Rhon psions, also known as Ruby psions are a fictional group of extremely powerful

psionics In American science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s, psionics was a proposed discipline that applied principles of engineering (especially electronics) to the study (and employment) of paranormal or psychic phenomena, such as telepathy and psychok ...

in the

Saga of the Skolian Empire The Saga of the Skolian Empire, informally called the Skolian Saga or Tales of the Ruby Dynasty, is a series of science fiction novels, novellas and novelettes by Catherine Asaro, revolving around characters from an interstellar empire known as ...

Catherine Asaro Catherine Ann Asaro (born November 6, 1955) is an American science fiction and fantasy author, singer and teacher. She is best known for her books about the Ruby Dynasty, called the Saga of the Skolian Empire. Biography Catherine Asaro was bo ...

Psions in the Saga of the Skolian Empire

Psion is a term describing people with

empathic Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, cog ...

and in some cases telepathic abilities. Psions can detect emotions, and even individual thoughts, depending on the strength of the psion and the proximity of those around them. They are also susceptible to the emotional suffering of people who are near them, and can suffer emotional scars from other psions who project their pain naturally. To survive the ongoing emotional attacks, psions are trained to put up barriers around their minds, both to protect themselves from unwelcomed feelings and thoughts and to prevent projecting onto others.

Origin of psion capability

There are several hundred

genes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

that result in psionic abilities. The more such genes a psion possesses, the stronger psionic abilities he/she manifests. However, many of these genes are closely linked to recessives that may lead to severe abnormalities and deformities in any children produced. As a result, the stronger the psion parent, the more likely it is that a child will be either deformed or most often never born, the fetus dying in the early stages of pregnancy. This is why psions are very rare. Their genes are recessive, and survive genetically by producing strong pheromones that draw psions together.

Telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

and

empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...

in Asaro's novels are mediated by two microscopic brain structures, the Kyle Afferent Body (KAB) and Kyle Efferent Body (KEB). The KEB works by modulating the wave functions of some of the particles within it in a way that models, on a much smaller scale and with a low degree of precision, the electrochemical patterns (i.e. thoughts and emotions) of the brain surrounding it. The KAB detects such signals from the KEBs of other nearby psions via quantum entanglement, establishing matching patterns. "Parastructures" surrounding the KEB and KAB feed information about a sender's brain activity into the KEB, and interpret the quantum patterns in the KAB back into emotions and thoughts in the receiver.

KAB Rating

The term KAB Rating stands for Kyle Afferent Body Rating, and is also called "Kyle Rating". It refers to the strength of a psion's empathic and telepathic abilities and is measured on a scale from 0 to 10, based on a

logarithmic Logarithmic can refer to: * Logarithm, a transcendental function in mathematics * Logarithmic scale, the use of the logarithmic function to describe measurements * Logarithmic spiral, * Logarithmic growth * Logarithmic distribution, a discrete pr ...

inverse Inverse or invert may refer to: Science and mathematics * Inverse (logic), a type of conditional sentence which is an immediate inference made from another conditional sentence * Additive inverse (negation), the inverse of a number that, when ad ...

of how many people it would take to find an individual with a given mental strength. Most humans rate between 0 and 2 on this scale, which denotes absent or marginal empathic and telepathic abilities. A three or higher indicates an empath; a six denotes a telepath. There is also a group of psions who have a rating too high to be measured numerically. Those are called "Rhon". They are extremely rare and to be born Rhon a child must get the full set of psion genes from both parents. In practice, the term Rhon refers to members of Ruby Dynasty, the ruling family of Skolian Empire, as Rhon not related to them are not known.

The Rhon project

The Rhon project was instigated to

genetically engineer Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...

extremely powerful psions. The project was led by the prominent geneticist Hezahr Rhon. The initial project of Dr. Rhon was actually undertaken to prevent the suffering of psions by attempting to modify their brains so they wouldn't receive the pain of others. The attempt took a nightmarish turn for worse, spawning a race of human beings whose Kyle organs are hardwired to interpret pain signals from normal telepaths as orgasmic pleasure called "transcendence". 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 the ultimate anti-empaths, sadists utterly devoid of compassion save for a very few characters (Corbal Xir, Calliope Muze, and Tarquine Iquar) who have undergone surgery to remove their ability for transcendence. The Aristo nature is characterized not only by their cruelty but also by power-hunger and sense of superiority. Their leader Eube Qox, founded the Eubian Concord and his descendants presently rule it. Due to their need for transcendence, Aristos started to breed psions, using them as pleasure slaves, so called

providers Providers is a Danish hip hop, R&B and pop song production team made up of Jeppe Federspiel and Rasmus Stabell.Ruby Empire's ruling caste, who were known for their great empathic and telepathic abilities. The male half of the pair, name unknown, committed suicide upon realizing his intended purpose. The female, Lahaylia Selei, killed her captors and escaped. Lahaylia then founded the Skolian Imperialate. Later she discovered a natural Rhon from a nearly dead race of Ruby colonists, named Jarac Skolia, and took him as her consort. However, since this history is rather unnoble, the story as told in the Skolian Empire omits the involvement of the Aristos in creating the Rhon psions.

Kyle Web

The Kyle Web, also known as the psiberweb, is an instantaneous interstellar communication network powered by Locks. The psiberweb can be thought of as similar to the Internet. Unlike the Internet, the psiberweb, rather than existing in real physical form, transmits information through "Kyle space", also known as "psiberspace". A theoretical physicist by training, Asaro uses the concepts of the

Hilbert space In mathematics, Hilbert spaces (named after David Hilbert) allow generalizing the methods of linear algebra and calculus from (finite-dimensional) Euclidean vector spaces to spaces that may be infinite-dimensional. Hilbert spaces arise natural ...

described by the harmonics to create the universe called Kyle space.

Spherical harmonics In mathematics and physical science, spherical harmonics are special functions defined on the surface of a sphere. They are often employed in solving partial differential equations in many scientific fields. Since the spherical harmonics form a ...

(see also ''

Spherical Harmonic In mathematics and physical science, spherical harmonics are special functions defined on the surface of a sphere. They are often employed in solving partial differential equations in many scientific fields. Since the spherical harmonics form a ...

'') are an

orthonormal In linear algebra, two vectors in an inner product space are orthonormal if they are orthogonal (or perpendicular along a line) unit vectors. A set of vectors form an orthonormal set if all vectors in the set are mutually orthogonal and all of un ...

set of eigenfunctions used in many areas of math and physics, including

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

and electromagnetics. By directly applying the rules that define Hilbert spaces described by the angular wave functions that solve the

Laplace Equation In mathematics and physics, Laplace's equation is a second-order partial differential equation named after Pierre-Simon Laplace, who first studied its properties. This is often written as \nabla^2\! f = 0 or \Delta f = 0, where \Delta = \nab ...

, the author invents a universe where "location" is based on quantum wave functions rather than position and time, and where a psion's thoughts determined their location in Kyle space.

Lock

The Locks are three powerful sentient machines created by the ancient Ruby Empire. They are located at points of disruption in normal

spacetime In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differen ...

caused by an intersection with Kyle space, which manifests as a great column of light called a "Kyle singularity". The ancient technology which created the Locks has been lost, but the Skolian Empire has deduced some of its functioning. Their three known remaining Locks are located on the Orbiter space habitat (headquarters of the Skolian military), the planet Raylicon (origin of the Ruby Empire), and on the Onyx platform. The psiberweb is crucial to the defence of the Skolian Empire. Access and control of the psiberweb is what gives the Skolian Empire its equal strength to the more powerful and more numerous Trader empire. Only the Rhon psions have sufficient Kyle Rating to interface with the Locks. In exceptional cases Rhon can even receive emotions over big distances (even through space), mostly when they are closely related to the sender. Less powerful psions called telops can also access and use the Kyle Web, but cannot construct or maintain it. It is possible for a Rhon psion to physically enter psiberspace via a Lock, as the Ruby Pharaoh Dyhianna Selei and her son Taquinil did to escape a Eubian attack on the Orbiter. Inexperienced psions suffer potentially fatal headaches upon entering a Lock. Dyhianna eventually emerged from psiberspace on a random planet, but Taquinil's whereabouts remain unknown at the time of the novel

Catch the Lightning ''Catch the Lightning'' is a novel by Catherine Asaro in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, also known as Saga of the Skolian Empire#Roca Skolia, Tales of the Ruby Dynasty. The novel won the 1998 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and t ...

Triad

Rhon psions can act as Keys to the psiberweb, engaging the Locks to create and maintain psiberweb links. The Locks can support only a limited number of Keys. This limit is determined by a psiberspace law equivalent to the

Pauli Exclusion Principle In quantum mechanics, the Pauli exclusion principle states that two or more identical particles with half-integer spins (i.e. fermions) cannot occupy the same quantum state within a quantum system simultaneously. This principle was formulated ...

, in that no more than one personality of a specific type can be joined to the Locks at any given time. If two persons of the same type were to join the psiberweb simultaneously, one is likely to die, as Kurj did to Jarac. Rhon psions 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 Dyad or the Triad when acting together forms the full executive authority that governs the Skolian Empire together with an elected parliament, the Assembly. 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. 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 Consanguinity ("blood relation", from Latin '' consanguinitas'') is the characteristic of having a kinship with another person (being descended from a common ancestor). Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are related by blood fr ...

. ; Assembly Key The personality powering the Assembly Key is required to have a peerless intellect and a piercing analytical mind. 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 Selei branch of the Rhon produces the Assembly Key with following line of succession: Lahaylia, then Dyhianna, with Taquinil the designated successor. ; Military Key The personality powering the Military Key is required to be robust, ruthless, agile, forceful, and uncompromising. Therefore, the person who is the Military Key takes the sobriquet of the "Fist of Skolia", or the style of

Imperator The Latin word ''imperator'' derives from the stem of the verb la, imperare, label=none, meaning 'to order, to command'. It was originally employed as a title roughly equivalent to ''commander'' under the Roman Republic. Later it became a part o ...

, with the executive power of commander-in-chief of all armed forces in the Imperialate. The Skolia branch of the Rhon produces the Military Key: Jarac, Kurj, Althor Valdoria Skolia, Sauscony Valdoria Skolia, and Kelric Valdoria Skolia. ; Web Key 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 person who is the Web Key takes the sobriquet of the "Heart of Skolia". The only one so far who has ever been the Web Key was Eldrinson Althor Valdoria. Eldrinson perceives psiberspace as a sea.

References

{{Reflist Saga of the Skolian Empire