Trade Winds Encyclopedia

Welcome to Trade Winds Colony

Raylis-Levi Lattice System

An important key to understanding interactions among members the Centauran nobility is a basic knowledge of the Raylis-Levi Lattice hierarchy. Originally, this referred to a mystical system of divination used by the now-defunct Esceless cult--a cabalistic, quasi-Mormon movement which was popular in the outer colonies during the last few years prior to the Nettle uprisings (~NCE 0).

Although Xavier Nettle himself was not a Escelist, two of his lieutenants, Daran Katagiri and Albert Stel, were members of the sect, and together they incorporated the cult's gemstone-based hierarchical system into the structure of both the Centauran government, and to a lesser extent, the Centauran family.

The noble families of Centaurus are descended directly from the surviving leaders of the Nettle Uprisings, and as such, each family has dominion over large territories. In descending order of rank, these families are:

House Stel (Ruby, the Imperial family)

House Telgay (Emerald, over planet Ishmael)

House Katagiri (Ligure, over planet Ashura)

House Sanchez (Beryl, over the Blue Cadence Moons)

The head of each family takes his shield name from the first stone in his lattice, and his family members are ranked by all the stones below it. For example, the head of house Katagiri may be addressed as Ligure. If he has two wives, the first is his Agate Wife, and the second is Amethyst. If both bear him two sons, the children of the first (Agate) wife will be Agate and Amethyst sons, respectively. However, the firstborn son of the Amethyst wife would be the Beryl son, and her second would be Onyx.

This system is sometimes used outside the nobility, but not very often. However, it has entered the vernacular of most Centauran territories, and crops up in speech fairly regularly.

The Raylis-Levi hierarchy is itself based on ancient sources, namely, the Levitical breastplate worn by the high priests of ancient Israel. Below is a representation of the system. Move your cursor to any of these stones to see a brief descriptions of the associations each stone has picked up through the succeeding centuries. A rudimentary understanding of the system is practically a prerequisite for understanding Centauran music, literature, and poetry.