social cohesion is high in the rev worlds, with almost no crime at all. They hate the Eco-Tech Coalition because of their religion's demonization of the Eco-Techs and they blame them as the descendants of the immortals whom caused the destruction of Earth. The population of the revs is largely of Caucasian descent, particularly tall, fair-skinned, and light-haired people. The society is very much based upon the late-20th Century United States, especially in their diet (large amounts of meat and sweets) and economy. They are also obviously based partially on the Mormons, which may be due to familiarity with them from Modesitt's own life in Utah. The Farhkans The Farhkans are almost a complete mystery. They are humanoid, with gray skin and hair, red eyes, greenish crystal-like teeth, and wide, flat noses that are really just an open slit in the face. They either employ neural implants that operate similarly to the Coalition implants, are telepathic, or a combination of the two. Their society is largely unknown, described as "an ultrahigh-tech, self-policing, consensus-based, anarchistic democracy based on environmental understandings and an overall technology that the Eco-Tech Coalition could only drool over from a distance." (p72 of the Tor paperback edition) Throughout the book, they appear as both studiers and manipulators of humans, particularly Trystin Desoll. Upon attempts to force first contact, they (officially) destroyed one Coalition ship and many, many more rev ships trying to press into their systems. They are now engaged in a strange sort of alliance with the Coalition. It is not a military alliance, for the Farhkans clearly possess overwhelming power in that area. Nor is it a matter of cooperative technological research. Instead, they seem to have latched on to the Coalition as the most ethically "advanced" society of humanity, and therefore most worthy of assisting by sharing technology. They cannot just give out the technology immediately, however, instead sharing it in small portions here and there, and in exchange for seemingly strange and unimportant things. Particularly, they have been researching human biology and have been pestering men and women of the Coalition military about their ethics and the application of their skills and knowledge. They seem to want to be sure that the military, which stands to benefit most from Farhkan technology during a war, is composed of people with the wisdom and restraint to use the Farhkan tech carefully. The War The whole