The Ruby Dice (55 page)

Although no records exist of
Eldrinson's
lineage, it is believed he descends from the ancient Ruby Dynasty.
Skyfall
tells the story of how
Eldrinson
and
Roca
meet. They have ten children:

Eldrin (Dryni) Jarac
(bard, consort to Ruby Pharaoh, warrior)

Althor Izam-Na
(engineer, Jagernaut, Imperial Heir)

Del-Kurj (Del)
(singer, warrior, twin to
Chaniece
)

Chaniece Roca
(runs Valdoria family household, twin to
Del-Kurj
)

Havyrl (Vyrl) Torcellei
(farmer, doctorate in agriculture)

Sauscony (Soz) Lahaylia
(military scientist, Jagernaut, Imperator)

Denric Windward
(teacher, doctorate in literature)

Shannon Eirlei
(Blue Dale archer)

Aniece Dyhianna
(accountant, Rillian queen)

Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin
(mathematician, Jagernaut, Imperator)

Eldrin
appears in
The Final Key, Triad, Spherical Harmonic,
and
The Radiant Seas.
See also
Dehya
.

Althor Izam-Na
= (1) Coop and Vaz

Althor Izam-Na
= (2) Cirrus (former provider to Ur Qox)

Althor
has a daughter, Eristia Leirol Valdoria, with Syreen Leirol, an actress turned linguist. Coop and Vaz have a son, Ryder Jalam Majda Valdoria, with
Althor
as cofather.
Althor
and Coop appear in
The Radiant Seas.
Vaz and Coop appear in
Spherical Harmonic.
Althor
and Cirrus also have a son.

Havyrl (Vyrl) Torcellei
= (1) Liliara (Lily) (deceased)

Havyrl (Vyrl) Torcellei
= (2) Kamoj Quanta Argali

The story of Havyrl and Lily appears in "Stained Glass Heart," in the anthology
Irresistible Forces,
edited by Catherine Asaro, 2004. The story of
Havyrl
and Kamoj appears in
The Quantum Rose,
which won the 2001 Nebula Award. An early version of the first half was serialized in
Analog,
May–July/August 1999.

Sauscony (Soz) Lahaylia
= (1) Jato Stormson (divorced)

Sauscony (Soz) Lahaylia
= (2) Hypron Luminar (deceased)

Sauscony (Soz) Lahaylia
= (3)
Jaibriol Qox
(aka
Jaibriol II
)

The story of
Soz
at seventeen, when she enters the Dieshan Military Academy, appears in
Schism,
which is Part I of the two-book work
Triad.
The second part,
The Final Key,
tells of the first war between the Skolians and the Traders. The story of how
Soz
and Jato met appears in the novella, "Aurora in Four Voices" (Analog, December 1998).
Soz
and
Jaibriol
's stories appear in
Primary Inversion
and
The Radiant Seas.
They have four children:
Jaibriol III, Rocalisa, Vitar,
and
del-Kelric.
The story of how
Jaibriol III
became the Emperor of Eube appears in
The Moon's Shadow.
Jaibriol III
married Tarquine Iquar, the Finance Minister of Eube. The story of how Jaibriol and Kelric deal with each other appears in
The Ruby Dice.

Denric
takes a position as a teacher on the world Sandstorm. His harrowing introduction to his new home appears in the short story, "The Edges of Never-Haven" (
Flights of Fantasy,
edited by Al Sarrantino).

Aniece
= Lord Rillia

Lord Rillia rules Rillia on the world Lyshriol (aka Skyfall). His realms consist of the Rillian Vales, Dalvador Plains, Backbone Mountains, and Stained Glass Forest.

Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin
= (1) Corey Majda (deceased)

Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin
= (2) Deha Dahl (deceased)

Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin
= (3) Rashiva Haka (Calani trade)

Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin
= (4) Savina Miesa (deceased)

Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin
= (5) Avtac Varz (Calani trade)

Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin
= (6) Ixpar Karn (closure)

Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin
= (7) Jeejon

Kelric
's stories are told in
The Ruby Dice
, "The Ruby Dice" (novella,
Baen's Universe 2006
),
The Last Hawk, Ascendant Sun, The Moon's Shadow,
the novella "A Roll of the Dice" (
Analog,
July/August 2000), and the novelette "Light and Shadow" (
Analog,
April 1994).
Kelric
and Rashiva have one son, Jimorla Haka, who becomes a renowned Calani.
Kelric
and Savina have one daughter,
Rohka Miesa Varz,
who becomes the Ministry Successor in line to rule the Estates of Coba.

The novella "Walk in Silence" (
Analog
, April 2003) tells the story of Jess Fernandez, an Allied Starship Captain from Earth, who deals with the genetically engineered humans on the Skolian colony of Icelos.

The novella "The City of Cries" (
Down These Dark Spaceways,
edited by Mike Resnick) tells the story of Major Bhaaj, a private investigator hired by the House of Majda to find Prince Dayj Majda after he disappears.

The novella "The Shadowed Heart" (
Year's Best Paranormal,
edited by Paula Guran, and
The Journey Home,
edited by Mary Kirk) is the story of Jason Harrick, a Jagernaut who just barely survives the Radiance War.

Time Line

II. Circa 4000 BC Group of humans moved from Earth to Raylicon

III. Circa 3600 BC Ruby Dynasty begins

IV. Circa 3100 BC Raylicans launch first interstellar flights; rise of

Ruby Empire

V.Circa 2900 BC Ruby Empire begins decline

VI. Circa 2800 BC Last interstellar flights; Ruby Empire collapses

VII. Circa AD 1300 Raylicans begin to regain lost knowledge

VIII. 1843 Raylicans regain interstellar flight

IX. 1866 Rhon genetic project begins

X. 1871 Aristos found Eubian Concord (aka Trader Empire)

XI. 1881 Lahaylia Selei born

XII. 1904 Lahaylia Selei founds Skolian Imperialate

XIII. 2005 Jarac born

XIV. 2111 Lahaylia Selei marries Jarac

XV. 2119 Dyhianna Selei born

XVI. 2122 Earth achieves interstellar flight

XVII. 2132 Allied Worlds of Earth formed

XVIII. 2144 Roca born

XIX. 2169 Kurj born

XX. 2203 Roca marries Eldrinson Althor Valdoria (
Skyfall
)

XXI. 2204 Eldrin Jarac Valdoria born; Jarac dies; Kurj becomes Imperator; Lahaylia dies

XXII. 2205 Major Bhaaj hired by Majdas to find Prince Dayj ("The City of Cries")

XXIII. 2206 Althor Izam-Na Valdoria born

XXIV. 2209 Havyrl (Vyrl) Torcellei Valdoria born

XXV. 2210 Sauscony (Soz) Lahaylia Valdoria born

XXVI. 2219 Kelricson (Kelric) Garlin Valdoria born

XXVII. 2227 Soz enters Dieshan Military Academy (
Schism
)

XXVIII. 2228 First war between Skolia and Traders (
The Final Key
)

XXIX. 2237 Jaibriol II born

XXX. 2240 Soz meets Jato Stormson ("Aurora in Four Voices")

XXXI. 2241 Kelric marries Admiral Corey Majda

XXXII. 2243 Corey assassinated ("Light and Shadow")

XXXIII. 2258 Kelric crashes on Coba (
The Last Hawk
)

XXXIV. early 2259 Soz meets Jaibriol (
Primary Inversion
)

XXXV. late 2259 Soz and Jaibriol go into exile (
The Radiant Seas
)

XXXVI. 2260 Jaibriol III born (aka Jaibriol Qox Skolia)

XXXVII. 2263 Rocalisa Qox Skolia born; Althor Izam-Na Valdoria meets Coop ("Soul of Light")

XXXVIII. 2268 Vitar Qox Skolia born

XXXIX. 2273 del-Kelric Qox Skolia born

XL. 2274 Radiance War begins (also called Domino War)

XLI. 2276 Traders capture Eldrin. Radiance War ends; Jason Harrick crashes on the planet Thrice Named ("The Shadowed Heart")

XLII. 2277–8 Kelric returns home (
Ascendant Sun
); Dehya coalesces (
Spherical Harmonic
); Kamoj and Vyrl meet (
The Quantum Rose
); Jaibriol III becomes emperor of Eube (
The Moon's Shadow
)

XLIII. 2279 Althor Vyan Selei born

XLIV. 2287 Jeremiah Coltman trapped on Coba ("A Roll of the Dice"); Jeejon dies (
The Ruby Dice
)

XLV. 2288 Kelric and Jaibriol Qox deal with one another (
The Ruby Dice
novel)

XLVI. 2298 Jess Fernandez goes to Icelos ("Walk in Silence")

XLVII. 2326 Tina and Manuel in New Mexico ("Ave de Paso")

XLVIII. 2328 Althor Vyan Selei meets Tina Santis Pulivok (Catch the Lightning)

Catherine Asaro has an M.A. in physics, and a Ph.D. in chemical physics, both from Harvard. She has done research at the University of Toronto, the Max Planck Institute, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. A former ballet and jazz dancer, she founded the Mainly Jazz Dance program at Harvard and now teaches at the Caryl Maxwell Classical Ballet. She has written ten novels in the popular Skolian Saga, the latest being
Schism
(Tor, 2004) as well as two near-future technothrillers,
The Veiled Web
and
The Phoenix Code
. She currently runs Molecudyne Research and lives in Maryland with her husband and daughter.