Planets of the Hainish Cycle
Encyclopedia
Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish Cycle takes place in a science fiction universe that contains a number of planets, some of which have been explored and made part of an interplanetary group called the Ekumen; others are continuously explored by the Ekumen over a time frame spanning centuries. Le Guin has used approximately a dozen planets as primary settings for her novels; as such they have detailed physical and cultural aspects. Le Guin reveals in The Left Hand of Darkness
that there are 83 planets in the Ekumen, with Gethen a candidate for becoming the 84th.
state which mandates a form of scientific theism
and aims to turn its citizens into ideal "producer-consumers", with the ultimate goal of attaining advanced spaceflight capabilities. Aka is the setting of most of The Telling
.
.
Athshe's plants and animals are similar to those of Earth, placed there by the Hainish people in their first wave of colonisation that also settled Earth. The Cetian visitor also states categorically that the native humans "came from the same, original, Hainish stock". It is not explained why they are green-furred and only one metre tall. Their sleeping cycles
are also very different from the Hainish norm. There are two likely explanations. One possibility is that the original settlers were genetically modified by the Hainish. On the other hand, enough time has passed since the original settlement for the locals to have naturally evolved
in response to their environment.
. Its people are of Hainish descent and briefly had the maximum population density of any known planet, with
; it is a young planet which embarks on a career of interstellar war and conquest and constructs a secret base on the backward world where the book takes place, from which destructive ships could be launched to numerous targets while the League spends its force on subduing their home world. The planet being named for a famous Earth physicist
evidently indicates that it was originally discovered and named by Terrans, who introduced its inhabitants to interstellar civilization (the Faradayans are specifically mentioned as having learned chess
-playing from Terrans). Faraday seems loosely modeled on Imperial Japan - i.e., a relative late-comer to an existing civilization, which quickly takes up new technologies, builds up aggressive armed forces in order to carve out a bigger place for itself in that established civilization, oppresses weaker cultures and peoples which it encounters, and makes use of fanatic pilots ready to embark on suicide missions
. The act of Rocannon at the end of the book results in the destruction of their secret base; Faraday's aggressive designs are evidently checked (or destroyed, as it is mentioned in Rocannon's World that the League is attacking the planet itself), and the planet is not heard of again in later books.
. It is described as one of the outermost seedings of the Hainish Expansion, and lost from the human community for five hundred millennia.
Gethen
Gethen is a planet is also known as "Winter". It is a very cold, glacier
-covered planet and inhabited by an androgynous
intelligent species. Gethen appears in The Left Hand of Darkness, and in the short stories "Winter's King
" and "Coming of Age in Karhide".
Hain
Hain is the Prime World in the Hainish Cycle and is also known as Davenant and Hain-Davenant. Hain is the source of the oldest culture in the Ekumen and is supposedly the ultimate source of most intelligent life in the planets of the Ekumen. Observers for the Ekumen are trained on Hain.
Outside of the fictional realm of the Hainish cycle, the Kerguelen Islands
are in the Southern Indian Ocean, the New Georgia Islands
are in the South Pacific Ocean and the Antarctic territory South Georgia serves as the base of the British Antarctic Survey
.)
. Its people are known as ki'O and it is notable for its unusual four-person "sedoretu" marriage system (a set combination of both genders and sexual orientation
s). Two more tales about this world and its customs are found in the collection The Birthday of the World
.
, peopled by at least three high-intelligence life forms. It is the setting of the novel Rocannon's World. The planet is described as Formalhaut II during its exploration. Some references list it as Rocannon's World, but Le Guin's books refers to it as 'Rokanan', which is Rocannon's name among the native Gdemiar.
. The people are of Hainish descent. A Hainish visitor believes that the imbalance of the sexes is another ancient genetic experiment of her remote ancestors.
Terra
Terra is the third planet of the Solar system, homeworld of Terrans and a depiction of the Earth
. People from Terra appear as aggressive settlers in The Word for World is Forest. In The Dispossessed, Cetians know it as a place with interestingly different ideas about physics. A post-apocalyptic Earth is seen in City of Illusions
. Various individuals from Terra play a part in other stories. In The Telling
, Terra's incorporation into the Ekumen is briefly explained. Also, the main character in The Left Hand of Darkness
is from Terra. The Hainish placed fossils and other artifacts on Terra as an experiment to trick the settlers into believing that human life had evolved on Terra.
Urras
Urras and Annares form a double planet
system (the people of each regard the other as their moon) in orbit around the star Tau Ceti
. The Cetians who inhabit both worlds are a very hairy humanoid race which is scientifically advanced.
Urras is divided into many countries with a variety of political systems; Anarres is peopled by the Odonians, an anarchist group in voluntary exile from Urras. The action of The Dispossessed
takes place on Urras and Anarres. Urras is also the setting of the short story "The Day Before the Revolution" which appears in the short-story collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters
.
Werel
Werel is the homeworld of the Alterrans, a hybrid race of Terrans and the original native HILFs. Also referred to as Alterra, and mentioned under this name in The Left Hand of Darkness. The third planet of the star Gamma Draconis, it is the setting for Planet of Exile
. Its later history is given in City of Illusions.
Yeowe and Werel
Yeowe and Werel are the third and fourth planets, respectively, of a single star system described in Four Ways to Forgiveness
. Yeowe was settled from Werel
, which has no connection with Werel / Alterra
. The dominant race of Werel have black or bluish skins. They have enslaved
the white-skinned Werelians as well as the children of unions between slaves and masters, who are described as having "clay-coloured" skins.
A later short story titles "Old Music and the Slave Women" which appeared in The Birthday of the World deals with a civil war on Werel. In this story it is explained that the white-skinned Werelians, known as "dusties" are the remnants of an ancient, vanquished culture. At this point so much rape or concubinage of slave women has occurred that there are very few people with white skins left.
The Left Hand of Darkness has Genly showing pictures of various worlds, some described in later stories but including Chiffewar, Cime, Ensbo, Four-Taurus, Gao, Gde, Kapteyn, Ollul, S, Sheashel Haven and 'the Uttermosts'. Little is said about most of them. We are told that Gde wrecked its natural balance tens of thousands of years ago and is mostly sand and rock deserts; that Ollul is the closest world to Gethen, 17 light-years away; and that Chiffewar is a "peaceful" planet.
We hear no more about most of these planets, though in the short story "The Matter of Seggri", it is mentioned that 4-Taurus is also known as Iao. Argaven XVII visits Ollul in the short story "Winter's King
", a trip of 24 light-years each way; this contradicts the stated fact in The Left Hand of Darkness that Ollul is 17 light-years away from Gethen. As for S, it is possible that S is another name for Athshe.
Some additional worlds are mentioned in later short stories:
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness is a 1969 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is part of the Hainish Cycle, a series of books by Le Guin all set in the fictional Hainish universe....
that there are 83 planets in the Ekumen, with Gethen a candidate for becoming the 84th.
Aka
Aka is a monoethnic world that recently underwent an aggressive revolutionary change in technological status, during which almost all of the traditional culture was suppressed or rejected. Aka is governed by a despoticDespotism
Despotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy...
state which mandates a form of scientific theism
Theism
Theism, in the broadest sense, is the belief that at least one deity exists.In a more specific sense, theism refers to a doctrine concerning the nature of a monotheistic God and God's relationship to the universe....
and aims to turn its citizens into ideal "producer-consumers", with the ultimate goal of attaining advanced spaceflight capabilities. Aka is the setting of most of The Telling
The Telling
The Telling is a 2000 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin set in her fictional universe of Hainish Cycle. The Telling is Le Guin's first follow-up novel set in the Hainish Cycle since her 1974 novel The Dispossessed...
.
Athshe
Athshe is a forest planet (whose name means "forest"), also known as 'World 41' and called "New Tahiti" by Terrans. Athshe is peopled by a small, furred (but in fact fully human) group of HILFs (high-intelligence life forms.) It was exploited for its timber resources before a native revolt expelled the Terrans, as described in The Word for World is ForestThe Word for World is Forest
The Word for World Is Forest is a science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 1976 and based on her 1972 novella which was nominated for a Nebula Award.It is part of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle.-Setting:...
.
Athshe's plants and animals are similar to those of Earth, placed there by the Hainish people in their first wave of colonisation that also settled Earth. The Cetian visitor also states categorically that the native humans "came from the same, original, Hainish stock". It is not explained why they are green-furred and only one metre tall. Their sleeping cycles
Circadian rhythm
A circadian rhythm, popularly referred to as body clock, is an endogenously driven , roughly 24-hour cycle in biochemical, physiological, or behavioural processes. Circadian rhythms have been widely observed in plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria...
are also very different from the Hainish norm. There are two likely explanations. One possibility is that the original settlers were genetically modified by the Hainish. On the other hand, enough time has passed since the original settlement for the locals to have naturally evolved
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
in response to their environment.
Eleven-Soro
Eleven-Soro is a world that had a high technology and then a massive crash. A strange introverted new culture has emerged, with women living alone and unwilling to talk to visitors. The post-collapse culture is described in the short story "Solitude" which appeared in The Birthday of the WorldThe Birthday of the World
The Birthday of the World is a collection of short fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin, and first published in March, 2002 by HarperCollins. All of the stories except "Paradises Lost" were previously published individually elsewhere....
. Its people are of Hainish descent and briefly had the maximum population density of any known planet, with
- The greatest cities ever built on any world, covering two of the continents entirely, with small areas set aside for farming; there had been 120 billion people living in the cities, while the animals and the sea and the air and the dirt died, until the people began dying too.
Faraday
Faraday has a prominent place in Rocannon's WorldRocannon's World
Rocannon's World is Ursula K. Le Guin's first novel. It was published in 1966 as an Ace Double, along with Avram Davidson's The Kar-Chee Reign, following the tête-bêche format. Though it is one of Le Guin's many works set in the universe of the technological Hainish Cycle, the story itself has many...
; it is a young planet which embarks on a career of interstellar war and conquest and constructs a secret base on the backward world where the book takes place, from which destructive ships could be launched to numerous targets while the League spends its force on subduing their home world. The planet being named for a famous Earth physicist
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
evidently indicates that it was originally discovered and named by Terrans, who introduced its inhabitants to interstellar civilization (the Faradayans are specifically mentioned as having learned chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
-playing from Terrans). Faraday seems loosely modeled on Imperial Japan - i.e., a relative late-comer to an existing civilization, which quickly takes up new technologies, builds up aggressive armed forces in order to carve out a bigger place for itself in that established civilization, oppresses weaker cultures and peoples which it encounters, and makes use of fanatic pilots ready to embark on suicide missions
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
. The act of Rocannon at the end of the book results in the destruction of their secret base; Faraday's aggressive designs are evidently checked (or destroyed, as it is mentioned in Rocannon's World that the League is attacking the planet itself), and the planet is not heard of again in later books.
Ganam / Tadkla
Ganam is a very diverse world with some high technology. The inhabitants, or one group of them, are called the Gaman. Ancient Hainish records refer to it as 'G-14-214-yomo' and also Tadkla. The tale of the first two Ekumen visits is told in the short story "Dancing to Ganam" which appeared in A Fisherman of the Inland SeaA Fisherman of the Inland Sea
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea is a 1994 collection of short stories and novellas by Ursula K. Le Guin. The collection was second in the 1995 Locus Award poll in the collection category.-Contents:The stories in the collection are:...
. It is described as one of the outermost seedings of the Hainish Expansion, and lost from the human community for five hundred millennia.
GethenGethenGethen is a fictional planet in Ursula K. Le Guin's Ekumen universe. It is the setting for her science fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness.-The planet:...
Gethen is a planet is also known as "Winter". It is a very cold, glacierGlacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
-covered planet and inhabited by an androgynous
Androgyny
Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...
intelligent species. Gethen appears in The Left Hand of Darkness, and in the short stories "Winter's King
Winter's King
"Winter's King" is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, originally published in the September 1969 issue of Orbit, a fiction anthology. The story is part of the Hainish Cycle and explores topics such as the human effect of space travel at nearly the speed of light, as well as religious and...
" and "Coming of Age in Karhide".
HainHain (planet)Hain is a fictional planet that plays an important background role in the science fiction novels of Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish Cycle. It is described more closely in some later short stories. It is the oldest culture in both the League of Worlds and later the Ekumen and is about 140 Light Years...
Hain is the Prime World in the Hainish Cycle and is also known as Davenant and Hain-Davenant. Hain is the source of the oldest culture in the Ekumen and is supposedly the ultimate source of most intelligent life in the planets of the Ekumen. Observers for the Ekumen are trained on Hain.New South Georgia
New South Georgia is the location of the League HILF Survey Base for Galactic Area 8, in Rocannon's World. Its chief city is Kerguelen.Outside of the fictional realm of the Hainish cycle, the Kerguelen Islands
Kerguelen Islands
The Kerguelen Islands , also known as the Desolation Islands, are a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean constituting the emerged part of the otherwise submerged Kerguelen Plateau. The islands, along with Adélie Land, the Crozet Islands and the Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands are part of...
are in the Southern Indian Ocean, the New Georgia Islands
New Georgia Islands
The New Georgia Islands are part of the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. They are located to the northwest of Guadalcanal. The larger islands are mountainous and covered in rain forest. The main islands are New Georgia, Vella Lavella, Kolombangara , Ghizo, Vangunu, Rendova and Tetepare...
are in the South Pacific Ocean and the Antarctic territory South Georgia serves as the base of the British Antarctic Survey
British Antarctic Survey
The British Antarctic Survey is the United Kingdom's national Antarctic operation and has an active role in Antarctic affairs. BAS is part of the Natural Environment Research Council and has over 400 staff. It operates five research stations, two ships and five aircraft in and around Antarctica....
.)
O
O is a planet four light years from Hain, described in the title-story of the collection A Fisherman of the Inland SeaA Fisherman of the Inland Sea
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea is a 1994 collection of short stories and novellas by Ursula K. Le Guin. The collection was second in the 1995 Locus Award poll in the collection category.-Contents:The stories in the collection are:...
. Its people are known as ki'O and it is notable for its unusual four-person "sedoretu" marriage system (a set combination of both genders and sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
s). Two more tales about this world and its customs are found in the collection The Birthday of the World
The Birthday of the World
The Birthday of the World is a collection of short fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin, and first published in March, 2002 by HarperCollins. All of the stories except "Paradises Lost" were previously published individually elsewhere....
.
Rokanan
Rokanan is the second planet of the star FomalhautFomalhaut
Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and one of the brightest stars in the sky. Fomalhaut can be seen low in the southern sky in the northern hemisphere in fall and early winter evenings. Near latitude 50˚N, it sets around the time Sirius rises, and does not...
, peopled by at least three high-intelligence life forms. It is the setting of the novel Rocannon's World. The planet is described as Formalhaut II during its exploration. Some references list it as Rocannon's World, but Le Guin's books refers to it as 'Rokanan', which is Rocannon's name among the native Gdemiar.
Seggri
Seggri is a planet noted for its extreme gender segregation, and for having sixteen adult women for every adult man. Its history is told in a novelette, "The Matter of Seggri" which appears in The Birthday of the WorldThe Birthday of the World
The Birthday of the World is a collection of short fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin, and first published in March, 2002 by HarperCollins. All of the stories except "Paradises Lost" were previously published individually elsewhere....
. The people are of Hainish descent. A Hainish visitor believes that the imbalance of the sexes is another ancient genetic experiment of her remote ancestors.
- My ancestors must have really had fun playing with these people's chromosomes. I feel guilty, even if it was a million years ago.
TerraTerra (Hainish cycle)Terra or Earth plays a role in the Hainish Cycle of science fiction novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. Humans are supposed to be descendents of colonists from a planet called Hain...
Terra is the third planet of the Solar system, homeworld of Terrans and a depiction of the EarthEarth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. People from Terra appear as aggressive settlers in The Word for World is Forest. In The Dispossessed, Cetians know it as a place with interestingly different ideas about physics. A post-apocalyptic Earth is seen in City of Illusions
City of Illusions
City of Illusions is a 1967 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, set on Earth in the distant future in her Hainish Cycle. City of Illusions is significant because it lays the foundation for the Hainish cycle, a fictional world in which the majority of Ursula K...
. Various individuals from Terra play a part in other stories. In The Telling
The Telling
The Telling is a 2000 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin set in her fictional universe of Hainish Cycle. The Telling is Le Guin's first follow-up novel set in the Hainish Cycle since her 1974 novel The Dispossessed...
, Terra's incorporation into the Ekumen is briefly explained. Also, the main character in The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness is a 1969 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is part of the Hainish Cycle, a series of books by Le Guin all set in the fictional Hainish universe....
is from Terra. The Hainish placed fossils and other artifacts on Terra as an experiment to trick the settlers into believing that human life had evolved on Terra.
UrrasUrras (fictional planet)Urras is one of two inhabited planets of Tau Ceti, in the 'Ekumen' science fiction novels by Ursula K. Le Guin.-Geography:Being the larger body of a double planet system with Anarres, Urras is covered by oceans and continents....
and AnarresAnarresAnarres is one of two inhabited planets of Tau Ceti, in the 'Ekumen' science fiction novels by Ursula K. Le Guin.-Geography:Being the smaller body of a double planet system with Urras, Anarres is largely covered by land while having two large seas as the biggest bodies of water.While its society is...
Urras and Annares form a double planetDouble planet
In astronomy, double planet and binary planet are informal terms used to describe a binary system of two astronomical objects that each satisfy the definition of planet and that are near enough to each other to have a significant gravitational effect on each other compared with the effect of the...
system (the people of each regard the other as their moon) in orbit around the star Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti in fiction
Tau Ceti is the closest single Sun-like star to the Sun, making it a popular setting or reference in science fiction media.Isaac Asimov set the planet "Aurora" and its two asteroidal satellites around Tau Ceti in the Robot and Foundation novels. In Robert A...
. The Cetians who inhabit both worlds are a very hairy humanoid race which is scientifically advanced.
Urras is divided into many countries with a variety of political systems; Anarres is peopled by the Odonians, an anarchist group in voluntary exile from Urras. The action of The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, set in the same fictional universe as that of The Left Hand of Darkness . The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1974, both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1975, and received a nomination for...
takes place on Urras and Anarres. Urras is also the setting of the short story "The Day Before the Revolution" which appears in the short-story collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a collection of short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin first published by Harper & Row in 1975.Le Guin describes the collection as a retrospective. It includes many stories which had been published previously or expanded into novels. Others take place in locations that...
.
WerelWerel (Alterra)Werel is a fictional planet of the star Gamma Draconis, in the 'Ekumen' science fiction stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. It is one of two planets of this name in that series.-History:...
/ Alterra
Werel is the homeworld of the Alterrans, a hybrid race of Terrans and the original native HILFs. Also referred to as Alterra, and mentioned under this name in The Left Hand of Darkness. The third planet of the star Gamma Draconis, it is the setting for Planet of ExilePlanet of Exile
Planet of Exile is a 1966 science-fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin in her Hainish Cycle. It was first published as an Ace Double following the tête-bêche format, bundled with Mankind Under the Leash by Thomas M. Disch.-Plot summary:...
. Its later history is given in City of Illusions.
Yeowe and WerelWerel (Voe Deo)Werel is a fictional planet in the 'Ekumen' science fiction novels of Ursula K. Le Guin. It is the fourth planet of a yellow-white star. It is dominated by the Voe Deo, who independently colonised Yeowe, the previously uninhabited third planet...
Yeowe and Werel are the third and fourth planets, respectively, of a single star system described in Four Ways to ForgivenessFour Ways to Forgiveness
Four Ways to Forgiveness is a collection of four short stories or novellas by Ursula K. Le Guin. All four stories are set in the future and deal with the planets Yeowe and Werel, both members of the Ekumen, a collective of planets used by Le Guin as part of the background for many novels and short...
. Yeowe was settled from Werel
Werel (Voe Deo)
Werel is a fictional planet in the 'Ekumen' science fiction novels of Ursula K. Le Guin. It is the fourth planet of a yellow-white star. It is dominated by the Voe Deo, who independently colonised Yeowe, the previously uninhabited third planet...
, which has no connection with Werel / Alterra
Werel (Alterra)
Werel is a fictional planet of the star Gamma Draconis, in the 'Ekumen' science fiction stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. It is one of two planets of this name in that series.-History:...
. The dominant race of Werel have black or bluish skins. They have enslaved
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
the white-skinned Werelians as well as the children of unions between slaves and masters, who are described as having "clay-coloured" skins.
A later short story titles "Old Music and the Slave Women" which appeared in The Birthday of the World deals with a civil war on Werel. In this story it is explained that the white-skinned Werelians, known as "dusties" are the remnants of an ancient, vanquished culture. At this point so much rape or concubinage of slave women has occurred that there are very few people with white skins left.
Others
Beldene, Chiffewar, Cime, Ensbo, Four-Taurus, Gao, Gde, Huthu, Kapetyn, Kheakh, Orint, Ollul, Prestno, S, Sheashel Haven, Ve and Uttermosts are additional planets mentioned in one or more tales of the Hainish cycle. They have not, so far, been the setting for a story.The Left Hand of Darkness has Genly showing pictures of various worlds, some described in later stories but including Chiffewar, Cime, Ensbo, Four-Taurus, Gao, Gde, Kapteyn, Ollul, S, Sheashel Haven and 'the Uttermosts'. Little is said about most of them. We are told that Gde wrecked its natural balance tens of thousands of years ago and is mostly sand and rock deserts; that Ollul is the closest world to Gethen, 17 light-years away; and that Chiffewar is a "peaceful" planet.
We hear no more about most of these planets, though in the short story "The Matter of Seggri", it is mentioned that 4-Taurus is also known as Iao. Argaven XVII visits Ollul in the short story "Winter's King
Winter's King
"Winter's King" is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, originally published in the September 1969 issue of Orbit, a fiction anthology. The story is part of the Hainish Cycle and explores topics such as the human effect of space travel at nearly the speed of light, as well as religious and...
", a trip of 24 light-years each way; this contradicts the stated fact in The Left Hand of Darkness that Ollul is 17 light-years away from Gethen. As for S, it is possible that S is another name for Athshe.
Some additional worlds are mentioned in later short stories:
- In "Dancing to Ganam", a world called Orint is mentioned in passing. It is "the only world from which the Ekumen has yet withdrawn", foreseeing a disaster in which "the Orintians destroyed sentient life on their world by the use of pathogens in war". A few thousand children were saved, being taken off the world with the consent of their parent.
- The "Solitude" which appears in The Birthday of the World mentions "the tree-cities of Huthu", which is near Eleven-Soro.
- In "Forgiveness Day" which appears in Four Ways to Forgiveness, a planet called Kheakh is mentioned as having destroyed itself some time ago, as Orint had earlier.
- In "A Man of the People" which appears in Four Ways to Forgiveness, Ve is described as the next planet out from Hain. It has mostly been a satellite or partner of Hainish civilisations and is at that time inhabited entirely by historians and Aliens. This is told from the viewpoint of a Hainish man, so non-Hainish peoples must be meant.
- In The Word for World is Forest, Prestno is mentioned as a world close to Athshe. It is also called 'World 88'.
- In "Vaster than Empires and More Slow" which appears in The Wind's Twelve Quarters, one crew member comes from "Beldene, the Garden Planet", which "never discovered chastity, or the wheel".