virtually supplanted it. This proved something even mahendo’sat could handle,
and which kif had less trouble with than they did with stsho. So the mahendo’sat
took to it with relief.
As for the inner workings of the mahen culture, even the species name exists in
some uncertainty. Mahe is generally singular, sometimes plural; and mahendo’sat
actually seems to stand for the species collective mentality, or the species as
an entity, or for some concept which refuses translation as nation or species.
The term han in its application as the collective of the hani species is clearly
a reflection of mahen influence in the formative phase of hani world government.
Mahendo’sat are often collectors, which they have in common with stsho; but
mahendo’sat are most interested in natural objects and make elaborate gardens,
an art which they taught to the hani, whose gardens nevertheless maintain a
hani-like plainness and agricultural practicality. Mahendo’sat on the other hand
are devoted to design and derive philosophical meaning from the growth patterns
of their carefully tended trees. Mahendo’sat also keep pets, a trait they share
with stsho and perhaps tc’a (qv) but mahendo’sat are likely to keep difficult
ones and to lavish care on exotics. The history of the mahen species is one of
pocket kingdoms, continual religious ferment, mysticism, leaders with
self-claimed credentials rising to some purpose and vanishing in what may have
been a tradition of such vanishments. They are greatly concerned with abstracts
and courtesies, symbol and hidden meaning.
Modern and ancient mahen authority rests on Person, involving dignity and
charismatic appeal, and interlinking Personages in an elaborate chain of command
in which one appoints the next, but in which a higher Personage may be brought
down by the malfeasance or error of an appointee. Mahendo’sat set great store by
this indefinable quality and esteem it where found, to such an extent that they
likewise choose to honor or ignore members of other species with complete
disregard of those species’ own concepts of authority. Personages are of either
of the species’ two genders, usually of mature years. Personages come in many
ranks and levels of authority, but all are attended by a Voice, a person usually
of the opposite gender whose apparently self-appointed task it is to represent
the Personage and to utter unpleasantness which the Personage is too serene to
deal with.
The mahen social unit is complex, revolving around personage: mating is at
apparent random, but Person has a great deal to do with it. Young are traded
about with apparent abandon, but this also has to do with the bonds of Person,
and the desire to expose the young to good influence or superior instruction.
The mahen government currently rests with a Personage at Iji whose serenity is
untroubled; but in the fashion of mahendo’sat, this and the entire form of
government are subject to change without notice.
The Stsho
The stsho, native to remote Llyene, are a pale, hairless species, trisexual
hermaphrodites, one of each triad bearing young: but that same individual may
exist within another triad as a non-bearer. Stsho refuse to explain.
They are omnivores of great sensitivity and fragility. Their limbs break easily.
Their very personalities fragment under stress, which seems to serve as a social
absolution. It is very impolite to recognize a stsho who has changed persona, or
as stsho call it . . . Phased. An individual seems to go through many Phases in
life.
They trade. They are aesthetes and enjoy subtle distinctions in taste and sight.
They have forty-seven different words, for instance, for white.
Like hani, they prefer bowl-structures for chairs and beds. Their elaborate
architecture is apparently random and universally pastel in color.
They are the only natives of Compact space who need drugs to survive jump.
They permit no intrusion of oxygen-breathing species within their territory, but
they are utterly incapable of enforcing this except through their relationship
with the unpredictable methane-breathers who divide them from kif territory.
They share one border with the hani; methane-breathers come and go within their
space; and to their considerable distress they have discovered humans are at
their backs, on the side of stsho space nearest Llyene, which is a mysterious
and forbidden world.