Atoning Unifex
Names: Atoning UnifexUnifexItOnethe great Interlopertall mantall elderly manthe First Supervisorthe Remillard Family Ghostmon fantômecaptorUnnamed disguised exoticthe Ghostthe Lylmik Overlordthe OverlordLylmik
First appears in Book 1: Intervention, chapter 22 (21)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: Intervention
- Ch 22Central, most powerful Supervisor, gray-eyed, who speaks softly and tells the Authority that Earth's Mind could destroy or greatly magnify the Milieu.
- Ch 25Unifex has assumed human form before, empathizes closely with lower life-forms, and is in love.
- Ch 25Unifex saved the Shoridai from a supernova in the Soulpto Group by interposing a gas-cloud, then rushed back to Earth.
- Ch 25Unifex is in New Hampshire, where it went to harangue its slow-witted catspaw.
- Ch 32Absent-minded, confident fifth member of the Supervisory Body; it plans to personally fix the problem by metapsychically making spy-eye satellites obsolete.
- Ch 32Unifex says a Scottish connection, not a Remillard, has been working on the needed metapsychic speciality and needs only a gentle nudge.
- Ch 46Unifex refuses to prevent the detonation of the Armageddon devices, saying the event must happen as part of Earth's educative ordeal.
- Ch 46Unifex admits it has withheld data and is often guided by feeling rather than logic regarding Earth, whose role it only partially understands.
- Ch 46Unifex says operant humans must freely decide never to use mind-powers aggressively, even for a good cause, a lesson paid for dearly after the Intervention.
- Ch 46Unifex selected the four subsidiary entities from the Lylmik after manifesting the Protocol of Unification and initiated the Milieu.
- Ch 75Unifex is exerting its ultimate influences, drawing probabilities taut; only it can utter the Intervention signal.
Book 2: Jack the Bodiless
- Ch 1He is very tall and elderly, with a neatly trimmed white beard, snowy hair like a patriarch's halo, and unnaturally bright, deep-set eyes.
- Ch 1He shows no mental signature at all, even under a third-level probe, so Marc suspects he is not human but some kind of exotic.
- Ch 1When Marc asks whether they know each other, the man laughs and does not answer.
- Ch 3Atoning Unifex is a Lylmik supervisor, called the First Supervisor, with an ancient mind about six million years old, hovering over Denali in a nearly immaterial form.
- Ch 3Unifex recalls a woman, born on Denali and from Iditarod, whom it loved; she twice loved deeply and mothered Unity in nonhuman minds in a distant Galaxy.
- Ch 3Unifex arrives to collect Rogi and take him home to New Hampshire that night, travelling more gently than a starship.
- Ch 3Unifex wants Rogi to skip most of the Proctorship years and write about Jack, Dorothea and the Metapsychic Rebellion, completing a trilogy.
- Ch 16Unifex is the Lylmik overlord, often absent on mysterious extraGalactic excursions, and has a sense of humor; he has worn human form on Earth.
- Ch 16Unifex ordered the four Supervisors to take on physical human bodies for the Concilium inauguration of the Human Polity magnates.
- Ch 16Unifex states flatly that Teresa Kendall and Rogatien Remillard are alive but refuses to explain how he knows or why the Magistratum should not be told.
- Ch 16Unifex declares Marc Remillard has committed no crime that need concern the Milieu, only technical violations justified in the Larger Reality.
- Ch 16Unifex claims to have no input on the psychic vampirism death of Brett Doyle McAllister and leaves it to the Magistratum.
- Ch 16Unifex insists the Simbiari Proctorship must end and humanity be inaugurated, while accepting a one-year probation and a moratorium on human colonization of new planets.
- Ch 16In human form Unifex appears as a tall, powerfully built white-haired, white-bearded older man with deep-set gray eyes.
- Ch 19Non-human with no mental signature who intercepts Marc, reads his hijack plan, and has disabled the ship's crew's departure.
- Ch 19A tall man who coerces Marc and threatens to make him ill if he causes trouble; he is not a Magistratum Enforcer and speaks casually and irreverently.
- Ch 19Unifex denies any connection to Victor Remillard or his creatures, but says they are a serious threat to the Galactic Milieu.
- Ch 19Unifex tells Marc he is nearly as dangerous as Remillard's creatures, and that Marc will learn who he is eventually.
- Ch 19After sending Marc away, Unifex cleans up the spilled ice with a gesture and plans to drink a Pepsi before he dematerializes.
- Ch 26Oldest of the Lylmik, he refuses Lylmik intervention in the murder investigation, though the Supervisors believe he knows the killer's identity.
- Ch 26He dismisses the Supervisors' concerns as being for the good of the Greater Reality, saying Davy is alive and that suffices for now.
- Ch 28Unifex had earlier foiled Marc's attempt to stow away on a starship back to Earth, and claims to be 'the Lylmik'.
- Ch 28Unifex instructs Marc to be docile and obedient to his father in difficult times to come, and to later assist 'the young one'.
Book 3: Diamond Mask
- Ch 1The Ghost reveals it is a Lylmik who was once a man six million years ago, and that it has very little time left.
- Ch 1The Ghost admits it is not omniscient and does not know the identity of the malignant entity Fury.
- Ch 1The Ghost led the Metapsychic Rebellion mainly because the Milieu condemned its Mental Man project, not over Unity; it now calls that project evil.
- Ch 1After the Duat work, the Ghost refused to follow Elizabeth into the Cosmic All and returned to the Milky Way to guide planets toward maturity as penance.
- Ch 1The Ghost says helping Rogi finish the family history will be its last personal intervention; its proleptic vision is failing.
- Ch 1The Ghost cleans Rogi's pack, transports him to Keaku Cave, and offers to install a dream-filter shielding him from Fury dreams while he sleeps.
- Ch 1The Ghost guided the Lylmik, Krondaku, Gi, Poltroyans and Simbiari to Unity or Milieu membership, and overruled the consensus to include Earth for Intervention.
- Ch 2Atoning Unifex is Overlord of the Lylmik and founder of at least two Galactic Milieux; his tenure is now at an end.
- Ch 12Atoning Unifex urged its fellow Lylmik Supervisors to attend the party in Poltroyan bodies, promising an important climax and warning them to watch for impostors.
- Ch 21Unifex is the gray-eyed, much older leader of the Lylmik Supervisors; it rarely speaks and is dying.
- Ch 21Unifex says the Galactic Milieu needs the Human Mind because the Lylmik Mind is dying; humans will take the Lylmiks' place directing the Milieu.
- Ch 21Unifex originally came from the Duat Galaxy and authored the Protocol of Unification.
- Ch 21Unifex told Paul that an ancient sin lies at the heart of Fury's generation and that Anne, a priest, may help.
- Ch 21Unifex abruptly left for Earth by hyperspatial translation, apparently to keep an eye on Illusio.
Book 4: Magnificat
- Ch 12Unifex is the Lylmik Overlord who sent four Supervisors to watch Davy and Cordelia in human bodies; he has bonded with his dog Caruso.
- Ch 12Unifex declares Davy must remain Dirigent of Earth, calling him the only man for the job, and urges the Supervisors to love their dogs as persons as practice for something.
- Ch 12Unifex says the Lylmik will not intervene in the coming human–Milieu confrontation, calling it inevitable and necessary to speed humanity's mental evolution.
- Ch 12Unifex admits his prolepsis (foreknowledge) and his atonement are imperfect, so he cannot be certain the conflict will end well.
- Ch 12Unifex asks the four Supervisors to live in human bodies on Earth with dogs until the next Plenary Concilium Session, thirty-two days away.
- Ch 12Unifex states that Lylmik are moribund and humans are the only ones fit to succeed them as guides of galactic mental evolution.
- Ch 31Unifex leads the Supervisory Body, holds summary veto, and is currently on Earth shopping in France; its prolepsis cannot foresee the outcome of the crisis.
- Ch 34Unifex appeared in Marc's stopped conveyor car and told him the Quincunx had voted a reprieve for the Rebel armada.
- Ch 34Unifex told Marc to assemble one hundred grandmaster-class Rebels and sent him to France, to a warehouse near Lyon Metro with supplies.
Connections
- member ofLylmik
- related toShoridaisaved their planet from a supernova
- leadsLylmikOverlord of the Lylmik
- friend ofRogi Remillardlongtime companion who guides Rogi's writing
- enemy ofMarcCoerces and expels Marc from the terminal, though does not harm him
- enemy ofDenis
- partner ofElizabeth
- related toRogi Remillardhaunted by and reluctantly cooperating with the Ghost; calls him 'mon fils'
- related toCarusodog bonded to owner
- has memberHomologous Trendsubordinate Supervisor
- related toNoetic Concordancesubordinate Supervisor
- related toEupathic Impulsesubordinate Supervisor
- related toAsymptotic Essencesubordinate Supervisor
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 22Authority meets the Supervisory Body
The four Overseers dock in the Noumenon. Five Lylmik Supervisors appear as heads, praise their work, explain Earth's risky potential, promise special assistance, and join them in Unity.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Lylmik discuss human violence and Unifex
Aboard the Noumenon, four Lylmik discuss the Tibetan's warning against violence, the unlikelihood of human coadunation, Yuri's killing, and Unifex's habit of walking among humans in human form.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Unifex saves the Shoridai
Unifex interposed a gas-cloud to shield the planet of the Shoridai from a supernova in the Soulpto Group, then returned to Earth.
- Book 1 · Ch 32Quincunx consultation with Unifex
Trend's analysis shows the loss threatens the Intervention Scheme. The four call Unifex, who says it will personally resolve the matter by metapsychically making spy satellites obsolete, then departs.
- Book 1 · Ch 46Quincunx consults Unifex about the Armageddon devices
After the second device is placed at Dimona, the four entities summon Unifex, who refuses to prevent the coming atomic detonations and explains operant humans must learn never to use mind-powers aggressively.
- Book 1 · Ch 46Unifex's baseball metaphor
Unifex has the Quincunx watch the final East-West championship game in Hiroshima, in which the Carp beat the Mets with a last-moment home run. Unifex then tells them to mourn tomorrow's destruction of Tel Aviv and Dimona.
- Book 1 · Ch 75Lylmik rebuke the Gi
The Lylmik discuss a minor tremor caused by the Gi's empathy spasm and rebuke them. They remind the fleet that Intervention's resolution rests with the operant Earthlings and Unifex.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Marc meets a mysterious stranger
Marc is startled by a tall, elderly man who approached undetected. Marc's probe finds no mental signature, so he suspects the man is a non-human exotic. The man laughs and ignores his question.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Unifex retrieves Rogi from the snow grotto
Unifex appears to Rogi in his Denali snow cave, restores the onion creatures he accidentally upset, then tells him his vacation is over and transports him home to New Hampshire.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Plan for the Memoirs
Unifex directs Rogi to resume his Memoirs with Jack's early life and disincarnation, Dorothea's role, and the Metapsychic Rebellion, skipping most of the Proctorship years.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Supervisors try on human bodies
The four Lylmik Supervisors, reluctantly, become incarnate in human bodies for the first time, then Unifex joins them in human form and gives them physiological data.
- Book 2 · Ch 16Unifex's judgment on the Remillards and the Proctorship
Unifex rules that Teresa and Rogi are alive but that the Magistratum won't be told, dismisses suspicion of Marc, and decides the Proctorship ends, with a one-year probation and colonization moratorium to be announced tactfully to Earth.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Marc plans to hijack a ship
Marc scouts the spaceport and selects the CSS Roderick Dhu to hijack for a return to Earth, but is intercepted by a disguised exotic who knows his plan.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Marc expelled from the terminal
Unifex coerces Marc to the tube platform, threatens him with illness if he returns, and forces him into a capsule bound for Carioca Enclave, then lingers for a Pepsi.
- Book 2 · Ch 26Lylmik Supervisors discuss Strayhorn murder
At the Christmas fête, four Supervisors tell Unifex of Margaret Strayhorn's murder and the danger to Davy MacGregor; he refuses Lylmik intervention despite their suspicion that he knows the killer.
- Book 2 · Ch 28Lylmik crash the Inaugural Ball
The five Lylmik Supervisors arrive in human form at the ball and shock everyone by dancing with humans, including Paul, Lucille, Davy, and Laura.
- Book 2 · Ch 28Unifex and Fury spar
Fury and Unifex exchange telepathic words, each insisting on opposed futures; Unifex warns of other fishers beyond them.
- Book 3 · Ch 1The Ghost's confession in Keaku Cave
The Ghost reveals it is Atoning Unifex, a Lylmik nearing the end of its life, explains its motives and penance, and urges Rogi to finish the chronicle before year's end.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Rogi agrees to the dream-filter
Rogi reluctantly allows the Ghost to install a dream-filter against Fury nightmares so he can write Dorothée's story on Kauai, refusing any Unity programming.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Rogatien begins his memoirs
With Atoning Unifex's tenure ended and the Family Ghost's reappearance, Rogatien sets down the Remillard family's secrets, now safe to reveal, for countless future readers.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Lylmik attend in Poltroyan bodies
Four Lylmik Supervisors take Poltroyan bodies at Atoning Unifex's urging, told to watch for impostors, and wonder whether Hydra have infiltrated Orb.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Observers assess the event
Asymptotic Essence, Homologous Trend and Eupathic Impulse discuss the punch as a likely nodal event, with Eupathic Impulse cautioning against jumping to conclusions.
- Book 3 · Ch 21Supervisors reject outlawing the Rebels
Paul persuades the Lylmik Supervisors not to condemn the Rebels or impose a loyalty oath; Unifex agrees, reveals the Lylmik are dying, and tells Paul to consult Anne about Fury.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Lylmik Supervisors meet Unifex
Four Lylmik Supervisors, in human bodies, observed the conversation and discuss human resistance to Unity. Atoning Unifex arrives, encourages them to bond with their dogs, and declares Davy must stay Dirigent.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Unifex reveals his non-intervention plan
Unifex tells four Supervisors the Quincunx will not prevent the coming human–Milieu conflict, citing the Percruciate Progressive Principle, and proposes Plan B.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Unifex offers Marc a conditional freedom
In the stopped conveyor, Unifex tells Marc of the Quincunx reprieve and sends him with a hundred Rebels to France to take supplies and leave.