Expeditionary Corps

The Expeditionary Corps is a branch of the Sollan Empire dedicated to deep-space exploration and first contact with alien species. During the Empire's early expansion thousands of years before the novel's present, the Corps sent ships into the Centaurus Arm to survey worlds for future colonies and to make contact with any intelligent life encountered. Scholiasts serving in the Corps function as ship's science officers rather than as court viziers — applying their linguistic and scientific skills in the field. Scholiast members of the Corps operate under their order's vow renouncing wealth, which renders them incorruptible by those who would buy their cooperation.

The Corps is distinct from the Imperial Legions and appears to operate on scientific and diplomatic missions rather than military ones. Its most celebrated member is the legendary Simeon the Red, whose first-contact work with the Irchtani on Judecca — including learning their spoken and sign languages and defending them against a crew mutiny — represents the Corps's ideal of scholarly courage in service to the Empire. Hadrian Marlowe holds the Expeditionary Corps as his personal ambition: the life he truly wants is a ship and the freedom to travel the galaxy seeking knowledge in living worlds.