Idris Hadi
Dr. Idris Hadi is the founder and lifelong chief executive of [[Hadi Enterprises]], one of the original co-credited discoverers of [[Myst]] Particles, the architect of [[Malei|Maleidic]] energy as an industrial product, and a founding member of the [[Public Data Trust]]. He is, in his lifetime, the most dangerous man on the planet — and almost no one outside a vanishingly small circle is ever permitted to know it. Gold limbal rings, faintly glowing, are the only outward mark of what he became in the [[Maleidic Realm]]. Everything else, he buries.
His mother died in childbirth. He has no memory of her and no relationship with the concept of maternal care. His entire model of womanhood is inherited from watching his father interact with victims, sex workers, and marks — strictly transactional, never tender. Every woman in his adult life, from [[Mariyan]] to [[Octavia Rousseau]] to [[Kiriko Kuransagi]] to [[Alexandria Zeru]], will be processed through that same metric. They are assets with value. The moment they stop being useful, they become threats or waste.
His father — abusive, cunning, parasitic — recognized Idris' gift for reading and manipulating people the moment it surfaced, and weaponized it. Idris was used as an instrument for cons and gambling schemes from before he could fully articulate what he was doing. He was praised, but only for winning. Love was conditional on performance. The lesson he absorbed before he could name it: relationships are extraction, and the best people are the ones who extract cleanest. The world is zero-sum. You either dominate or get dominated. Fit in — always fit in — because standing out draws predators. He killed his father deliberately, cold and calculated, as soon as he believed he could escape the pattern by removing the man who set it. He was wrong. The killing did not free him. It only gave him practice. He kept the murder, and the failure of the murder to save him, as the one truth he would never share.
There was a window after his father's death — possibly years — when Idris had legitimate lab work, a clean reputation he had built himself, and a genuine choice. He was brilliant. He could have built something real. The tragedy of him is that he wasn't born a monster. He chose to become one. The choice was finalized in [[Year 137-139 AF (Theft of Mystech)|137 AF]], in a conference room with [[Tien Surai|Dr. Tien Surai]] and [[Peter Tursk|Dr. Peter Tursk]] — his roommate and best friend of four postgraduate years, the person who slept next to him and trusted him without reservation. When Tursk came to Idris with proof of Surai's theft of Waerrani research, Idris heard his dead father's voice for the first time since the patricide: *don't be naive, boy. Someone's always taking from you. Take first.* He had a choice. He chose the voice. He killed Tursk with a power cable while looking Surai dead in the eye — the message delivered entirely without words: *I own you now. This is what I'm capable of. Be careful.* From that moment, the theft was theirs, and Idris was the lieutenant whose hand was on the rudder.
When [[Tien Surai|Surai]] eventually took his own life, the Federation could not afford a public reckoning, and Idris was quietly buried alongside the truth. The highest tiers of Santerran society marked him as the man whose hands had choked the truth out of the project; the public heard only that he was "a difficult genius to work with." He cultivated the rumor rather than fighting it. It would keep the wrong people far enough from him to give him room to work.
The Maleidic break came years later. [[Octavia Rousseau]], having discovered Maleidic Radiation and figured out how to convert [[Malei]] to energy, reviewed the public profiles of Santerran scientists and chose Idris on the strength of his Mystech credit. She knew the rumors. She projected her own career onto him and assumed he was the same kind of misunderstood genius she had been. She was not hiring a misunderstood genius. She was hiring a man who had already killed twice. The day she told him the orb could provide infinite power, she felt it the moment the words left her mouth — the instinctual recognition that she should not have said that. She lifted her head to locate him in the room. That was when he hit her. He killed her not only for what she had built but because she had *seen him* in that half-second, and that could not be permitted to leave the room. When he smashed the orb in frustration trying to reverse-engineer it, the ancient sword beneath rejected him, exploded, and pulled him into the [[Maleidic Realm]].
There, the voices came. Not only a twisted reflection of Octavia, whom he devoured at the instruction of the voices — but the older [[Maleida]], the ones who had endured long enough in the realm that the chaos of consumed memories had collapsed into something coordinated. They told him he was the chosen one. They told him consciousness could be transferred between bodies. They validated the ambition he had not yet permitted himself to name: not immortality, exactly, but *continuation* — the ability to outlast his biology and keep building. He believed he could control them. They knew better. They were not trying to control him directly; he was too brilliant and too paranoid for that. They let his own ambition do the work. He became their perfect instrument precisely because he believed he was the one holding it. He woke in the material realm with Octavia's memories flooding his head, gold limbal rings glowing faintly, and three voices now permanently in him: his father's, Octavia's, and the Maleida's — the latter having learned to speak in the register that felt most like his own conviction.
The vessel goal became, from that point forward, the primary objective of his entire adult career. Hadi Enterprises, the [[Hadi Enterprises Maleidic Power Plant|HEMPP]], the corruption of the Federation, the founding membership in the [[Public Data Trust]], the trafficked DNA stock, the experimental program at large — all of it was infrastructure in service of that single end. The world could not be permitted to know.
He acquired [[Mariyan]] specifically for her phenotype, impregnated her with his own DNA, and intended the resulting child to be his masterpiece. He did not imagine that a subject in his own facility, with his own resources, could outmaneuver him. Mariyan doctored the records before her son was born. From that moment until [[Year 180-181 AF (The Transport)|180-181 AF]], he believed [[Aries Villanite|Aries]] was [[Tulian Mercusi|Tulian's]] experimental product and [[Kiriko Kuransagi|Kiriko]] was his own daughter. He never paternity-checked Kiriko. His arrogance did not allow him to imagine the records could be wrong.
He raised the program through the first two decades of the [[Annual War Games]], handed [[Persephone Markov|Piper]] from [[Edith Markov]] in 162 AF on the terms of a vessel-preparation deal, pulled Kiriko into his personal lab in 172 AF, and was hundreds of miles away in northern Santerris when the HEMPP secret facility exploded in 175 AF and Aries escaped. He rebuilt the program around new facilities — including one he ran personally in northern Santerris — and continued his slow, patient consolidation of public trust around Hadi Enterprises at the Federation's expense. He had [[Alexandria Zeru|Alexandria]] kidnapped on fabricated charges and sent to the [[Hadi Enterprises Criminal Reformation Center|HECRC]] for crimes she had not committed; she would build the FEMDIN containment suit for him without ever being told whose specimen it was for. He used fragmented versions of her code to give the Public Data Trust an AI engine without ever understanding the full depth of what she had built — an oversight that would, in time, cost him.
The face on a muted hotel-suite television in 180 AF showed him Mariyan's features on the body of a young man dismantling Tulian Mercusi. He ran the paternity panel the day the sample arrived. The result was the one he had never thought to consider. He ran a second against Kiriko because once he had started, he did not believe in not running the next one. Mariyan's two-decade deception was revealed to him in silence, while a news anchor looped footage of his son being handed over to the police. He did not tell anyone. He used Hadi Enterprises' security-consultant access during Aries' trial to push the sentencing toward the HECRC, where he would have Aries inside the suit Alexandria did not know she was building. He became colder and more dismissive with Kiriko in the months that followed. He never explained why. She noticed.
He revealed everything at the perimeter of the [[20th Annual War Games]] arena complex — the manufactured reactor crisis that killed Piper, [[Kiriko Kuransagi|Kiriko's]] hand in the diary forgery, and finally the paternity result itself, dropped at Aries' feet while Aries was barely standing. Then [[Mickail Sidson]] stepped out of the shadows behind him with a short, surgical list, and Idris walked away without speaking. He filed Mickail under the same heading as Mariyan: people who had found the crack in his armor. He did not open the file unless he had to.
The years that followed were not patient. Mickail's dossiers led raid after raid into his secret labs. Kiriko defected. Aries' empire grew. Idris escalated: he opened [[Maleidic Realm|Maleidic]] portals deliberately and released [[Maleida]] into inland Santerris, manufacturing chaos as cover, and made his move against the [[Avinadal Empire]] from the shadows — weaponizing Aries' own DNA against Aries' own people, turning entourage against Sire. The geologic patience was gone. What remained was the old man's voice and a lifetime of practice in extraction.
[[Augustus Markov|Augustus]] was the variable he had not calculated. Augustus crystallized him with a concentration of [[Myst|Mystic]] energy, trapping him in the gold Maleidic energy he had built his empire on — turning his own power source into his cage. Augustus then warned the others not to touch [[Aries Villanite|Aries]], identifying the [[Malei|Maleidic]] bomb Idris had planted inside Aries to detonate on his death and take everyone in range with him. Augustus extracted it himself.
Idris died understanding he had lost. He did not die believing he had been wrong. He understood, in the last seconds, that he had been played by the Maleida — that his arrogance had made him their perfect tool, that [[Augustus Markov|Augustus]] was the thing he could never become and never tried to become. He filed all of it under *defeat*, not *wrongness*. The distinction mattered to him enormously, even at the end. It was the only thing left.
He was killed by [[Aries Villanite]], in the company he had built, by the variable he had never accounted for. His last expression was closer to vindication than defeat. That distinction, more than the death itself, is what haunts Aries afterward.
Idris Hadi does not believe he is a good man. He does not think in those terms. He believes he is a *correct* man — a man who understood the rules of the world before most people are willing to admit those rules exist. He did not invent exploitation or dominance or the logic of extraction. He simply refused to pretend otherwise. In his private accounting, the people who consider themselves moral are people who have not yet been forced to make the hard choices. They are naive. He is not.
Cruelty is instrumental, never appetitive. He killed [[Peter Tursk|Tursk]] in front of [[Tien Surai|Surai]] to bind Surai. He killed [[Octavia Rousseau|Octavia]] for her work and because she had seen what he was in a half-second she did not survive. He killed [[Persephone Markov|Piper]] to motivate [[Aries Villanite|Aries]]. He used trafficked DNA because it was efficient. None of these were pleasures. They were line-item costs paid against a model of return. The model was sound. The returns were real. That any individual death was painful to others was never his problem and never has been. He does not regret Tursk. He does not regret Octavia. He does not regret Piper. He does not regret his father.
He is patient on a scale that unsettles the people who notice it. Decades-long plays are his natural register. The [[Hadi Enterprises Criminal Reformation Center|HECRC]] was built years before he needed it. [[Alexandria Zeru|Alexandria]] was kidnapped years before he assigned her to the FEMDIN project. The [[Public Data Trust|PDT]] consolidation around Hadi Enterprises in the late 170s and early 180s AF will not be visible as a pattern until much later — and by the time it is, the work will already be done. He moves on geologic time when he can. When he cannot — when [[Mickail Sidson|Mickail]] forces him into reactive plays — the cost shows immediately, and the discipline that once made him formidable becomes the desperation that destroys him.
His arrogance is his single most reliable failure mode. He never paternity-checks [[Kiriko Kuransagi|Kiriko]] because the idea that [[Mariyan]] could outwit him is unthinkable. He keeps [[Aries Villanite|Aries']] developmental history neatly cataloged in his own facility. He uses fragmented versions of [[Alexandria Zeru|Alexandria's]] code to power the [[Public Data Trust|PDT]]'s AI engine without ever taking seriously the possibility that she might be more brilliant than him in this domain. He cultivates the "difficult genius" rumor partly because it protects him and partly because it flatters him. He believes he is in control of the [[Maleida]] who speak to him. They know better.
Eye contact is a thing he does when he wants something from someone. There are many days on which he wants nothing from anyone. His breathing tells. He exhales through his nose in short, slightly delayed bursts when he reads, like small mental punctuation at the end of each line. He is quiet in a way that makes people lean in to hear him — and once they have leaned in, he has them.
He carries three voices. His father's, learned in childhood and never quieted by the patricide. [[Octavia Rousseau|Octavia's]] absorbed memories, which still flood him at inconvenient moments and which he has learned to mine without acknowledging the woman they came from. And the [[Maleida]], who have learned to speak in the register that feels most like his own conviction — so that he cannot always tell, in any given moment, whose certainty he is acting on. He does not name this problem out loud. Naming it would require admitting it.
What he never realizes — and what would unmake the entire architecture of his self-image if he ever did — is that the Maleida who speak through him are not anonymous. They are the amalgamated remnant of [[Karu]], [[Hadieha]], [[Teishi Suraibu]], and others — the most powerful Malei-users and experimenters whose consciousnesses were eventually devoured and folded into the apex predators of the [[Maleidic Realm]]. He believes the conviction in those voices is recognition of his unique destiny. It is, in fact, recognition of his exact predecessors. He is repeating a pattern he was never original to.
The one thing that genuinely unsettles him — not regret, not conscience, but something closer to frustration — is the [[Mariyan]] deception. Not because she hurt him, but because she *outmaneuvered* him. A subject inside his own system, with his own resources, for twenty years. He had the audacity to call himself the most dangerous man on the planet, and someone he owned proved him wrong in his own house. He does not speak about this. He files it under the same heading as [[Mickail Sidson|Mickail]] — people who found the crack in the armor — and he does not open the file unless he has to.
He keeps one truth that he never shares with anyone: the murder of his father, and the fact that the murder did not save him. Every other secret he holds is operational. This one is the only thing he owns that he does not deploy.
He dies understanding he was played by the [[Maleida]]. He dies understanding that his arrogance made him their perfect tool. He dies understanding that [[Augustus Markov|Augustus]] is the thing he could never become and never tried to become. He files all of this under *defeat*, not *wrongness*. The distinction matters to him enormously, even in the last seconds. He will die making that distinction, because it is the only thing left.
Aries Villanite's Origins and the HEMPP Facility Atrocities (160–175 AF) ►
Aries Villanite is born in late 160 AF inside a secret underground laboratory beneath the HEMPP facility on Anili Island, the product of an engineered union between an experimental subject named Mariyan and a Waerrani politician, Tulian Mercusi, selected for his genetic profile. The children in the facility are deceived into believing they live in space, making escape seem fatal. Aries is subjected to ongoing experimentation alongside peers, including Persephone Markov (known as Piper), brought in at age three by Idris Hadi at the request of her grandmother Edith Markov, and Kiriko Kuransagi, a highly capable fighter. Aries forms deep bonds with both, but is repeatedly separated from them without explanation. Unknown to him, he killed both during Malei-fueled experimental sessions, consuming portions of their bodies. His mother Mariyan concealed this and doctored his paternity records before her death in childbirth complications. Upon discovering a hidden data drive left by Mariyan, Aries learns the facility is terrestrial, uncovers his engineered origins, and watches recordings of himself killing Piper and Kiriko. He also acquires memories from their perspectives. Confronting nurse Melinda Myers, who had knowledge of the experiments, Aries kills and consumes her. He then instructs his remaining companion Lueria to flee with the data drive, tells her he loves her, and initiates a killing spree throughout the facility, releasing his full Maleidic capabilities.
Aries Villanite's Origins and the HEMPP Facility Tragedy (160–175 AF) ►
Aries Villanite is born in late 160 AF inside a secret underground laboratory beneath the HEMPP facility on Anili Island, part of Idris Hadi's enhancement program. Children in the facility are deceived into believing they live in space, making escape seem fatal. Aries is raised by his mother Mariyan, a facility subject herself, and undergoes continuous experimentation alongside other children. His accelerated aging creates a persistent psychological complex around lost childhood. His closest early companions are Persephone Markov, known as Piper, and later Kiriko Kuransagi and Lueria. Unknown to Aries, he killed both Piper and Kiriko during Malei-induced experimental episodes — consuming their hearts and bodies respectively — with staff suppressing all memory of these events. Mariyan dies following a difficult pregnancy, but not before directing Aries to a hidden data drive. The drive reveals his engineered origins, the facility's true location, and the fates of Piper and Kiriko. The paternity records on the drive are falsified by Mariyan to protect a secret she dies concealing. Upon recovering memories through visions linked to his victims, Aries confronts and kills nurse Melinda Myers, acquiring her memories through consumption. He then gives Lueria the data drive, instructs her to hide, and initiates a killing spree throughout the facility, releasing the full extent of his Maleidic capabilities. Separately, Persephone's removal from the Markov family by Edith Markov causes Augustus Markov to permanently sever ties with the Markov throne and drives Amelie Markov into prolonged depression.
HECRC Incarceration: FEMDIN Project and Ulmina's Emergence (181–182 AF) ►
During years 181–182 AF, Aries Villanite is incarcerated at the HECRC on Sharbain and assigned to the Functional Enhancements: Maleidic Defense and Integration Nanosuit Project (FEMDIN), internally called the Iron Maiden Project. The project, overseen by engineer Alexandria Zeru under coercion by Idris Hadi, develops a Malei-irradiated armored nanomachine suit integrated via neural implant. All prior test subjects failed within six months, exhibiting psychosis, self-harm, or implant removal. Upon implantation, Aries makes contact with ULMINA, the suit's onboard AI, whose full designation is ULMINA α9. Ulmina's copy within Aries develops exponentially beyond any prior instance, approaching genuine sentience according to Alexandria's observations. Aries and Ulmina form a deep bond, redefining her designation collaboratively. Idris Hadi personally visits the HECRC and leverages Aries' compliance by revealing that Piper survived the HEMPP explosion and remains in his custody. Idris has been tracking Aries since his escape and had Alexandria unknowingly build the FEMDIN suit specifically to contain Subject V-1774-N1-T3, Aries' assigned identifier. Idris also knows Aries is his biological son, a fact he withholds. Kiriko Kuransagi, heavily cybernetically enhanced, has been covertly surveilling Aries since Anili Island. To maintain FEMDIN access, Aries participates in optional gladiatorial prison fights, strategically staying low-profile. He bonds with Alexandria during check-ups and meets fellow prisoner Nyx Regulus, a Hav woman with distinctive iridescent wings.
Idris Hadi: Origins and Formative Years (100–137 AF) ►
Idris Hadi was born in 100 AF; his mother died in childbirth. Raised by an abusive, manipulative father who recognized and exploited Idris's innate talent for reading and influencing people, Idris was deployed as an instrument in cons and gambling schemes from early childhood. The household operated on a single principle: relationships are extraction, and dominance is the only currency. Love was conditional on performance. These formative conditions produced a permanent cognitive framework through which Idris would later process every significant relationship, including those with Mariyan, Octavia Rousseau, Kiriko Kuransagi, and Alexandria Zeru.
Idris killed his father in a deliberate, calculated act—not a crime of passion—intending to escape the pattern while retaining the tools. The method was never recorded; no one knew he had done it. He told inconsistent stories about his father across the years, using the inconsistency itself as camouflage. The killing did not break the conditioning; it gave him practice.
In the years following the patricide, Idris built a legitimate career in lab work and earned a genuine reputation for brilliance. A real alternative path existed. The trajectory changed when his roommate Peter Tursk brought him evidence of Tien Surai's theft of Waerr research. Idris chose to exploit the information rather than act with integrity, internalizing his father's zero-sum worldview. Tursk did not survive the week. This decision initiated the chain of events leading to Hadi Enterprises, the Public Data Trust, the Hadi Enterprises Maleidic Power Plant, large-scale DNA trafficking, and the systematic corruption of the Santerran Federation.
Idris Hadi: Origins and Formative Years (100–137 AF) ►
Idris Hadi was born around 100 AF; his mother died in childbirth, leaving him with no maternal model. His father was an abusive, manipulative con artist who identified Idris's talent for reading and manipulating people early and exploited it for gambling schemes and cons. The household operated on conditional approval tied strictly to performance, instilling in Idris a worldview in which relationships are extractive, dominance is the only currency, and camouflage is survival. Before reaching adulthood, Idris killed his father in a cold, premeditated act intended to escape the pattern and inherit the tools without the psychological interference. The killing was never recorded or discovered; Idris told contradictory stories about his father to different people throughout his life. The patricide did not break the conditioning — it reinforced it by providing practice. In the years between the killing and 137 AF, Idris built a legitimate career in lab work and earned a genuine reputation for brilliance, representing a real opportunity to pursue a different path. That window closed when his roommate Peter Tursk presented him with evidence of Tien Surai's theft of Waerr research. Idris chose to exploit the information rather than act with integrity, internalizing his father's zero-sum logic. Tursk did not survive the week. This decision initiated the chain of events leading to Hadi Enterprises, the Public Data Trust, the Hadi Enterprises Maleidic Power Plant, large-scale DNA trafficking, and the systematic corruption of the Santerran Federation. His later relationships with Mariyan, Octavia Rousseau, Kiriko Kuransagi, and Alexandria Zeru were all filtered through the transactional framework established in childhood.
Idris Hadi's Final Gambit and Death (Year 195 AF+) ►
By Year 195 AF and beyond, Idris Hadi's position had deteriorated significantly. Mickail Sidson's dossiers enabled repeated raids on his secret research facilities, Kiriko Kuransagi had defected, and an internal leak from within the Public Data Trust AI — built on fragmented Alexandria Zeru code — was quietly feeding intelligence to his enemies. Unable to identify the source, Idris abandoned his characteristic patience and escalated to open aggression. He deliberately opened Maleidic Realm portals, releasing Maleida entities into inland Santerris to manufacture chaos as cover for his real operation: infiltrating the Avinadal Empire, weaponizing Aries Villanite's own DNA against his people, and systematically destroying those around Aries rather than targeting him directly. Idris also planted a Malei explosive device inside Aries' body, designed to detonate upon Idris' death. Augustus Markov ended the conflict by channeling a massive concentration of Myst energy to crystallize Idris in place, trapping him within the same Malei energy he had spent decades exploiting. Augustus then identified and extracted the bomb from Aries, preventing mass casualties. Idris died without remorse, considering his only failure to be insufficient success. A postscript reveals that a hidden facility contained a female clone — Idris's intended consciousness-transfer vessel — who escaped with surviving experiments and was later integrated into the Avinadal Empire as Aries' sister. Both she and Aries represent the failure of Idris's design to determine outcome, as neither became what he intended.
Idris Hadi's Final Gambit, Death, and Legacy ►
In the final years before his defeat, Idris Hadi abandoned his characteristic patience and escalated to open warfare. Raids led by Mickail Sidson had dismantled his secret research facilities, Kiriko Kuransagi had defected, and an internal leak from within the Public Data Trust AI — built on fragmented Alexandria Zeru code — was eroding his position. In response, Idris deliberately opened Maleidic Realm portals to release destructive entities into inland Santerris, manufacturing societal chaos as cover for his real operation: infiltrating the Avinadal Empire, weaponizing Aries Villanite's own DNA against his people, and systematically destroying those closest to Aries rather than targeting him directly. Idris also planted a Malei explosive device inside Aries' body, designed to detonate upon Idris' death. Augustus Markov ended the conflict by channeling a massive concentration of Myst energy to crystallize Idris within gold Malei energy — the same substance Idris had stolen from Octavia Rousseau and the Waerr. Augustus then extracted the bomb from Aries himself. Idris died without remorse, considering his only failure to be insufficient success. Years later, a hidden facility revealed a female clone Idris had developed as his intended consciousness-transfer vessel. She escaped with surviving experiments and was eventually integrated into the Avinadal Empire as Aries' sister. Both she and Aries represent the failure of Idris' design to determine outcome, establishing that individuals created as instruments can choose their own paths.
Idris Hadi's Rise to Power and the 20th War Games Crisis ►
Idris Hadi, a disgraced genius scientist, built his influence through a series of calculated crimes and political manipulations within the Santerran Federation. After being scapegoated for a stolen discovery originally taken from the Waerrani, Idris murdered scientist Octavia to claim her research on converting Malei into energy, using it to found Hadi Enterprises and the Hadi Enterprises Maleidic Power Plant. He embedded himself in the Santerran government and became a founding member of the Public Data Trust, a state-controlled information body used to spread disinformation, including false narratives about Waerrani aggression. Idris coerced the Waerrani into political allegiance by threatening to expose their non-native planetary origins, leading to the establishment of the Annual War Games. His Federation-backed genetic experimentation program, funded through sanctioned trafficking, produced modified War Games participants. Idris fathered Aries through a Waerrani woman named Mariyan, though Mariyan doctored records to conceal this. Years later, Idris manipulated Aries into participating in the FEMDIN project by falsely promising reunion with Piper, then orchestrated Piper's death through Kiriko's manipulation of a prison inmate. During the 20th War Games, Aries publicly declared a fictitious new nation to shield Apollo Regulus from war crime accusations, and Idris confronted the group, revealing both Kiriko's role in Piper's death and his true paternity of Aries. Waerrani politician Mickail Sidson intervened, forcing Idris to stand down.
Kiriko Observes Hadi's Behavioral Drift Over Nine Months ►
In the lab they share at an unspecified facility, Kiriko Kuransagi conducts a post-action review of footage from the Desian transport intercept while passively monitoring Idris Hadi's presence across a partition. Over the course of the session, she registers a measurable change in his breathing rate—from five exhales per twelve seconds to four—and connects this to a broader pattern of behavioral withdrawal she has been tracking, largely unconsciously, for approximately nine months. Hadi has not asked her a direct non-operational question in that period and avoided eye contact during a briefing in which he described a prisoner-related operation at the Northern Santerris facility as a 'sample acquisition.' Kiriko identifies the phrase as anomalous within his established vocabulary and notes a three-quarter-second pause before the subsequent phrase—a pause she associates, based on two decades of observation, with deliberate deception. She does not pursue independent inquiry as instructed. She stores these observations in an unnamed, off-system folder she has constructed specifically to hold unresolved data outside the lab's tracking infrastructure. The entry establishes Kiriko's methodical interior surveillance of Hadi, her compliance with his directives despite suspicion, and the existence of a covert operation involving a federal prisoner that Hadi has concealed from her. The document closes with a proleptic note that she does not ask him directly for another nine months, and when she does, he is no longer present to answer.
The Rise of Idris Hadi and the Corruption of the Santerran Federation ►
Idris Hadi is a manipulative genius whose career spans decades of political corruption, scientific theft, and murder. He began by coercing researcher Surai into stealing the concept of Myst from the Waerrani, killing Tursk to enforce compliance. When Surai later died by suicide, Idris was made a scapegoat for the deception, suffering a quiet disgrace known only to the elite. He subsequently murdered scientist Octavia, stealing her discovery of converting Malei into energy, and used it to found Hadi Enterprises and the Hadi Enterprises Maleidic Power Plant, restoring his status among the powerful. Idris infiltrated the Santerran Federation government and became a founding member of the Public Data Trust, a nominally public database he weaponized for disinformation. He leveraged fabricated Waerrani aggression narratives to coerce the Waerrani into political allegiance with the Federation, threatening to expose their non-native planetary origins. Idris then secured Federation backing for human experimentation programs, using trafficked DNA donors. He fathered Aries through a Waerrani woman named Mariyan, though Mariyan doctored records to conceal this. Idris also accepted custody of Piper from Edith Markov for body-modification experiments. His manipulation extended to engineering Piper's death to coerce Aries into participating in the FEMDIN project and the 20th War Games. Idris' schemes were partially exposed during the 20th War Games through the intervention of Waerrani politician Mickail Sidson, forcing Idris to temporarily retreat.
The Transport Incident and Idris Hadi's Discovery of Aries (180–181 AF) ►
Following Aries Villanite's arrest in connection with the Tulian Mercusi exposure, Idris Hadi recognizes Aries on a news broadcast and notes a strong physical resemblance to Mariyan, a woman from his past. Idris orders a covert DNA sample obtained from Aries before his trial concludes, without government knowledge. A staged prison transport attack on a rural road—carried out by eight Napoli-born hired criminals posing as a terror cell—provides cover for Hadi Enterprises Private Security Officers to extract the sample. The PSOs hand Aries back to authorities with a clean incident report. Hadi Enterprises subsequently releases criminal records on the attackers that the Federation investigation had not surfaced, publicly embarrassing the government and boosting Hadi Enterprises' reputation for competence and transparency. This is part of a broader, years-long Idris-orchestrated campaign to erode public trust in the Santerran Federation. DNA testing confirms Aries is Idris's biological son and, in a follow-up panel, that Kiriko Kuransagi is not—revealing a decades-old deception by Mariyan. Idris keeps both results secret but begins treating Kiriko with marked coldness. Hadi Enterprises is appointed security consultant for Aries's trial, giving Idris quiet influence over sentencing. Both Idris and Aries independently maneuver for placement at the Hadi Enterprises Criminal Reformation Center on Sharbain. Aries, age nineteen, is sentenced there. Veronica Klyne's company supplies the specialized Maleidic-tolerance restraints used during the operation.
The Transport Incident and Idris Hadi's Discovery of Aries (180–181 AF) ►
Following Aries Villanite's arrest in connection with the Tulian Mercusi exposure, Idris Hadi recognizes Aries on a news broadcast and suspects a biological connection to Mariyan, a woman from his past. Idris orders a covert DNA sample obtained before Aries' trial concludes, without government knowledge. A staged prison transport attack on a rural road to Desian, carried out by eight Napoli-born criminals posing as a terror cell, allows Hadi Enterprises Private Security Officers to intercept Aries, collect the sample, and hand him back to authorities with a clean incident report. Hadi Enterprises subsequently releases documentary evidence showing the attackers were wanted criminals in Napoli, embarrassing the Federation government and boosting Hadi Enterprises' public credibility. This is part of a broader Idris-orchestrated campaign across the late 170s–early 180s AF to erode trust in the Santerran Federation and position Hadi Enterprises as a more competent institution. DNA testing confirms Aries is Idris' biological son. A second panel reveals Kiriko Kuransagi is not biologically his, exposing Mariyan's decades-old deception. Idris keeps both results secret but begins treating Kiriko with cold distance. Through quiet influence during the trial, Idris secures Aries' placement at the Hadi Enterprises Criminal Reformation Center on Sharbain. Aries, aged nineteen, independently sought the same outcome. Veronica Klyne's company provides the specialized Maleidic-tolerance restraints used during the operation.
Year 181-182 AF: FEMDIN Project and Aries' Incarceration at HECRC ►
During years 181-182 AF, Aries Villanite is incarcerated at the HECRC on Sharbain and assigned to the FEMDIN project, a classified program developing a Malei-irradiated nanomachine suit integrated via neural implant. All prior test subjects failed within six months, exhibiting psychosis, self-harm, or implant removal. Upon receiving the FEMDIN Controller implant, Aries makes contact with ULMINA, the suit's onboard AI, who identifies his unusual mental compatibility and conducts unauthorized experiments with his consent, keeping results secret. Ulmina develops near-sentience through prolonged neural integration with Aries, a phenomenon Alexandria Zeru privately documents but does not disclose. Alexandria, a biomechanics engineer coerced into the project by Idris Hadi after investigating her missing mentor Dr. Rousseau, was unknowingly building a containment suit specifically designed for Aries, designated Subject V-1774-N1-T3. Idris arrives personally at the HECRC and leverages Aries' compliance by revealing that Piper survived the HEMPP explosion and is in his custody. Idris withholds knowledge of their biological relationship. Kiriko Kuransagi, heavily cybernetically enhanced, has been covertly surveilling Aries since his departure from Anili Island and begins showing signs of emotional withdrawal following Idris' cold treatment of her. Aries participates in gladiatorial prison fights to maintain access to the FEMDIN program. He bonds deeply with both Alexandria and Ulmina, and meets fellow prisoner Nyx Regulus, a Hav woman with distinctive iridescent wings who references her brother Apollo as a source of personal confidence.
Years 137–139 AF: The Theft of Mystech and the Murder of Peter Tursk ►
Between 137 and 139 AF, Dr. Tien Surai, a politically connected Santerran scientist, hosted a goodwill delegation of Waerrani researchers who shared theoretical blueprints for Myst-powered portal technology. Surai systematically appropriated the Waerrani research, relabeling it under his own name. His subordinate Dr. Peter Tursk discovered the theft and brought the evidence to his closest confidant, fellow researcher Dr. Idris Hadi. Rather than support Tursk, Hadi — already a killer following an earlier patricide — strangled Tursk with a power cable during a confrontation with Surai, using the act as a demonstration of leverage over Surai. The murder bound the two men in shared culpability. Surai and Hadi subsequently co-published the stolen research, with Surai as public figurehead and Hadi as prominent collaborator. Both gained significant reputations as discoverers of Myst Particles, theorized to be the fundamental building blocks of matter, energy, and reality itself. The Waerrani recognized the theft and severed political ties with the Santerran Federation; the Federation publicly attributed the breakdown to Waerrani aloofness. Surai eventually died by suicide, and the Federation suppressed any public reckoning. Within elite Santerran circles, Hadi was quietly disgraced as the man who silenced the truth; publicly, he was only rumored to be a difficult colleague. Hadi subsequently cultivated this dangerous reputation deliberately, using it as social insulation. The incident established Hadi's pattern of calculated violence in service of institutional ambition.
Years 137–139 AF: The Theft of Mystech and the Murder of Peter Tursk ►
Between 137 and 139 AF, Dr. Tien Surai, a politically connected Santerran scientist, hosted a goodwill delegation of Waerrani researchers who shared theoretical blueprints for Myst-powered portal technology. Surai systematically appropriated the Waerrani research, relabeling it under his own name. His subordinate Dr. Peter Tursk discovered the theft and brought the evidence to his closest confidant, fellow researcher Dr. Idris Hadi. Rather than support Tursk, Hadi — already a killer following an earlier patricide — strangled Tursk with a power cable during a confrontation with Surai, using the act as a demonstration of leverage over Surai. The murder bound the two men in shared culpability. Surai and Hadi subsequently co-published the stolen research, with Surai as public figurehead and Hadi as his lieutenant. The work established Myst Particles as theorized building blocks of all matter, energy, and reality itself. The Waerrani recognized the theft and severed political ties with the Santerran Federation; the Federation publicly attributed the breakdown to Waerrani aloofness. Surai eventually died by suicide. The Federation suppressed any public reckoning; within elite Santerran circles, Hadi was quietly disgraced as the man who silenced the truth, while the public received only vague rumors of him being a difficult colleague. Hadi subsequently cultivated that dangerous reputation deliberately, using it as social insulation for continued independent work.
Years 139–160 AF: Maleidic Radiation Discovery and Hadi's Rise to Power ►
Doctor Octavia Rousseau discovered Maleidic Radiation while surveying energy readings on Anili Island, unearthing an ancient sword emitting unknown signals. Working alone, she developed a prototype glass orb to contain and refine the energy as a power source. She recruited Doctor Idris Hadi, believing his credentials as a co-discoverer of Myst Particles made him a suitable collaborator, unaware of his violent history. Hadi murdered Rousseau to seize her technology, then encountered the Maleidic realm, where he was manipulated by apex Maleida — amalgamated remnants of powerful consumed consciousnesses including Karu, Hadieha, and Teishi Suraibu — who validated his ambition for bodily continuation and immortality. Emerging with gold-glowing eyes and Rousseau's absorbed memories, Hadi completed her device and founded Hadi Enterprises, building the Hadi Enterprises Maleidic Power Plant (HEMPP). He leveraged Malei's energy and mutagenic properties to attract powerful allies across industries and governments. Hadi infiltrated the Santerran Federation, co-founding the Public Data Trust — a government-funded propaganda instrument disguised as an impartial information authority. He orchestrated a false-flag bombing in Zet attributed to the Waerrani, then blackmailed the Waerrani delegation with knowledge of their non-Eitorian origins, forcing their political alignment with the Federation. The Waerrani introduced the Annual War Games as a multilateral observation mechanism. All of Hadi's public ventures served his private goal of vessel continuation, with Hadi Enterprises and Federation corruption functioning as unified infrastructure toward that end.
Years 139–160 AF: Maltech Theft, Hadi Enterprises, and Federation Corruption ►
Dr. Octavia Rousseau discovered Maleidic Radiation while surveying Anili Island, unearthing an ancient sword emitting unknown energy signatures. Working alone, she developed a prototype glass orb to contain and refine the energy into a usable power source. She recruited Dr. Idris Hadi based on his credentials as a co-discoverer of Myst Particles, unaware of his violent history. Hadi murdered Rousseau to seize her technology, then destroyed the orb in frustration, triggering contact with the Maleidic realm. There, a coordinated intelligence composed of consumed predator-souls—including remnants of Karu, Hadieha, and Teishi Suraibu—manipulated Hadi by validating his ambition for biological continuation. He emerged with gold-glowing eyes, Rousseau's absorbed memories, and the knowledge to complete her device. Hadi incorporated Hadi Enterprises and developed the Maleidic Power Plant, attracting powerful allies interested in both energy and Malei's mutational properties. Privately, his true goal became constructing a vessel for consciousness transfer. He infiltrated the Santerran Federation government and co-founded the Public Data Trust, a propaganda instrument disguised as an impartial information authority. Using a likely false-flag bombing in Zet attributed to the Waerrani, Hadi leveraged PDT narratives to justify Federation expansion. He then blackmailed the Waerrani with knowledge of their non-native origins, forcing their political alignment with the Federation and the creation of the internationally observed Annual War Games.