Princeps

Character from deaths-end by

The Trisolaran head of state — the voice that ordered the relocation of humanity and, soon after, watched its own world die.

Princeps is the supreme administrative mind of Trisolaran civilization — older than any human, shaped by the Chaotic Eras, incapable of lying because Trisolarans cannot. The Princeps' decisions in Death's End are coldly rational: accept the Cheng Xin candidacy, destroy the antennae the moment she takes the seat, herd humanity to Australia, prepare the world for full colonization. When Trisolaris is destroyed by an unknown civilization's photoid the Princeps is presumed killed; the surviving Trisolaran fleets disperse beyond contact. The Princeps' culture cannot dissemble and has therefore developed a strategic doctrine of pure transparent ruthlessness.

Appearance

Never directly seen by humans. Trisolarans communicate by visible-light displays, so the Princeps appears in human imagination as a pulse of cold patterned light, transmitted through Sophon. When given any anthropomorphic form in human media it is a gaunt elder figure wrapped in dark cloth, faceless.

Also known as: 元首, the Princeps, the Elder

What They Know

• Princeps is the head of the Trisolaran government and supreme commander of the fleet
• Princeps personally approved the deception that produced Cheng Xin's election as Swordholder
• Princeps ordered the destruction of all Earth's gravitational-wave antennae and the resettlement to Australia
• Princeps is presumed killed in the photoid strike that destroys Trisolaris

Connections

• enemy_of — cheng_xin
• located_in — trisolaris

View full profile at Simulacra.Ink