incredibly intricate room-size glass creations, some so delicate that they cannot support themselves even in the weaker gravity of a moon. Trollhattan's limbs are robotic, like those of many Ultras, but it is not clear just how common such augmentations are among Skyjacks.
spacefarers. The majority of Ultras who appear in the books have opted for extensive and obvious mechanical
modifications, replacing their original limbs and organs, but while this is their most obvious and apparently widespread trend, not all Ultras utilise such modifications. Ilia Volyova, one of the central Ultra characters of the books, has no obvious modifications and is still described as an Ultra, while in Chasm City
other characters such as Zebra, who have opted for extreme body modification
, are not described as such, indicating that the term may refer either to something biological that is shared by all Ultras, or may possibly be an honorific for those who have served as crew aboard a lighthugger. In The Prefect
, it is stated that an Ultra can look fully human "and yet be crawling with furtive and dangerous machinery." All the Ultras encountered in the books have lived long lives, partly due to long periods of cryopreservation
or "reefersleep" during interstellar transit, partly due to the time-dilating effects of near-lightspeed travel, and partly due to their willingness to replace failing organs and limbs with mechanical alternatives, but possibly also due to genetic modifications intended to fit them for space travel.
In Revelation Space, a quirk of Ultra society is described (referred to again in Diamond Dogs
); for each session in reefersleep, they grow and maintain a dreadlock as a badge of their status, although they are also described as using these status symbols as stakes in gambling games, and once again, Ilia Volyova, although an Ultra, does not sport these dreadlocks. Aesthetics do appear to be of greater concern to most Ultras than more pragmatic concerns such as functionality and reliability. Some of the more extensively modified Ultras described in the books have, apparently intentionally, turned themselves into living sculptures.
Unlike other factions in the Revelation Space universe, such as the Conjoiners and Demarchists, there appears to be no unifying political structure or philosophical school of thought behind Ultra society. Although extremely isolated from the rest of humanity during their long voyages, they do not appear to form particularly close associations even within crews; for the crews of the Nostalgia For Infinity (Revelation Space) and of the Gnostic Ascension (Absolution Gap
), power struggles and mistrust are presented as the normal state of affairs. However, neither crew is exactly normal; shipmaster Inigo Standish in Galactic North
comments that Ultras like these crews are a minority.
The Coalition fought the Conjoiners in a war across the solar system, in which Clavain and John Brannigan fought for the Coalition (although both defected eventually). The Demarchists remained neutral in the conflict, but were secretly allied with the Conjoiners. Weaponry used involved robotic worms that could self repair and eat opponents, bioweapons and advanced suits that appeared to use nanotechnology. The Coalition was eventually victorious in the war and forced the Conjoiners to remain on Mars, trapped by a satellite defence network. The Conjoiners eventually escaped Mars by hollowing out one of Mars' moons and creating a lighthugger in its core, which left the solar system. The fate of the Coalition after this is unknown, but it is alluded to in Redemption Ark
that the Coalition was no longer active by the time the main events in the series take place.
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al factions in Revelation Space. The human
Human Race
Human Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...
factions
Political faction
A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...
are found in the Revelation Space
Revelation Space
Revelation Space is a 2000 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It was the first novel set in the Revelation Space universe, although the then-unnamed universe had already been established by several published short stories....
universe
Revelation Space universe
The Revelation Space universe is a fictional universe which was created by Alastair Reynolds and used as the setting for a number of his novels and stories...
, the setting for a series of stories and novels by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
.
Interstellar factions
Spacefaring humanity is divided among these four main factions. While each of these factions has its roots in the Solar System, they have spread with humans to multiple other star systems. Demarchists controlled most major colony worlds, including Yellowstone, until the introduction of the Melding Plague. Conjoiners inhabited hollowed out asteroids on system peripheries, called Nests, before the move to the central Mother Nest in the Yellowstone system during the Conjoiner-Demarchist war. Ultras prefer living aboard the massive lighthugger ships, and are generally uncomfortable on terrestrial worlds. Skyjacks are comet and asteroid miners.Conjoiners
Conjoiners or the Conjoined (pejoratively referred to by outsiders as spiders) are a faction based around mental augmentation and communication, and the advancement of the human mind. Early experiments by the Conjoiner matriarch Galiana and her group on MarsMars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
in the early 22nd century with the uses of technology in augmenting consciousness prompted her to begin experimenting with allowing her subject's implants to communicate — triggering the event known as the Transenlightenment, and the beginnings of the Mother Nest and of the Conjoiners. After losing a war with the remainder of humanity, the first Conjoiners later escape the Solar System with the help of Nevil Clavain and colonise other star systems. They then progress to a technological level considerably ahead of the rest of humanity, although still far behind many alien cultures in nearby space. The Conjoiners function as a single society for centuries, before the events of Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
result in them splintering into numerous factions and disappearing from the affairs of baseline humanity by the time of Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap is a 2003 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It takes place in the Revelation Space universe and is a direct sequel to Redemption Ark.-Plot summary:...
, by which point they are engaged in the war with the Inhibitors. With the "Rise of the Greenfly", other human factions are wiped out, leaving an isolated enclave of Conjoiners as the last humans in the galaxy, along with the Ultranaut Irravel. Even they are forced to flee eventually, as the Greenflies' grip on the galaxy increases.
Conjoiners use technology to create a localised group mind
Group mind (science fiction)
A group mind, hive mind or group ego in science fiction is a single consciousness occupying many bodies. Its use in literature goes back at least as far as Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel Last and First Men ....
. Individual identities are retained, but the group generally functions as a single unit working harmoniously toward its goals. All Conjoiners possess, at the minimum, a net of nanomachines that mimic their host's brain structure and thus augment the host's neural capabilities. Artificial enhancements such as vision overlays are not uncommon, and Conjoiners can communicate neurally through fields generated by their implants, which may or may not be amplified by background systems depending on the situation. Most Conjoiners use only neural communication with other Conjoiners and do not physically speak. Their implants also offer them a host of other abilities, such as the ability to hack into and operate a considerable amount of advanced machinery; they have little trouble overriding most software security protocols save their own, and can reprogram weapons to attack their users. They also typically modify their own bodies (often using muscle fibres based on those of chimpanzees) to make themselves physically stronger. Also, at least by the 26th century, more modern Conjoiners possessed a cranial crest
Sagittal crest
A sagittal crest is a ridge of bone running lengthwise along the midline of the top of the skull of many mammalian and reptilian skulls, among others....
. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, it allows dissipation of the huge amounts of thermal energy their super-charged brains produce.
Conjoiners are typically used to being part of a group mind, and most experience disquiet or worse if cut off from other Conjoiners. The few who are capable of operating by themselves are viewed with ambivalence by the rest of Conjoiner society. Notable individuals with this capability include Clavain, Khouri, Skade, and Remontoire. Clavain and Khouri joined at older ages than normal, and Clavain would have had early generation implants (though not uniquely so); Skade was trained in isolated operation, and later was supported by the alien construct Mademoiselle.
Although Conjoiners seem monolithic and even like a hive mind
Group mind (science fiction)
A group mind, hive mind or group ego in science fiction is a single consciousness occupying many bodies. Its use in literature goes back at least as far as Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel Last and First Men ....
to outsiders, they each possess their own varied and distinct personalities and deep divisions of thought and opinion still persist amongst them. Clavain later tells other characters that each Conjoiner is in fact different and has a different mind as all humans do; normal humans simply cannot see it.
The Conjoiners were first introduced in the short story "The Great Wall of Mars", which was first published in Spectrum SF #1, in February 2000, but republished in the collection of short Novellas, Galactic North
Galactic North
Galactic North is a collection of short stories by the science fiction author Alastair Reynolds...
(2006). At this point, the Conjoiners lived on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
and the Transenlightenment was relatively recent. The story includes Nevil Clavain, initially an outsider, meeting Galiana and Remontoire, and then joining the Conjoiners. The Conjoiners are barely mentioned in the novels Revelation Space
Revelation Space
Revelation Space is a 2000 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It was the first novel set in the Revelation Space universe, although the then-unnamed universe had already been established by several published short stories....
(2000) and Chasm City
Chasm City
Chasm City is a 2001 science fiction novel by author Alastair Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe. It deals with themes of identity, memory, and immortality, and many of its scenes are concerned primarily with describing the unusual societal and physical structure of the titular city, a...
(2001), but are the centre of the short story "Glacial", first published in Spectrum SF #5 in March 2001, again republished in Galactic North
Galactic North
Galactic North is a collection of short stories by the science fiction author Alastair Reynolds...
(2006), which takes place at humanity's first interstellar colony. The Conjoiners are the central focus of the next novel, Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
(2002), and feature prominently in the following novel, Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap is a 2003 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It takes place in the Revelation Space universe and is a direct sequel to Redemption Ark.-Plot summary:...
(2003).
In the afterword of Galactic North
Galactic North
Galactic North is a collection of short stories by the science fiction author Alastair Reynolds...
, Alastair Reynolds comments that the Conjoiners are not an entirely new concept, and may owe some of their origin to the Human Hive-mind culture from Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick is an American science fiction author. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began publishing in the early 1980s.-Biography:...
's Vacuum Flowers
Vacuum Flowers
Vacuum Flowers is a science fiction novel by Michael Swanwick, published in 1987. It is an early example of the cyberpunk genre, and features one of the earliest uses of the concept wetware....
.
Demarchists
The Demarchists (pejoratively referred to by outsiders as zombies) are a faction of humanity who have a political system of democratic anarchyAnarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, or Demarchy
Demarchy
Demarchy is a form of government in which the state is governed by randomly selected decision makers who have been selected by sortition from a broadly inclusive pool of eligible citizens...
. According to Reynolds' short story "A Spy in Europa
Galactic North
Galactic North is a collection of short stories by the science fiction author Alastair Reynolds...
", the Demarchy functions by means of a neural implant that constantly seeks the user's opinion on aspects of Demarchist life. This constant prompting eventually fades away into the user's neural background, much like the ticking of a clock might fade away into background noise for most people. The Yellowstone Demarchy, which is the main Demarchy in human space by the time of the events in Revelation Space also uses such a technique. The nature of the Demarchy's political process is further explored in The Prefect
The Prefect
The Prefect is a 2007 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds . It is the fifth novel set in the Revelation Space universe, and takes place prior to the four previously released Revelation Space novels, but after some of the short stories...
. The voting process is run by "Polling Cores" in Demarchist cities and space stations. Each core is tasked with collecting and processing votes, and also determining whether or not the elected decision was the best one in previous elections (voters who continually make "good" decisions are rewarded by having their vote count for more than one standard vote). Other known Demarchies include the Haven and Europan Demarchies (the latter appears to have risen and fallen multiple times) as well as Fand, Grand Teton and many other colonies in other star systems.
Until the time of the Melding Plague, there were several powerful families within the Yellowstone Demarchy, one of the most influential being House Sylveste which controlled SISS or Sylveste Institute for Shrouder Studies, as well as SIAM or Sylveste Institute for Artificial Mentation (before it was destroyed by Panoply during The Clockmaker incident). It later organized the archaeological expedition to Resurgam. They were immensely wealthy, being the closest thing to royalty in the Yellowstone system. Notable characters from House Sylveste include Dan Sylveste, who led the Resurgam expedition, and Calvin Sylveste, who is known for the Eighty.
The Demarchists (particularly the Yellowstone Demarchy) used to have expertise in nanotechnology, life-extension, and biological alterations, among other things. They also utilised a sophisticated information network known as abstraction. Abstraction was used to simulate environments and co-ordinate servitors and other robots. The height of Demarchist society, the Belle Époque
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...
, was only brought low by the Melding Plague, which pushed Chasm City, the main city of the Yellowstone Demarchy, into a Dark Age lasting forty years.
Later, after the Conjoiners stepped in to help revive Chasm City, the Demarchists, unhappy with their new role as second fiddle, declared war on the Conjoiners, a war which first went well as the Conjoiners, thanks to their hive-mind nature, became predictable on the battlefield. The return of the war-hero Clavain ended that, and by the time of the events in the book Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
only the most partisan of Demarchists would even deny an eventual Conjoiner victory. In any case, human civilisation around Yellowstone was destroyed by the time of Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap is a 2003 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It takes place in the Revelation Space universe and is a direct sequel to Redemption Ark.-Plot summary:...
by the Inhibitors.
Demarchist weaponry, among other things, consists of antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
munitions (or "pinhead" bombs, called such as the tiny amount of antimatter necessary for such weapons can be stored in minute vessels), typically antilithium, and massive rail guns that accelerate foam-phase metallic hydrogen
Metallic hydrogen
Metallic hydrogen is a state of hydrogen which results when it is sufficiently compressed and undergoes a phase transition; it is an example of degenerate matter. Solid metallic hydrogen is predicted to consist of a crystal lattice of hydrogen nuclei , with a spacing which is significantly smaller...
to a massive speed using a series of timed detonations along a barrel. They also utilise various ionisation-particle weapons and compact "fold-out" beam weapons.
In the afterword of Galactic North
Galactic North
Galactic North is a collection of short stories by the science fiction author Alastair Reynolds...
, Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
comments that the Demarchists are not his own invention. He credits the Joan D. Vinge
Joan D. Vinge
Joan D. Vinge is an American science fiction author. She is known for such works as her Hugo Award-winning novel The Snow Queen and its sequels, her series about the telepath named Cat, and her Heaven's Chronicles books.-Biography:...
book The Outcasts of Heaven Belt as the inspiration for the Demarchist Society.
Skyjacks
A human/humanoid faction similar to Ultras in that they spend most of their time in ships. Other than the fact that there is a Skyjack presence somewhere in the vicinity of Yellowstone (or its system), little else is known. The name appears to be derived from 'steeplejack,' craftsmen who use scaffolding and pulleys to scale and repair buildings. Skyjacks seem to be comet and asteroid miners who presumably keep an eye out for salvage and other items of interest. Mention is made in Redemption ArkRedemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
of Skyjacks tethering themselves to comets and drilling test bores. An unnamed Skyjack is also featured in Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap is a 2003 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It takes place in the Revelation Space universe and is a direct sequel to Redemption Ark.-Plot summary:...
as the architect of the glass bridge that spans gap. After the bridge is destroyed a video message of the Skyjack is transmitted across the moon lamenting the loss of the bridge. Reynolds makes only a few references to Skyjacks in his novels. The only Skyjack ever mentioned by name is Trollhattan, a master glassblower famous for incredibly intricate room-size glass creations, some so delicate that they cannot support themselves even in the weaker gravity of a moon. Trollhattan's limbs are robotic, like those of many Ultras, but it is not clear just how common such augmentations are among Skyjacks.
Ultras
Ultranauts are a faction of transhumanTranshuman
Transhuman or trans-human is a term that has been defined and redefined many times in history. In its contemporary usage, “transhuman” refers to an intermediary form between the human and the hypothetical posthuman.-History of hypotheses:...
spacefarers. The majority of Ultras who appear in the books have opted for extensive and obvious mechanical
Machine
A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...
modifications, replacing their original limbs and organs, but while this is their most obvious and apparently widespread trend, not all Ultras utilise such modifications. Ilia Volyova, one of the central Ultra characters of the books, has no obvious modifications and is still described as an Ultra, while in Chasm City
Chasm City
Chasm City is a 2001 science fiction novel by author Alastair Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe. It deals with themes of identity, memory, and immortality, and many of its scenes are concerned primarily with describing the unusual societal and physical structure of the titular city, a...
other characters such as Zebra, who have opted for extreme body modification
Body modification
Body modification is the deliberate altering of the human body for any non-medical reason, such as aesthetics, sexual enhancement, a rite of passage, religious reasons, to display group membership or affiliation, to create body art, shock value, or self expression...
, are not described as such, indicating that the term may refer either to something biological that is shared by all Ultras, or may possibly be an honorific for those who have served as crew aboard a lighthugger. In The Prefect
The Prefect
The Prefect is a 2007 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds . It is the fifth novel set in the Revelation Space universe, and takes place prior to the four previously released Revelation Space novels, but after some of the short stories...
, it is stated that an Ultra can look fully human "and yet be crawling with furtive and dangerous machinery." All the Ultras encountered in the books have lived long lives, partly due to long periods of cryopreservation
Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation is a process where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as 77 K or −196 °C . At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including the biochemical reactions that would lead to cell death, is effectively stopped...
or "reefersleep" during interstellar transit, partly due to the time-dilating effects of near-lightspeed travel, and partly due to their willingness to replace failing organs and limbs with mechanical alternatives, but possibly also due to genetic modifications intended to fit them for space travel.
In Revelation Space, a quirk of Ultra society is described (referred to again in Diamond Dogs
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days is a 2003 compilation of two science fiction novellas by writer Alastair Reynolds. Both are set in the Revelation Space universe, but are almost entirely unconnected with the plots of any of the novels in the same story arc....
); for each session in reefersleep, they grow and maintain a dreadlock as a badge of their status, although they are also described as using these status symbols as stakes in gambling games, and once again, Ilia Volyova, although an Ultra, does not sport these dreadlocks. Aesthetics do appear to be of greater concern to most Ultras than more pragmatic concerns such as functionality and reliability. Some of the more extensively modified Ultras described in the books have, apparently intentionally, turned themselves into living sculptures.
Unlike other factions in the Revelation Space universe, such as the Conjoiners and Demarchists, there appears to be no unifying political structure or philosophical school of thought behind Ultra society. Although extremely isolated from the rest of humanity during their long voyages, they do not appear to form particularly close associations even within crews; for the crews of the Nostalgia For Infinity (Revelation Space) and of the Gnostic Ascension (Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap
Absolution Gap is a 2003 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It takes place in the Revelation Space universe and is a direct sequel to Redemption Ark.-Plot summary:...
), power struggles and mistrust are presented as the normal state of affairs. However, neither crew is exactly normal; shipmaster Inigo Standish in Galactic North
Galactic North
Galactic North is a collection of short stories by the science fiction author Alastair Reynolds...
comments that Ultras like these crews are a minority.
Localized factions
These factions were centered on a particular planet or system. There is no evidence that the Coalition For Neural Purity ever existed beyond the Solar System or survived after the Conjoiner exodus, and the Inundationist faction was based solely on the planet Resurgam.Coalition For Neural Purity
A faction that existed around the year 2190 after Galiana created the Conjoiners. As its name implies, the Coalition For Neural Purity regarded artificial brain implants as abomination. There are hints that it also vehemently opposed genetic enhancement of intelligence in animals and humans. Due to its disavowal of such technologies, the Coalition soon fell scientifically well behind the Demarchists and the Conjoiners.The Coalition fought the Conjoiners in a war across the solar system, in which Clavain and John Brannigan fought for the Coalition (although both defected eventually). The Demarchists remained neutral in the conflict, but were secretly allied with the Conjoiners. Weaponry used involved robotic worms that could self repair and eat opponents, bioweapons and advanced suits that appeared to use nanotechnology. The Coalition was eventually victorious in the war and forced the Conjoiners to remain on Mars, trapped by a satellite defence network. The Conjoiners eventually escaped Mars by hollowing out one of Mars' moons and creating a lighthugger in its core, which left the solar system. The fate of the Coalition after this is unknown, but it is alluded to in Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series , and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial"...
that the Coalition was no longer active by the time the main events in the series take place.
Inundationists
A faction which arises on Resurgam during Dan Sylveste's expedition there; beyond opposition to Sylveste's control of the colony, the Inundationists favour taking steps to terraform the planet — potentially destroying the archaeological evidence that the expedition was originally intended to uncover. Under the leadership of Nils Girardieu, Inundationists take over Resurgam and imprison Dan Sylveste. Later, an extreme wing of this faction calling itself True Path splits from the Inundationists and starts a guerilla war against Girardieu's government. True Path insurrection continues until the Nostalgia for Infinity arrives at Resurgam. The planet is destroyed not long after.See also
- Revelation Space universeRevelation Space universeThe Revelation Space universe is a fictional universe which was created by Alastair Reynolds and used as the setting for a number of his novels and stories...
- Characters in Revelation SpaceCharacters in Revelation SpaceThese are major characters from the various novels and stories that make up Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space universe.- Ana Khouri :...
- Races in Revelation SpaceRaces in Revelation SpaceThis is a list of fictional alien and modified human races in the fictional Revelation Space universe created by Alastair Reynolds.-Denizens:Denizens are a heavily engineered sentient species created on Europa by the Europan Demarchy...
- Locations in Revelation Space
- Technology in Revelation SpaceTechnology in Revelation SpaceThis article lists elements of technology in the fictional Revelation Space universe created by Alastair Reynolds.- Abstractions and entoptics :Abstraction is the process by which humans with neural implants gain access to wireless data networks, the data rate of which is far beyond anything...