Sanii

Sanii is a construct archwizard whose central mind operates many bodies, including swarms of spellcasting machines small enough to resemble dust.

Biography

The Wizard of Steel at Cretalikon

Sanii attends Baelin's cabal meeting through her 143rd body because her central brain and primary chassis are occupied maintaining guardians. She answers Baelin's call to war and confronts an abyssal knight through distributed calculation rather than intimidation: after allowing the demon to close, she releases thousands of miniature bodies, each carrying a fraction of her mind and power, and has them cast in unison. During the final destruction of Jaretha, the swarm's red beams burn through material as tough as tungsten before returning to her as a grey cloud. (Chapters 498–542)

Baelin later helps Sanii destroy an archlich, unravel its demiplane, and free the people imprisoned within, an act reported rather than shown directly. He subsequently calls her fascinated by the Ravener but also names her the cabal's principal exception when discussing its members' limited altruism. By the postwar era he describes Sanii and Magun-Obu as the more reasonable cabal-mates in a possible long-term association with Alex. (Chapters 812 and 899)

Appearance and personality

The 143rd body resembles an adult-height feminine humanoid made from shining alloys, with white robes, red eyes, and flame jets beneath its feet. Sanii's voice comes from multiple directions, and the material-world posture she adopts can be performative rather than necessary. Precise and analytical, she nevertheless expresses warmth, melancholy, humour, and loyalty, correcting friends' jokes while wishing the ancient cabal met more often. (Chapters 498 and 542)

Magic, abilities, and skills

Sanii operates through a central brain, a primary chassis, numbered remote bodies, and nano-sized constructs that each bear part of her mind and magical power. The swarm can independently cast Force Missile in enormous coordinated volleys and fire red energy beams capable of burning through tungsten. Damage to one larger body therefore does not establish harm to the whole distributed intelligence. The corpus does not explain transmission range, replacement costs, or the precise limits of this division. (Chapters 498, 522–524, and 541)

She can also manifest a remote body with lightning and thunder, fly by jets, maintain distant guardians, and participate in dismantling a demiplane. These abilities show both construct engineering and spellcraft, although the story does not distinguish which systems are built-in machinery and which are spells. (Chapters 498, 522, and 812)

Relationships

• Baelin: Longtime cabal-mate who fights beside her and later helps her free a people from an archlich's demiplane.
• Anaxadar: Friend and cabal-mate whose ostentatious titles she readily mocks.
• Magun-Obu: Fellow ancient maker and one of the cabal's comparatively measured members.

Items

Sanii's chassis and miniature bodies are extensions of her distributed self rather than separately catalogued possessions.