Principality of Kesh

This page is for the civilization that appears in COUNTER/Weight and Twilight Mirage. For other uses of the term Kesh, see Kesh (disambiguation).

“

We represent a civilization called the Principality of Kesh, and if you’re wondering why you haven’t heard of us, that is because we are very good at not being heard of.”

– Demani Dusk, Twilight Mirage 24: godspeed, glory Pt. 3

Principality of Kesh
Leaders	Chess Kesh The Prince
Members	Addax Dawn Andara Aurora Demani Dusk Gray Gloaming Maryland September Maxine Ming Keen Forester Gloaming
Area of Operation	Golden Branch Twilight Mirage
Affiliations	Divine Principality
Meta
Season	COUNTER/Weight Twilight Mirage
Debut	COUNTER/Weight 40: The Storm Over September

The Principality of Kesh is a civilization centered on the planet Kesh. It is the site of the predictive computer Crystal Palace, and the home of the Rapid Evening, a group of interstellar space police who have taken it upon themselves to protect the galaxy from beings they classify as Annihilation-Class objects. They are ruled by a complex system of princes and noble houses.

History

COUNTER/Weight

This section contains spoilers for the COUNTER/Weight finale.
Click here to reveal.

The people that eventually became the Principality arrived in the Golden Branch through an explosion of "a half dozen stellar combustors" that launched them and Rigour across the galaxy, somewhere between 15,000 and 40,000 years before the events of COUNTER/Weight. They rallied under Chess Kesh, and used bits of Rigour itself for their technology, which then became the remarkably advanced tech of the Rapid Evening. However, with the passage of time and their unification as the Principality under someone only known as the Prince, they forgot about these cultural origins.

The Principality was kept a secret until the September Incident, when they emerged under the leadership of Addax Dawn and the Rapid Evening. They opened communications with every other major faction in the Golden Branch to agree on the Kesh Accord, which prevented use of Rigour-derived technology unsupervised by the Principality, using the Rapid Evening to enforce those rules through "direct and aggressive intervention". The Accord also returned the planets Garden and Sage to the Golden Demarchy.

At the time, the Principality only had control of the planets Kesh and Ziishe, though they are said to have built the city of Megalopolis alongside the Golden Demarchy in the planet Torru. It is later renamed Whitestar by Maxine Ming in honor of Cassander, and the house they remembered sharing in the September Institute.

Twilight Mirage

The Principality is said to be an utopia, where "there is no one who wants for anything". In the Mirage, the influence of the Principality is felt mostly through the underground work of the Rapid Evening in their mission to protect them. Much of their actions at this point in time are dictated by Crystal Palace and its Cycle, even being incorporated into their "coming of age" rite of passage. It is revealed that they have been tracking Independence for fifty thousand years, and its influence on Quire brought the Principality and the Rapid Evening to the forefront once again.

This section contains spoilers for Twilight Mirage.
Click here to reveal.

At the end of Twilight Mirage, Crystal Palace is destroyed. Following this, the Principality of Kesh and the Divine Free States merge into the Divine Principality, with Stels Kesh and Nideo as its founding houses. They then leave the Twilight Mirage for at least five thousand years.

Trivia

• Austin says that the people of the Principality under the Cycle are "as close to the panopticon as [he] can get without saying the fucking words".