Rhon
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Rhon refers to the group of psions from the Ruby Dynasty who can join the Triad and create/manage the Kyle Web, in Catherine Asaro's novels regarding the Saga of the Skolian Empire.
[edit] Origins
Created by a geneticist named Hezahr Rhon, the word also refers to the theory behind the creation of Rhon psions. When the Raylicans returned to space, millennia after the fall of the original Ruby empire, they discovered the Locks. Locks require extremely powerful psions, the higher the Kyle rating the better. Rhon have a Kyle rating so high as to be unmeasureable numerically.
Hezahr Rhon successfully isolated the alleles that combine to create Ruby psions. His initial project was undertaken as well to prevent the suffering of psions by attempting to modify their brains so they wouldn't receive the suffering of others. The attempt took a nightmarish turn for worse, and spawned a race of human beings whose KAB and KEB organs are hardwired to interpret pain signals from normal telepaths as orgasmic pleasure. When he realized what his creations were, Dr. Rhon wanted to destroy them; but they murdered him first and destroyed his work.
As a result there arose a race of people known as Aristos, whose members are utterly devoid of compassion save for a few exceptions (Corbal Xir, Tarquine Iquar, Jaibriol Qox III). Eube Qox, the highest ranking Aristo, founded the Eubian Concord and his descendants presently rule it.
Aristos are raised to believe that the pleasure obtained from torturing other telepaths is an inherent right. With this in mind, over the next several centuries they used Rhon's theories to breed lines of psisonic slaves whose sole purpose for existence is to be a provider of pleasure of all types, including physical and telepathic, to their owners.
The first actual Rhon psions were a pair of siblings meant to be bred to each other to found a pre-eminent line of providers. The male half of the pair, name unknown, suicided upon realizing his intended purpose. The female half of the pair, Lahaylia Selei, killed her captors and escaped. Lahaylia discovered a natural Rhon from a nearly dead race of Ruby colonists, named Jarac Skolia, and took him as her consort.
Lahaylia and Jarac were able to found the Skolian Imperialate using the power of the Locks to create the psiberweb. The psiberweb is a form of ansible, or faster-than-light communications network, that Lahaylia could use to tie her country's government and economy together (as the Assembly Key), and that Jarac (as the Military Key) could use to coordinate military movements with a speed and finesse that the Traders could not possibly match.
The Rhon project therefore indirectly created the initial modern Rhon family, whose history has since been plagued by forced marriages, numerous birth defects, war, and other tragedies.
All members of the Rhon are allowed to use the name Skolia. The ruling family of the Rhon are the Selei, members of whom order the succession to the Ruby Throne, upon which sits the Ruby Pharaoh. The Ruby Throne is also synonymous with the psiberweb term of Assembly Key, as the Pharaoh rules through coordinating the Assembly's communications throughout the Skolian empire.
[edit] Usage in modern Skolian empire
The Locks can support a limited number of Keys. A Key is a psion who engages a Lock to obtain access to psiberspace. The limit is determined by a psiberspace law equivalent to the Pauli Exclusion Principle, in that no more than one personality of a specific type can be joined to the Locks at any given time. Members that "join" the Locks are considered members of the Dyad or Triad, depending on the context of the novel in the series.
A Dyad is formed by two complementary personalities, and a Triad is formed by three such. The different Keys that can exist, (depending which time period the particular novel occurs in), are the Assembly Key, the Military Key, and the Web Key.
The personality powering the Assembly Key is required to have a peerless intellect and a piercing analytical mind. The Selei branch of the Rhon produces the Assembly Key: line of succession: Lahaylia, then Dyhianna, with Taquinil the designated successor. Therefore the person who is the Assembly Key takes the sobriquet of the "Mind of Skolia", or the style of Ruby Pharaoh, with at least the executive powers of chief-of-state.
The personality powering the Military Key is required to be robust, ruthless, agile, forceful, and uncompromising. The Skolia branch of the Rhon produces the Military Key: Jarac, Kurj, Althor Valdoria Skolia, Sauscony Valdoria Skolia, and Kelric Valdoria Skolia. Jarac's daughter Roca was mentioned as an emergency alternative choice, as while she does not have the military skills she has a personality more similar to Jarac than to the any of the other Rhon. Therefore the person who is the Military Key takes the sobriquet of the "Fist of Skolia", or the style of Imperator, with the executive power of commander-in-chief of all armed forces in the Imperialiate.
The personality powering the Web Key is not required to have any great intellectual or organization skill, merely large amounts of willpower and emotional strength. The only one so far who has ever been the Web Key was Eldrinson Althor Valdoria, consort of Roca Skolia. The person who is the Web Key takes the sobriquet of the "Heart of Skolia". No style presently obtains to the Web Key, however that person does have the de-facto executive power to parley on behalf of the Imperialate (in practice devolving from the executive power of the Ruby Pharaoh).
Each of these Keys has a line succession that is hereditary, though all the members of the Skolia family are in each of the lines at various points due to issues of consanguinity.
The Dyad or the Triad when acting together forms the full executive authority governing the Skolian empire.
