new worlds to Earth-like standards, but their population grows so slowly that they technically already have more than enough worlds to support them. They prefer to be able to spread out, however, to help leave as light an ecological footprint as possible on any given world after planoforming by sharing the load widely. The population of the Coalition is largely of Asian descent, particularly darker-skinned residents from across southern Asia and many from Japan. The society is fairly Westernized, though with extremely strong Japanese - "parashinto" - influences. Caucasian people, such as the Desolls, are in a very small minority, but some family lines stretch all the way back to the founding of the Coalition. Regardless, as a minority, the Caucasians—especially blond ones like Desoll—are suspected of being Revenants or of having rev sympathies. The Revenants of the Prophet The Revenants are effectively the antagonists in the book. They are less advanced technologically than the Coalition, and in some ways seem hardly advanced beyond the late-20th century Western world except when it comes to the tools of war. An example is when Tristan discovers that they still use petroleum powered automobiles and have ecologically dangerous cattle ranches. They are behind the Coalition in translation technology, and are frequently much more sloppy with the important mass calculations for translation - the troid ships assaulting Mara were often launched at least 20 years before their arrival, in real time. The society is a pervasive theocracy, based around the "revealed word" in the Book of Toren. The society evolved from a union of a fringe Mormon group called the Deseretists, and a white neo-Muslim group called the Mahmetists. They have an extremely high birth rate, following the old Biblical command to "be fruitful and multiply," which causes extensive crowding and a high resource drain on their planets. Following an Islamic and fringe Mormon doctrine allowing polygamy, and promoted due to the deaths of many of their men in the war, those who come back from the war are named patriarchs who can take up to six wives at a time. Women are expected to be subservient wives and mothers, and are so thoroughly socialized toward that goal that many eagerly seek out husbands from among the returnees. While many Coalition characters are baffled as to how a religion based on an unknowable god gained such a foothold, it has had some benefits -