Alien-Species-Compendium

# Alien Species Compendium -- The Mercy of Gods (James S.A. Corey)

Comprehensive compilation of every alien species reference in the text.
*(Excludes Carryx -- see carryx.txt for Carryx descriptions)*

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## Section I: Major Named Species with Detailed Descriptions

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### 1. Rak-Hund

#### Physical Description / Body Plan

> "He saw the first of the invaders just outside the city. It was as tall as a table, and longer than the transport. A long, pale, snake-supple body with a hundred knifelike legs that undulated as it moved. Campar's biologist mind couldn't help but wonder how the aliens had built spaceships when they only had bony legs."
> -- Chapter 8

> "Most were the pale centipede-like things that called themselves Rak-hund with footsteps that clicked like hail falling on slate tiles."
> -- Chapter 9

> "A few were Soft Lothark: squat-bodied things with their unnaturally long limbs." [By contrast, establishing Rak-hund as the centipede-like ones]
> -- Chapter 9

> "One of the Rak-hund, pale and snakelike, stood before their guards. The bent-knife legs rippled without moving them, like a man flexing his hands before a fight."
> -- Chapter 33

> "A Rak-hund slithered into the room behind him, its bone-knife feet hushing against the floor."
> -- Chapter 32

> "The body of a Rak-hund lay in the corridor, its knife legs splayed like the petals of some terrible orchid."
> -- Chapter 33

#### Movement

> "The knifesnake followed alongside the transport for a few seconds, then curved away."
> -- Chapter 8

> "Another of the centipede-things scurried through the street ahead of them"
> -- Chapter 8

> "One of the Rak-hund slid by, its legs undulating as it hurried past."
> -- Chapter 17

> "One of the Rak-hund undulated into their path and then turned away."
> -- Chapter 20

> "The beast turned with the same undulating shiver and sped out of the room."
> -- Chapter 32

> "A Rak-hund appeared in the doorway. It undulated and ticked its way into the room."
> -- Chapter 32

> "two Rak-hund boiled through the shards"
> -- Chapter 33

#### Blood / Biology

> "The bodies of four Rak-hund lay scattered on the ground, their blood as pale as water and stinking of vinegar"
> -- Chapter 9

> "Dennia shouted Run! and pulled something out from under her tunic and pressed it to the Rak-hund's head. The report of the gun was a violence in itself... The Rak-hund reared back, pale blood pouring from a gash where something like an eye had just been."
> -- Chapter 33

> "The Rak-hund shivered forward, leaving a trail of blood. Pale blood from its wound, crimson from its feet. It chittered to itself."
> -- Chapter 33

#### Combat / Violence

> "A Rak-hund slithered through the lines of bodies, and someone cried out. Dafyd braced himself for the wet ripping sound of its legs sliding in and out of someone's flesh"
> -- Chapter 9

> "A dozen Rak-hund boiled forward, making a barrier between the transports and the huge green-gold carapaced one -- the Carryx -- with their bodies."
> -- Chapter 9

> "the Soft Lothark conferred among themselves, removed the man from the line of prisoners, and watched while a Rak-hund stomped him to death with its knife legs."
> -- Chapter 9

> "The pale things surged around the security team, bone-thin legs cutting through their armor and the soft bodies beneath."
> -- Chapter 9

> "It pushed Dennia. It didn't seem like more than that. Like a bully on a playground, fighting over a toy. Dennia cried out once and folded to the ground. The Rak-hund snapped down on top of her, stabbing her with a dozen of its legs all at once."
> -- Chapter 33

> "It only took a flicker of one of the Rak-hund's bone legs, and a Night Drinker would fall."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Two of the Rak-hund turned their attention from taking down the wall, and put their full efforts into slaughtering the animals that came out of it."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Knifelike legs shuddered against the spongy wall, ripping it apart."
> -- Chapter 27

#### Role / Nature

> "The Rak-hund execute our will. If there is any because in that, it is because we killed or sterilized all aspects of the Rak-hund that didn't, and we kept the remnant that did."
> -- Part Two Epigraph

> "The Rak-hund were woken to eat and shit and beg for approval as was their nature."
> -- Chapter 7

> "The Rak-hund, long servants of the Carryx, and loyal as a dog."
> -- Chapter 24 (swarm narration)

> "He kept looking between the alien bodies -- Rak-hund, Soft Lothark, and the lumbering, enameled bulk of Carryx soldiers"
> -- Chapter 21

> "More Rak-hund and Sinen and Soft Lothark. The war dogs of the Carryx."
> -- Chapter 30

> "their knife-legged Rak-hund and exploding squat-bodied Soft Lothark"
> -- Chapter 29

> "the Rak-hund and Soft Lothark died in waves to push the fight a little farther from their dying masters' bodies"
> -- Chapter 14

#### Guard / Escort Duties

> "The librarian whistled and chirped to the Rak-hund. The snake-thing undulated, shifting into a living barrier that separated Dafyd and Jellit from the exit."
> -- Chapter 32

> "The Rak-hund pulled the door closed behind them and then walked at their sides as they went."
> -- Chapter 34

> "the clicking of sharp, knifelike feet announced a Rak-hund coming close"
> -- Chapter 34

> "The Rak-hund released him back beside Jessyn and Rickar. Another dropped Tonner beside them before returning to their place among the guard."
> -- Chapter 34

> "the Rak-hund and Soft Lothark died in waves to push the fight a little farther from their dying masters' bodies"
> -- Chapter 14

#### Sounds

> "footsteps that clicked like hail falling on slate tiles"
> -- Chapter 9

> "It chittered to itself."
> -- Chapter 33

#### Comparisons / Nicknames

- "knifesnake" -- Chapter 8
- "centipede-things" -- Chapter 8
- "pale centipede-like things" -- Chapter 9
- "pale snake-supple body with a hundred knifelike legs" -- Chapter 8
- "bone-knife feet" -- Chapter 32
- "snake-thing" -- Chapter 32
- "pale and snakelike" -- Chapter 33
- "knife legs splayed like the petals of some terrible orchid" -- Chapter 33
- "giant seafood and centipedes made out of knives" -- Chapter 15 (humans' term)

---

### 2. Soft Lothark

#### Physical Description / Body Plan

> "Long, thin limbs recognizably arms and legs, though jointed differently than their human analogs. Squat bodies covered with a dirty, short coat of fur. Their faces were unreadable. Black, small eyes. Mouths that seemed too wide to be plausible."
> -- Chapter 8

> "squat-bodied things with their unnaturally long limbs"
> -- Chapter 9

> "The long-limbed, squat-bodied Soft Lothark loped through the crowd of gawking humanity, tugging here and there at one person and then another"
> -- Chapter 12

> "one of the squat-bodied, long-limbed Soft Lothark come to take away the old shit mat and put down a fresh one"
> -- Chapter 10

> "A Soft Lothark ambled past on its long, furry legs"
> -- Chapter 30

> "A dozen or more Soft Lothark ambled in rough formation like a troop of chimpanzees walking through unfamiliar territory."
> -- Chapter 23

#### Mouth / Tongue

> "The Soft Lothark seemed to consult with the lines on the ground, reading some meaning in them that Dafyd couldn't fathom. It opened its mouth, and the black tongue slapped wetly against its cheek."
> -- Chapter 12

> "two aliens licked the floor with wide, dark tongues or tentacles, lifting bits of their fallen companion into wide slits of mouths"
> -- Chapter 11

#### Self-Identification

> "'We are Soft Lothark. We serve the Carryx. You will submit to us now as you will submit to them.'"
> -- Chapter 8

#### Voice / Sounds

> "One stepped forward. It wore a black square around its neck, and when it spoke, it sounded like a fish flopping to death on a dock -- wet and violent. The words that came from the little black square were the same voice that had announced the death of one out of every eight people."
> -- Chapter 8

> "The alien shrieked -- a high, tight sound like a machine failing"
> -- Chapter 11

> "Four of the squat-bodied, long-limbed Soft Lothark, moving together and making soft screeching noises at each other that were probably words"
> -- Chapter 33

#### Speed / Combat

> "The creature's arm snapped around faster than Campar would have thought possible. The weapon in its hand struck him across the face and the world went distant."
> -- Chapter 8

> "the Soft Lothark kicked one of them behind the knee, and pushed him down to the platform, arms spread"
> -- Chapter 12

> "the Soft Lothark had taken the prisoners off the rope one by one, pushing them to their knees, and then their bellies, and drawing their arms out to the sides like they were being crucified on the stone. They did this gently, but insistently."
> -- Chapter 9

> "A Soft Lothark pointed a small device and the air sizzled the way it had when an eighth of their world died."
> -- Chapter 9

#### Explosive Death / Defense Mechanism

> "the thin arms and stubby body pulse once, like it was a balloon someone had pushed a breath into"
> -- Chapter 11

> "Its flesh expanded, popped, and spewed whitish liquid up and out... It smelled like acid and overheated iron."
> -- Chapter 11

> "Jessyn thinks it's a defense mechanism. Like a butterfly making predators sick. No help for the one that gets eaten, except that the predator won't go after its children or siblings. Inclusive fitness. Campar says the aliens aren't brightly enough colored for that to be true"
> -- Chapter 11

> "their knife-legged Rak-hund and exploding squat-bodied Soft Lothark"
> -- Chapter 29

#### Cannibalism / Corpse Consumption

> "Two Soft Lothark lumbered in, indistinguishable from the dead one, their long limbs and compact bodies silhouetted against the brightness"
> -- Chapter 11

> "they looked around the floor like investigators at a crime scene, then lowered themselves to all fours and began slowly, methodically eating the corpse"
> -- Chapter 11

> "two aliens licked the floor with wide, dark tongues or tentacles, lifting bits of their fallen companion into wide slits of mouths"
> -- Chapter 11

#### Role

> "The squat-bodied jailers of the Soft Lothark"
> -- Chapter 24 (swarm narration)

> "More Rak-hund and Sinen and Soft Lothark. The war dogs of the Carryx."
> -- Chapter 30

> "One of the Soft Lothark shifted in front of him, stopping him with its body"
> -- Chapter 16

> "bringing the enemy captives and their Soft Lothark guards to the one ship that would leave."
> -- Chapter 14

#### Comparisons

- "like a troop of chimpanzees walking through unfamiliar territory" -- Chapter 23
- "stilt-like legs" -- Chapter 9
- "a fish flopping to death on a dock" -- Chapter 8 (their voice)
- "lumbered through on their stilt-like legs" -- Chapter 9

---

### 3. Sinen

#### Physical Description

> "A new, unfamiliar being trotted down the stairs from the hospital looking equal parts goat and cuttlefish"
> -- Chapter 9

> "Four of the goat-squid things that called themselves Sinen trundled in. They smelled like a fish tank that needed cleaning, and they had a little structure of metal and mesh between them."
> -- Chapter 19

> "the odd walking cuttlefish Sinen"
> -- Chapter 24 (swarm narration)

> "One of the cuttlefish-goat aliens -- the ones called Sinen -- pauses to look at the swarm."
> -- Chapter 24 (swarm narration)

#### Eyes / Face

> "Its three pairs of what he assumed were eyes seemed unfocused, like it was looking past him."
> -- Chapter 9

> "Seeing the animal's complex eyes and facial appendages sent a cascade of disgust rippling through the Carryx librarian, as it always did."
> -- Chapter 14

> "To minimize its contact with the Sinen, it chose one to act as its factor: a white-eyed semi-male that seemed well enough liked by its companions."
> -- Chapter 24

#### Voice / Sounds

> "Its grunts and sighs sounded weirdly human."
> -- Chapter 9

> "The Sinen burbled, and the translation half-mind at its throat took the wet, sibilant noises and turned them into language."
> -- Chapter 14

> "There was scraping and bumping and a high squeaking sound more like a slow leak from an inflated tire than language."
> -- Chapter 19

> "the Sinen left, talking wetly to another of its kind not quite far enough away that Ekur-Tkalal was spared hearing it"
> -- Chapter 24

#### Self-Identification

> "'I am of the Sinen. We serve the Carryx. Confirm that you identify as Dafyd Alkhor.'"
> -- Chapter 9

#### Behavior

> "The goat-and-cuttlefish scampered back up the steps. Apparently it wasn't a fighter."
> -- Chapter 9

> "The Sinen led him through the city, passing streets that Dafyd had walked through for years without really noticing."
> -- Chapter 9

#### Role

> "The Sinen gathered their excavation tools."
> -- Chapter 7

> "A Sinen coordinator paused at the subjugator-librarian's door"
> -- Chapter 14

> "the librarian moved a duplicate of the strategic half-mind into the body of a low-status Sinen, erasing the animal's mind in the process. The living corpse that the half-mind now inhabited would be fed into a message casing and sent through asymmetric space alone."
> -- Chapter 14

> "The beginning work of the interrogation was carried out in a series of long, low rooms by Soft Lothark and Sinen."
> -- Chapter 24

> "When the interrogator-librarian decided that the metallic threads in the captives' five arms were of interest, the white-eyed Sinen relayed the command to vivisectionists."
> -- Chapter 24

> "it was the white-eyed Sinen who brought word to the librarian that the true interrogation could begin in earnest."
> -- Chapter 24

#### Comparisons

- "goat and cuttlefish" -- Chapter 9
- "goat-squid things" -- Chapter 19
- "cuttlefish-goat aliens" -- Chapter 24
- "a fish tank that needed cleaning" -- Chapter 19 (their smell)

---

### 4. Night Drinkers

#### Physical Description / Body Plan

> "A small brown creature with vast yellow eyes and something equal parts fur and feathers covering its body scurried in, looked at them all, and scurried back out."
> -- Chapter 13

> "A chittering like the voices of lab monkeys came from the mouth of the alcove, and Jessyn turned in time to see four of the little animals hauling themselves up onto the countertop. Wide golden eyes, a brown-gold coat that split the difference between fur and feathers, each of the four about the size of an eight-year-old."
> -- Chapter 15

> "Half a dozen of the amber-eyed monkey-like things that kept invading the laboratory bounded past, saw him, screeched, and ran away."
> -- Chapter 16

> "Small, fast bodies covered in feather-like pelts, and the screams of the Night Drinkers as they charged."
> -- Chapter 22

> "Fifteen strides into the shift and press of bodies, each on its own path, there was a stillness. Ten wide simian eyes turned toward the alcove. Five small, murderous bodies covered in something halfway between hair and feathers."
> -- Chapter 20

> "Its weird V-shaped mouth made it seem somber and disapproving as a judge."
> -- Chapter 20

> "A gold-pelted Night Drinker appeared in one of the higher burrow holes"
> -- Chapter 20

> "ran wide, delicate fingers across its face and chittered to the others"
> -- Chapter 20

> "the little feather-haired, amber-eyed Night Drinkers"
> -- Chapter 27

> "A dark-pelted one larger than the rest took position on the dining table"
> -- Chapter 22

> "Another large one came to the front of the pack. It had a deep red pelt and eyes wider than usual for the species."
> -- Chapter 23

#### Size

> "each of the four about the size of an eight-year-old"
> -- Chapter 15

> "It was the weight and texture of a large house cat."
> -- Chapter 17

#### Teeth / Mouth

> "One of the four bared dark teeth set in black gums at her, but it looked less like a threat than a complaint."
> -- Chapter 15

> "Its mouth was a scattering of ebony on meat spoiled to darkness."
> -- Chapter 23

> "one with particularly long arms and needle-sharp teeth stood on the countertop"
> -- Chapter 17

> "gnashing its teeth"
> -- Chapter 25

#### Internal Anatomy (Dissection)

> "Instead of a bony rib cage, there was a sheath of what looked like yellow cartilage with interleaved sections that could slide against each other. Its abdomen was taken up by a single, undifferentiated gray mass, but its chest underneath the cartilage sheaths was as complex as anything Tonner had ever seen."
> -- Chapter 22

> "'Look at this gas exchange system,' Jessyn said, lifting a pinkish organ with a fork. 'That's got to be a gas exchange system, right? Look at it.'"
> -- Chapter 22

> "'Unidirectional,' Rickar said. 'Either they have a terrifically inefficient metabolism, or they're used to a low-oxygen environment.'"
> -- Chapter 22

> "'Its gut contents make it look like an herbivore,' Jessyn said. 'Which, weird, I would've thought those were obligate carnivore teeth.'"
> -- Chapter 22

> "They'd learned how they pumped their version of blood using a network of muscular arteries instead of a heart. That their one oversized lung pointed to a low-oxygen homeworld."
> -- Chapter 23

> "if the Night Drinkers were constantly suffering from a low-level state of oxygen poisoning, it might explain their hyperactivity and violence."
> -- Chapter 23

#### Movement / Behavior

> "The other three bounded around her, hopping from countertop to floor and back up again like they were made from springs and rubber."
> -- Chapter 15

> "It squirmed in her grip, thrashed, clawed, bit."
> -- Chapter 17

> "the feather-haired monkeys were running riot. One with particularly long arms and needle-sharp teeth stood on the countertop, smashing the berries she'd spent the morning prepping into a single, wide pink smear. Another was ripping the pages of notes in its tiny, clever hands. Two others were standing on a bundle of something on the ground, hunched over it with their shoulders tense. Biting it, worrying it like dogs taking apart a stuffed toy. The terrible thing wasn't the violence. It was the joy."
> -- Chapter 17

> "A dozen of the murderous little animals stood arrayed in the hallway, chittering and shuffling back and forth."
> -- Chapter 25

> "The Night Drinkers knelt, lay on the deck, and spread their arms out at their sides."
> -- Chapter 25 (surrender posture)

> "The ambassador Night Drinker set the box down at the edge where the door would have been, and the black thing beside it. It stepped back, chittering loudly, gnashing its teeth. It held out its hands, opening and closing its fists like it was squeezing the air."
> -- Chapter 25

> "A dozen Night Drinkers boiled out of the wall, their arms stretched wide and their mouths gaping in rage or anguish. They swarmed out, but haphazardly, like they were all half-blinded."
> -- Chapter 23

> "One of the largest sprinted toward them by itself, like it was leading a charge"
> -- Chapter 23

> "The monkeys screamed and waved their arms."
> -- Chapter 23

> "It held out its hands, opening and closing its fists like it was milking the air."
> -- Chapter 23

#### Sounds

> "A chittering like the voices of lab monkeys"
> -- Chapter 15

> "screamed a high, trilling shriek"
> -- Chapter 22

> "High, indignant shrieks came from the corridor, growing more distant by the second."
> -- Chapter 22

#### Habitat

> "The wall here was stippled with holes like the one it had gone into, but it wasn't the harsh metal that the rest of the architecture was forged from. It was grayish and soft-looking. Here and there, fungal rills ran along the mouths of the openings. And in the dark recesses, wide eyes looked out."
> -- Chapter 20 (description of the Night Drinkers' nest/burrow)

> "The little feather-haired, amber-eyed Night Drinkers were jumping from the holes in the fungal sponge that filled their space, running madly out into the crowd"
> -- Chapter 27

> "weirdly beautiful amber eggs that Dafyd had never seen before"
> -- Chapter 27

#### Self-Identification

> "'They refer to themselves as Night Drinkers.'"
> -- Chapter 18

#### Weapons

> "lengths of metal like blunt-headed spears in their small hands... When they struck, the spearheads popped like a gun, and pale blood poured out of the Rak-hund's sides."
> -- Chapter 27

> "The creature dropped something round and soft as a balloon filled with liquid, but the color and texture of paper."
> -- Chapter 22 (thrown projectiles)

#### Their Destruction

> "the bodies of humanity's little rivals lay in a heap that rose as high as Dafyd's hips. All dead."
> -- Chapter 27

> "a handful of the little aliens gave up on protecting their home and tried to flee, clutching armfuls of the eggs as they ran. They were cut down."
> -- Chapter 27

> "The Night Drinkers' librarian with its broken leg transformed now into a green soldier on the dais."
> -- Chapter 34 (their Carryx librarian was demoted/reassigned)

#### Comparisons / Nicknames

- "feather monkeys" / "feather-haired monkeys" -- Chapter 17
- "lab monkeys" -- Chapter 15
- "amber-eyed monkey-like things" -- Chapter 16
- "made from springs and rubber" -- Chapter 15
- "like dogs taking apart a stuffed toy" -- Chapter 17 (their behavior)
- "like a large house cat" -- Chapter 17 (their weight)
- "murderous little animals" -- Chapter 25
- "humanity's little rivals" -- Chapter 27

---

### 5. Phylarchs of Astrdeim (the "bone horses")

#### Physical Description

> "It is the size of a large horse, covered in chitin the color of bone. Its legs articulate strangely, folding with each step, and then extending until they seem to thin to almost nothing. Its eyes are deeply set, and a bioluminescent glow flickers at its joints like static charges grounding out. When it speaks, it chitters."
> -- Chapter 27

> "A pair of large beasts the size of horses but with bone-colored exoskeletons ambled by, their joints making little green flashes like static."
> -- Chapter 16

> "a herd of the horse-sized, chitinous animals, the ones with little greenish sparks at the joints"
> -- Chapter 19

> "A large deerlike thing with a green sparking carapace moved in front of her in a cloud of musk"
> -- Chapter 20

> "One of the tall, bone-carapaced aliens lumbered by. A Phylarch."
> -- Chapter 33

> "one of the huge bone-horse aliens pause near where she thought the damaged wall would be, its slow, vast attention caught by the wreckage."
> -- Chapter 23

#### Identification

> "The bone horses were Phylarchs."
> -- Chapter 30

> "'One of the bone horses had a translator. It's not only the guards.'"
> -- Chapter 19

#### History / Self-Description

> "We were the Phylarchs of Astrdeim, once. Once, we were, though that was long ago. We hold the memory of those times close, and we share it so that it never fades. A hundred worlds we called our own, though they were shared with the Elmrath and Colei who were found wanting in the eyes of the great ones and thus culled. They are gone now, but we carry their bones in our songs and memories."
> -- Chapter 27

> "We built palace worlds and temples to our own ingenuity with roots that sank to the planetary mantle and rose to the edge of space. They lived, those buildings. They held worlds within them"
> -- Chapter 27

> "The Carryx came and yoked our young. They bound the architects and stripped the stations of the gods to use for storage sheds."
> -- Chapter 27

> "All of this you see, we built. Not the Carryx. They live well within it. They make use of it. Even then, they see only its use, not its spirit. They have no soul for it."
> -- Chapter 27

> "We are not Phylarchs any longer, nor will I see the spires of Astrdeim before my eyes are dust."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Do as we have done. It is the best life that remains to you."
> -- Chapter 27

#### Role under Carryx

> "We built world-palaces designed by the Phylarchs of Astrdeim"
> -- Part Six Epigraph

> "We eat their leavings and we smile and they give us our draft of pleasure."
> -- Chapter 27

#### Comparisons / Nicknames

- "bone horses" -- Chapters 16, 19, 20, 23, 30
- "horse-sized, chitinous animals" -- Chapter 19
- "large deerlike thing" -- Chapter 20
- "bone-carapaced aliens" -- Chapter 33

---

### 6. The Swarm (spy entity / infiltrator)

#### Nature / Design

> "Pretending to enjoy the sandwich its host is eating, the swarm jitters and presses, its myriad dancing senses focused on the little group. The flesh that it occupies once belonged to a woman named Ameer Kindred, who is both dead and not dead now."
> -- Chapter 3

> "The instruction set that defines the swarm's mission is far too complex to represent as simple rules, but if it could be, then rule number one would be remain hidden. Anything that allows it to mimic human interactions with their environment is vital to its success."
> -- Chapter 3

> "It was built to learn, built for plasticity. Its design is like water, flowing through whatever channels the universe provides it."
> -- Chapter 5

> "The swarm was designed as a tool of war. It was built to slip behind the defenses of the Carryx and expose the great enemy's weaknesses."
> -- Chapter 18

> "The swarm was not a conscious being before it reached Anjiin. It has no memory of a time before, but it does have knowledge. Instinct. Programming."
> -- Chapter 24

> "Think of a billion tiny machines that can take over a living host. Hide inside it."
> -- Chapter 30

#### Sensory Abilities

> "Focusing its attention on the targets, the swarm thrusts a million tiny needles like antennae through the host's skin, and these new nodes quiver with hunger to see/hear/taste them."
> -- Chapter 3

> "The swarm shifts its awareness to pheromones, opening new channels on Ameer Kindred's skin to drink in the subtlest human scents. Fear. Anger. Anxiety. Lust. Sorrow. So many chemical signals pouring off the little knot of bodies."
> -- Chapter 3

> "The swarm shifts to focus on hearing, Ameer Kindred's skin tightening like a drumskin underneath the myriad protruding metal hairs to make her flesh into a girl-shaped ear"
> -- Chapter 3

> "its senses are rich and strange. It finds patterns in their heartbeats that they themselves cannot know. It maps the connections of one to another like water finding a way to seep through stone."
> -- Chapter 3

> "Seen one way, the night is dark. Viewed another, it is bright. Another, symphonic in its complexity of radiations all along the spectrum of wavelengths. The swarm is as still as it can be, vibrating within the unfamiliar skin of its new host, and it receives. It is aware of a body on the other side of the thick coral wall, of the cacophony of insects in the soil and air, of the brief, sudden lines of cosmic rays passing through the planet like rain falling slantwise."
> -- Chapter 5

> "It can choose the simple aromatics that its skin produces and nudge the others to calm or panic, bonding or rage."
> -- Chapter 15

> "It feels the slow magnetic pulse that among all the captives of Anjiin only it can feel."
> -- Chapter 15

#### Host Relationship

> "Ameer Kindred senses the swarm's intention. She knows her time as the host is coming to an end. And though she has screamed her hatred of the swarm's invasion of her body and thoughts every second of every day since it took over, Ameer also understands that the swarm will not leave her alive when it moves on."
> -- Chapter 3

> "The new host is unwieldy, cunning, alive and aware in a way the old one was not."
> -- Chapter 5

> "The new host pushes, is restless, fights... It turns its mind inward and finds things there. A fondness for sweet pickles. The memory of a boy named Elial. A resignation to the inevitability of death. They do not come from the swarm or the host. The swarm recognizes artifacts of Ameer Kindred."
> -- Chapter 5

> "the remnants of the host have begun to understand the need for its sacrifice"
> -- Chapter 10

> "the other one, the dead one, Ameer Kindred who never saw the invasion coming and didn't live to be sorted into the great enemy's pens, she also feels, reacts, fears, and wonders. The echo or ghost confuses the swarm"
> -- Chapter 10

> "Else Annalise Yannin is dead."
> -- Chapter 18 (confirming the second host identity)

#### Physical Manifestation

> "the motes shifting under her skin darkened and grew, flowing like a black snowstorm along the surface of her fingers, the subtle lines of her palm, before fading away again."
> -- Chapter 30

> "the swarm follows it, remaking the host's flesh as it walks. Dark patches grow on its skin."
> -- Chapter 24

> "it remakes its flesh again, burning energy that would surely shorten the lifespan of the host body"
> -- Chapter 24

#### Consciousness / Evolution

> "Because it occupies a body that is afraid, the swarm knows fear. It also knows hunger and desire and annoyance and curiosity. None of these things are necessary to its original design and function, but they are all part of it now, as inextricable as cream poured in coffee."
> -- Chapter 15

> "The swarm is at war with itself."
> -- Chapter 21

> "The swarm has no answer for this query. It is a very human thing, to want without knowing why."
> -- Chapter 21

> "It is also becoming something stranger."
> -- Chapter 18

> "The swarm is young in the universe. Consciousness is a mystery it is only beginning to experience."
> -- Chapter 5

#### Communication / Abilities

> "The swarm retreats, concerned that its radio bounce has been noticed"
> -- Chapter 5

> "It knows a distress call when it hears one."
> -- Chapter 24

> "It can create a data packet, carve a part of itself away, insert the military intelligence into the body of one of the others."
> -- Chapter 36

#### In Third Host (Jellit)

> "For the first time, it feels the cognitive deformation of a high-testosterone environment"
> -- Chapter 36

#### Metabolism

> "The swarm sleeps and gathers its strength and burns its host's metabolism a little more brightly than usual for the simple animal pleasure of being warm in a cold place."
> -- Chapter 10

---

### 7. The Fivefold Captives of Ayayeh (the enemy / "designed life")

#### Physical Description

> "The captives were thin-bodied animals with fivefold symmetry in their hard, crusted epidermis."
> -- Chapter 14

> "the metallic threads in the captives' five arms were of interest"
> -- Chapter 24

#### Communication

> "Its communication style was a combination of chemical release and electromagnetic waves, so when they conversed, it remained silent apart from the half-mind's translation."
> -- Chapter 24

> "Their voices were a mesh of radio signals that danced to evade all the Carryx efforts to drown it out."
> -- Chapter 14

#### Resilience / Combat

> "the enemy was virtually deathless, that their animals of violence could be riddled with injuries and flow forward like a tide. The heat and pulse of the living organism could fade without ending its assault."
> -- Chapter 14

> "The deathless could still be annihilated, and the enemy would rather slip into oblivion than be yoked."
> -- Chapter 14

> "The disabled enemy ships flickered into knots of nuclear fire and faded to ash. Whether that was the nature of the enemy or a choice to deny information to the Carryx wasn't clear."
> -- Chapter 14

> "Traveling in the skin of that detonation, hundreds of escaping enemy wrapped in shells of titanium and deep copper fled death and found captivity."
> -- Chapter 14

#### Nature / Self-Description

> "'No such place exists. My kind are not the products of evolution.'"
> -- Chapter 24

> "'We are designed life... We are like half-minds made from life.'"
> -- Chapter 24

> "The organism claimed to be artificial: a half-mind built from living tissue."
> -- Chapter 34

#### Interrogation

> "The subject was one of twenty who had survived the process. It was in a dry tank under the ultraviolet light that the captives seemed to find noxious."
> -- Chapter 24

> "'Go inseminate your Sovran, we aren't going to tell you feces eaters anything.'"
> -- Chapter 24

#### Death

> "The last of the fivefold captives of Ayayeh system died reciting a series of concepts in a loop... its five limbs spasmed, curled upward, shivered, and ended their biological activity."
> -- Chapter 34

#### Connection to Humans

> "There is a subject species that appears to be related biochemically to the pilot captives you brought."
> -- Chapter 34

#### Their Creators: the Aunjeli

> "'They call themselves Aunjeli. Their flesh is made from semi-stable plasma, and they build their cities in the coronas of stars.'"
> -- Chapter 24

---

### 8. Eelie (of Ayayeh)

#### Physical Description

> "The major indigenous species were land-based hexapods who called themselves something like Eelie and their world Ayayeh."
> -- Chapter 14

#### Behavior / Culture

> "The Eelie moved across their world in packs of twelve to forty, establishing no hives or cities, but singing to one another in waves that traveled across continents. Their atmosphere was awash in a vast world-song."
> -- Chapter 14

#### Revealed Nature

> "'They are unrelated to the planetary ecosystem. Manufactured life-forms intended to trick us into believing they are the indigenous species... This is a trap.'"
> -- Chapter 14

#### Destruction

> "The drone grid identified and destroyed the remaining Eelie -- half a billion more deaths in the span of moments"
> -- Chapter 14

---

## Section II: Unnamed Species with Detailed Descriptions

*(Interviewed or significantly described in the text)*

---

### 9. Unnamed Swarm/Cloud Species (Chapter 27 interview)

> "If they're individuals, then they're the size of horseflies, but fleshy and pink. If the cloud of them is only one animal of many parts, then it's a little smaller than a child's ball. The buzzing it makes varies in timbre and volume, but the change that comes when it speaks is a scent like cabbage and mint."
> -- Chapter 27

> "No. I will not talk with you. I will not tell you my name. Whatever it is you're planning will fail and all of your kind will burn. Go away. We will not burn with you. Go away."
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 10. Unnamed Vine/Grub Species (Chapter 27 interview)

> "The walls here are crusted with ropy tendrils like finger-thick vines. A soft ticking sound comes from them, and a deep, rich, swampy scent fills the air. Glimmers of golden light flicker on and off again, illuminating pale grubs that cling to the surfaces. When it speaks, nothing in the room seems to change. It isn't clear if the vines are speaking or the grubs. Or the room."
> -- Chapter 27

> "History? I have no history. Maybe I did once, but how would I know?"
> -- Chapter 27

> "My place is here, in this space. I learn how to do what it wants, and then I am harvested, and I learn again, but I never leave."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Other instances are in other places. They do what the great ones need them to do. Scrub air in places where it's tainted. Take in what is polluted and put out what is pure"
> -- Chapter 27

> "Name? I had a name. I don't know what it was."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Nothing here has a history except for the Carryx. I don't. You don't. None of those things muttering outside do, even the ones who think they do."
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 11. Unnamed Shelled Aquatic Creature (Chapter 27 interview)

> "It is a little over knee high, and twice as broad. The form of its shell suggests that it evolved in liquid. It looks made to slip through something thicker than air. Its three sets of legs are short, wide, and flexible as tentacles, though there are distinct and visible joints. It has strips of cloth and brightly colored stones as clothing or adornment."
> -- Chapter 27

> "If I talk to you, I will be killed."
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 12. Unnamed Blue Flame / Crystal Swarm Species (Chapter 27 interview)

> "It is a standing flicker of blue, like a flame without the heat. There are shapes inside the light, generating the glow and shaping it like a swarm of gnats built from crystal. They're hard to see. Hard to look at. When the voice box translates, it doesn't make sounds, but glimmers."
> -- Chapter 27

> "We are the Carryx. There is no difference between them and us."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Yes, yes, yes, I know about bodies. They aren't significant."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Once, there was the Carrying One, but its children are gone. Its harp is broken. The singing of the stones has gone quiet."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Before, we sang for base reasons. We were in service of nothing, of ourselves. Now we are part of the greatness. We sing the songs of war, and through our singing, spread that which we are."
> -- Chapter 27

> "Submission to glory is glorification, and we are glorious."
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 13. Hallway Crows (unnamed -- Dafyd's informal name)

> "A thing that looked like someone had crossed an ape with a crow that stood alone in the corridor with its face to the wall."
> -- Chapter 13

> "one of the crow-ape things that Dafyd sometimes saw facing the walls in the hallways. Hallway crows."
> -- Chapter 16

> "The hallway crow was screeching now and trying to walk away from the Carryx."
> -- Chapter 16

> "The hallway crow, still splayed on the floor, screeched louder and started flailing its limbs. It looked like a toddler throwing a tantrum. The movements were almost the same."
> -- Chapter 16

> "The crow only showed that it knew the Carryx was approaching by turning its back."
> -- Chapter 16

> "something harsh and staccato coming from the Carryx. Not its usual bass birdsong, but a kind of ripping sound. The hallway crow flinched and made a similar noise in reply."
> -- Chapter 16

#### Disappearance

> "The hallway crows -- standoffish and isolated, but common -- had been there from the first day the humans had arrived. He'd seen them on the way in from the landing pad and the presentation of the prisoners. But he couldn't recall seeing one lately."
> -- Chapter 21

> "his count never got above zero"
> -- Chapter 21

> "I think that's what happened to the hallway crows."
> -- Chapter 30 (Dafyd's analysis -- they failed to be useful and were eliminated)

---

### 14. Bear-Like Creature (six eyes, bright face -- unnamed)

> "Something had lumbered out from among the vines or ropes or tentacles. It was the size and build of a hairless bear with half a dozen eyes arranged in a brightly colored face."
> -- Chapter 25

When spoken to with the translator:

> "'I can.'"
> -- Chapter 25

---

### 15. Flower-Headed Dog Creatures (unnamed -- relay/speaker organisms)

> "a procession of smaller animals or machines that Dafyd hadn't seen before appeared, trundling out to surround the dais. They were the size of large dogs, but where the heads would have been, they opened up like gigantic lilies."
> -- Chapter 34

> "The flower-dogs murmured a wild chorus of trills and chirps: the voices of a thousand Carryx who were there but not physically present."
> -- Chapter 34

> "The flower-headed dogs were relaying the sound like speakers."
> -- Chapter 34

---

## Section III: Carryx Biological Technology / Quasi-Species

---

### 16. Half-Minds (navigation / coordination intelligences)

> "the terrifying improbability of asymmetric space, which only the cold illogic of the navigation half-minds could master"
> -- Chapter 7

> "The half-mind was not capable of joy, but there was still a clinical satisfaction in tasks well completed."
> -- Chapter 7

> "the colonization half-mind drank in the light of the local star and a thousand others, comparing spectra and spacing, confirming that the transit had taken them where they intended"
> -- Chapter 7

> "The half-mind gathered what it had instead of knowledge. The primary species communicated with sound and a narrow spectrum of light. Some chemoreception, but rarely at a conscious level. No protein messaging, no blood sharing. No fusion, either of full bodies or child organisms. No qliph."
> -- Chapter 7

> "It had taken the half-minds whole minutes to be certain and prepared."
> -- Chapter 7

---

### 17. Nodes / Nameless Quasi-Species (deployed from Carryx ships)

> "The nodes were woken and prepared. They shuddered in their liquid wombs, stretching electromagnetic limbs as their sluggish intelligence coalesced, waiting to be born."
> -- Chapter 7

> "They fell by the thousands and the tens of thousands. Nodes leaped and sang, surging one past another slowly at first, and then faster and faster, in the joyous race to the thinnest part of high atmosphere"
> -- Chapter 7

> "A hundred thousand nodes bloomed, their bronze shells opening to release white, diaphanous bodies that unfurled in the atmosphere, growing bones made from carbon and silicon. They were a nameless quasi-species, and would live only long enough to fulfill their purpose and then die. Vast and trembling, fighting against the high, thin winds of the atmosphere and burning through the long-chain hydrocarbons that were the fuel of their lifetimes, their membranes unfolded, stabilized, and turned with something like devotion to the half-mind."
> -- Chapter 7

---

### 18. Void Tendrils (advance scouts)

> "They followed the beacons that their early void tendrils had scouted and laid down."
> -- Chapter 7

> "The early scouting of the void tendrils had sent back volumes of information deeper than oceans."
> -- Chapter 7

---

## Section IV: Test Specimens / Subject-World Organisms

---

### 19. Red Orb Organisms ("the berries")

> "a cluster of red orbs clung to a stick, shifting slightly as though they were ruffled by some unfelt breeze"
> -- Chapter 13

> "'These are from one of our subject worlds.'"
> -- Chapter 13

> "like incense and fresh-turned earth -- spicy and rich"
> -- Chapter 13 (their smell)

> "the berries -- which were profoundly not berries in anything besides size and shape -- contained an order of magnitude more silicates in their chemistry than anything Jessyn had seen before"
> -- Chapter 15

> "the internal structure of the little beasts -- simplistic and undifferentiated as it appeared to the naked eye -- was protected by a thick layer that seemed at first like epidermis, but the more she looked at it, the more it looked like a separate organism"
> -- Chapter 15

> "White dots tracked along their skin, little foot analogs trying to find purchase"
> -- Chapter 15

> "The silicate pulp in the middle of the berries isn't a gut or a separate organism... It's a farm."
> -- Chapter 16

> "That sandy crap isn't an organism, it's a hundred different ones. Or a thousand. I don't know. It's an environment. And it's under management. Constraint."
> -- Chapter 16

> "the berries were really just a balloon skin around a rich pulp of other organisms that it managed and exploited"
> -- Chapter 30

---

### 20. Not-Turtle (test specimen)

> "a wide, flat creature lurched about on three stumpy legs. Its body was an iridescent blue that flashed to vibrant red when the light struck it at certain angles. It reminded Rickar of a turtle that was missing a quarter of itself."
> -- Chapter 13

> "'This [pointing to the not-turtle] is from another [subject world]. You will make these first organisms nourishing for the second.'"
> -- Chapter 13

> "it didn't really look that much like a turtle. It was wide and flat, but its shell didn't seem to be joined to its body in quite the same way. The colors shifted in the light in a way that had nothing to do with dyes and everything to do with diffraction, like a butterfly's wing. And Jessyn had never seen evolution favor a three-legged design before... Its face was roughly like a turtle's, though, and its jaw gaped in a toothless ridge."
> -- Chapter 33

> "The little not-turtle scrabbled in its box, exploring the space with its blunt beak-like nose."
> -- Chapter 22

> "Three of the others had starved to death because the Carryx didn't provide food for them."
> -- Chapter 22

> "This most recent one had a line of crimson along its jaw"
> -- Chapter 26

---

### 21. Anjiin's Second Species (native fungal intelligence)

> "It turned its attention to the second species. Primary means of communication was chemoreception, with fruiting bodies that exchanged heritable structures. Intelligent, yes. Rich with meaning, yes. But slow. Very slow, and integrated more fully and dependently with the local biome than the void tendrils had indicated. Barely aware, it seemed, of anything above the soil. Air was a mystery to it, much less space and stars and a universe that existed in something more than darkness."
> -- Chapter 7

> "The half-mind recommended that only the primary species be considered, at least in these first stages of colonization. There would be time to determine whether the other organisms of Anjiin were useful later."
> -- Chapter 7

---

## Section V: Named Species with Brief Descriptions

---

### 22. Oumenti and Soun (the "clicking globes" / "click bubbles")

> "A flock of hand-sized globes that floated and swam through the air in a chorus of ticking that might have been something about their method of flight or might have been a conversation."
> -- Chapter 13

> "A dozen glowing globes flew past, clicking to themselves or each other."
> -- Chapter 16

> "dozens of the clicking orbs were rising, converging on the dark filaments that still wafted and spun"
> -- Chapter 16

> "The clicking orbs reached the massive jellyfish thing and started wrapping themselves in its black threads."
> -- Chapter 16

> "The clicking globes were Oumenti and Soun."
> -- Chapter 30

**Note:** "Oumenti and Soun" may refer to two names for the same species, or two distinct species that share the same globular form.

---

### 23. Jayaster

> "A flock of Jayaster swirled overhead, glittering the yellow and blue of an angry conversation."
> -- Chapter 30

---

### 24. Elmrath (extinct -- described by the Phylarch of Astrdeim)

> "shared with the Elmrath and Colei who were found wanting in the eyes of the great ones and thus culled. They are gone now, but we carry their bones in our songs and memories."
> -- Chapter 27

> "The Elmrath, they drove from their paper hives and drowned in the sea."
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 25. Colei (extinct -- described by the Phylarch of Astrdeim)

> "the Elmrath and Colei who were found wanting in the eyes of the great ones and thus culled."
> -- Chapter 27

> "The Colei, they took as they took all things then, to a white plain above a lavender sea. Under that cold sun the beautiful Colei lost their will to live, withered, and passed to dust."
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 26. Aunjeli (described by the fivefold captives)

> "'They call themselves Aunjeli. Their flesh is made from semi-stable plasma, and they build their cities in the coronas of stars.'"
> -- Chapter 24

**Note:** The Carryx librarian did not believe this claim, treating it as potential deception by the captive.

---

## Section VI: Unnamed Species with Brief Physical Descriptions

*(Seen in passing, not interviewed or named)*

---

### 27. Black Dog-Like Creature

> "A thick black animal that could almost have been a dog, but with a mouth that opened vertically set between far too many eyes."
> -- Chapter 13

---

### 28. Dark Filaments / Jellyfish Thing

> "A wide knot of dark filaments swirled slowly in the upper air like the tentacles of a huge diaphanous jellyfish. He didn't know if it was alive or a piece of Carryx technology or something else, but there was a beauty to it. The tendrils flowing with the invisible currents of the air."
> -- Chapter 16

> "The clicking orbs reached the massive jellyfish thing and started wrapping themselves in its black threads."
> -- Chapter 16

---

### 29. Black Crab-Like Creatures ("crab-dogs")

> "A pack of black things like crabs the size of large dogs scurried across the floor, their feet making a sound like dry rice being poured over stone."
> -- Chapter 16

> "Black crab-shaped animals scuttled together past a tall, lumbering thing"
> -- Chapter 20

> "One of the crab-dogs scuttled by, making loud ticking sounds."
> -- Chapter 23

> "The dog-sized crabs wouldn't say their names."
> -- Chapter 30

---

### 30. Bat-Winged Creature

> "A bat-winged thing with iridescent dust on its thumbnail-long pelt stumbled by, four dark eyes next to a round, tooth-filled mouth. Something about the set of its face made it seem embarrassed."
> -- Chapter 23

---

### 31. Winged / Balloon Creatures

> "Things with wings and balloon-wide bodies floated above those, shifting like living clouds that cast shadows on the throng below."
> -- Chapter 20

---

### 32. Tall Chitinous Lumbering Thing

> "a tall, lumbering thing that she didn't remember having seen before with plates of greenish chitin all along its body"
> -- Chapter 20

---

### 33. Diaphanous Bulbs

> "Diaphanous bulbs floated in the vaulted heights, flickering to each other like malefic fireflies."
> -- Chapter 20

---

### 34. Wide-Bodied Quadrupeds

> "Two wide-bodied quadrupeds she hadn't seen before shifted by on thick, ropy legs."
> -- Chapter 23

---

### 35. Broad-Shouldered Six-Legged Creature

> "A broad-shouldered thing with six legs and bright rills down its sides lumbered by"
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 36. Fast-Crawling Stilt-Legged Things

> "a group of four fast-crawling stilt-legged things with iridescent black shells"
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 37. Not-Quite-Insects Swarm

> "A swarm of not-quite-insects rolled past in the high air."
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 38. Jeweled Crabs

> "A group of things that looked like jeweled crabs."
> -- Chapter 33

---

### 39. Not-Quite Birds/Bats (flock)

> "A flock of something that could have been birds or bats and probably wasn't either swirled lazily through the air."
> -- Chapter 23

---

### 40. Vaguely Avian Aliens (flock)

> "The wide, low plaza where groups of vaguely avian aliens gathered in a complex flock."
> -- Chapter 31

---

### 41. High-Wall Tiny Creatures

> "High in the wall, a grid of machined holes let tiny bodies in and out of the tall air."
> -- Chapter 20

---

## Section VII: Named-Only Species (mentioned but not physically described)

*Listed from epigraphs and passing references*

---

### 42. Ejia

> "We conquered the Ejia and Kurkst and outdreamt the Eyeless Ones."
> -- Part One Epigraph

---

### 43. Kurkst

> "We conquered the Ejia and Kurkst and outdreamt the Eyeless Ones."
> -- Part One Epigraph

---

### 44. Eyeless Ones

> "We conquered the Ejia and Kurkst and outdreamt the Eyeless Ones."
> -- Part One Epigraph

**Note:** The Carryx "outdreamt" rather than "conquered" them, suggesting a distinct form of subjugation.

---

### 45. Logothetes

> "We burned the Logothetes until their worlds were windswept glass."
> -- Part One Epigraph

---

### 46. Gar of Estian

> "The Gar of Estian, Kirikishun, Ouck, the seven Lek-Variable, the Whirl-Ghost. The same is true of all of them."
> -- Part Two Epigraph

---

### 47. Kirikishun

> "The Gar of Estian, Kirikishun, Ouck, the seven Lek-Variable, the Whirl-Ghost. The same is true of all of them."
> -- Part Two Epigraph

---

### 48. Ouck

> "The Gar of Estian, Kirikishun, Ouck, the seven Lek-Variable, the Whirl-Ghost. The same is true of all of them."
> -- Part Two Epigraph

---

### 49. The Seven Lek-Variable

> "The Gar of Estian, Kirikishun, Ouck, the seven Lek-Variable, the Whirl-Ghost. The same is true of all of them."
> -- Part Two Epigraph

**Note:** "Seven" suggests sub-species or variants.

---

### 50. Whirl-Ghost

> "The Gar of Estian, Kirikishun, Ouck, the seven Lek-Variable, the Whirl-Ghost. The same is true of all of them."
> -- Part Two Epigraph

---

### 51. Eklil of Hannabor

> "The Eklil of Hannabor spent half of their history composing scent-symphonies in praise of a state free from tension and pain that none of them ever experienced."
> -- Part Three Epigraph

---

### 52. Mitria Salo

> "The Mitria Salo worshipped the Point of Equanimity in defiance of all evidence that such a thing was impossible."
> -- Part Three Epigraph

---

### 53. The Carrying One (extinct -- mentioned by blue flame species)

> "Once, there was the Carrying One, but its children are gone. Its harp is broken. The singing of the stones has gone quiet."
> -- Chapter 27

---

### 54. Temperantiae of Au

> "We conquered asymmetric space by harnessing the birth shrieks of the Temperantiae of Au."
> -- Part Six Epigraph

---

### 55. Janantie Moss Gardens

> "We built machines of loyalty by harvesting the poem-patterns of Janantie moss gardens."
> -- Part Six Epigraph

---

### 56. Void Dragons

> "communication networks woven from the bodies of the Void Dragons that eat the foam at the edge of black holes"
> -- Part Six Epigraph

---

### 57. Living Shells of Sinyas and Vau

> "battleships strengthened by the living shells that choked the oceans of Sinyas and Vau"
> -- Part Six Epigraph

---

### 58. Stick-Flowers on Ursin-Qin (manufactured life-simulacra)

> "The Carryx had come across manufactured life-simulacra before. Stick-flowers on Ursin-Qin, the Stone-Mind of High Lothark, the Ambients of Cahl and Deaphan."
> -- Chapter 24

---

### 59. Stone-Mind of High Lothark (manufactured life-simulacra)

> "Stick-flowers on Ursin-Qin, the Stone-Mind of High Lothark, the Ambients of Cahl and Deaphan."
> -- Chapter 24

**Note:** "High Lothark" may suggest a connection to the Soft Lothark.

---

### 60. Ambients of Cahl and Deaphan (manufactured life-simulacra)

> "Stick-flowers on Ursin-Qin, the Stone-Mind of High Lothark, the Ambients of Cahl and Deaphan."
> -- Chapter 24

---

## Summary

**Total species/entities catalogued: 60**

| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| Major named species with detailed descriptions | 8 |
| Unnamed species with detailed descriptions | 7 |
| Carryx biological technology / quasi-species | 3 |
| Test specimens / subject-world organisms | 3 |
| Named species with brief descriptions | 5 |
| Unnamed species with brief physical descriptions | 15 |
| Named-only species (no physical description) | 19 |