A Memory Called Empire

Yskandr Aghavn is Mahit’s predecessor, a Lsel Station ambassador who was assassinated before the events of the novel. He served as ambassador for 20 years, returning home to update his imago device only once. He is charmed by Teixcalaanli culture and the City, having been intimate with both Emperor Six Direction and Nineteen Adze. Although Nineteen Adze allowed Yskandr to be killed, she still hopes to talk to him through Mahit’s imago device. Before his death, the Emperor made a deal with him, attempting to exchange Lsel Station’s safety for imago technology. Nineteen Adze was pushed to poison him by Ten Pearl, the Minister of Science, who wanted to prevent imago technology from infiltrating the Empire. A young version of Yskandr occupies Mahit’s first imago device, but upon seeing his aged corpse, he malfunctions—weakened by Aknel Amnardbat’s sabotage. Once the older, updated version of Yskandr fully integrates with Mahit via neurosurgery, he helps her escape danger. At the end of the novel, she returns home to Lsel Station to find out who they are together.

A cultural liaison or asekreta associated with the Ministry of Information, Three Seagrass serves as ally and love interest to Mahit. The meticulous Three Seagrass is described as smaller than Mahit, “narrow at the shoulder and hip” (25-26), with “large, dark eyes and thin cheekbones and mouth [that] were more delicate than was fashionable on Teixcalaan” (26). A talented poet, she composes political verses that become famous after her captivity in the Ministry of Information with Mahit and Twelve Azalea. Close with Twelve Azalea, she also composes a poem for his memorial, having been changed by his death and her earlier injury by the City’s AI systems. Overall, Three Seagrass embodies the minutiae and pride of Teixcalaanli history and brings this history to life with her voice. Despite her and Mahit’s initial tension due to cultural differences, they ultimately learn from each other and work together to survive the capital factions’ crossfire. At the end of the novel, the pair part ways and she is promoted to Second Undersecretary to the Minister of Information.

Twelve Azalea works as an asekreta for the Ministry of Information, and unlike his friend Three Seagrass, he doesn’t always follow protocol. Prone to gossip and speculation, Twelve Azalea informs Mahit of Yskandr’s mysterious death. His connections to those sympathetic to heir Thirty Larkspur make Mahit’s neurosurgery possible, and he demonstrates courage by retrieving the imago device from Yskandr’s corpse. A tragic hero, he dies in a firefight in the Ministry of Information. Twelve Azalea donates his body to the Medical College and is honored by a monument.

One of Emperor Six Direction’s ezuazuacatlim, Nineteen Adze is a middle-aged woman described as having a “dark bronze [face], her cheekbones wide, her nose knifelike over a wide and narrow-lipped mouth” (64). While Mahit thinks she “was the most beautiful Teixcalaanli woman she’d ever seen” (64), she acknowledges Nineteen Adze is probably unattractive by Teixcalaanli standards. Nineteen Adze is an antagonistic ally to Mahit, indicative of her complex character. She allowed Yskandr, her friend, to die by a poisonous flower—having been pushed by Ten Pearl, the Minister of Science, who wanted to prevent imago technology from infiltrating the Empire—and almost allows the same fate to befall Mahit. She ultimately saves Mahit and longs to speak to Yskandr through her imago device. Over the course of the novel, Nineteen Adze becomes less involved in intrigue and more concerned with protecting Mahit, the Emperor, and his favored heir Eight Antidote. The novel ends with her taking on the role of Emperor until Eight Antidote comes of age.

Darj Tarats serves on the Lsel Station council, representing the space station’s miners. Tarats, Dekakel Onchu, and Aknel Amnardbat serve as foils for Emperor Six Direction’s three heirs. Although Tarats and Yskandr worked together for the good of Lsel Station in the past, he doesn’t share Yskandr’s love of Teixcalaanli culture or the Emperor. He and Onchu have a distant relationship, though both worry about the alien threat to Lsel Station. Like Onchu, he is skeptical of Amnardbat and her promotion of Mahit as ambassador. Tarats’s messages to Yskandr voice a desire for him to return to Lsel Station to update his imago device, which stems from genuine worry.

Dekakel Onchu serves on the Lsel Station council, representing the space station’s pilots. In charge of defense and exploration, Onchu worries about the alien threat to Lsel Station and mourns the loss of pilots to this threat—thinking the “combined mind of those pilots and their imago-lines cannot be salvaged and placed into new pilot-minds” (17). Allied with Darj Tarats, she brings him knowledge of the threat, which he admits to knowing. Like Tarats, she is skeptical of Amnardbat, echoing heirs Eight Loop and Eight Antidote’s greater loyalty to their father Six Direction than “brother” Thirty Larkspur.

Aknel Amnardbat serves on the Lsel Station council. She is skeptical of Yskandr and nominates Mahit to replace him as ambassador upon his death. Despite her duty to protect Lsel Station’s imago-lines, she damages Yskandr’s imago device—the one given to Mahit at the beginning of the novel. Unlike heir Thirty Larkspur, Amnardbat desires security for her home, but later regrets the timing of her sabotage—believing Yskandr and Mahit’s love of Teixcalaanli culture and the City poses the greatest danger to their own culture.

Emperor Six Direction of the Teixcalaanli Empire has ruled peacefully for decades. He serves as love interest to Nineteen Adze and Yskandr, though the physicality of this love is unclear. Being old, he is convinced imago technology will allow the transfer of his consciousness into his favored heir Eight Antidote. This desire to live forever leads to the Emperor’s deal with Yskandr, hoping to exchange Lsel Station’s safety for imago technology. Although this deal doesn’t occur, he remains partial to Yskandr and Mahit. Worried about heir Thirty Larkspur and general One Lightning’s coup attempts, as well as Eight Antidote’s future, he dies by ritual suicide—consecrating the war against the alien threat and making Nineteen Adze regent until Eight Antidote reaches maturity.