The Zhikhan Manufacturing Collective is a Thazvaari-rooted engineering house that became one of the Empire’s core builders of rail and siege infrastructure. Its output powers logistics, fortification, and long-range movement across continents—essential to the war economy, but distant from everyday civilian life. In the modern era it is locked in a quiet, persistent rivalry with Haavu Works and Weapons Systems over the remaining share of planetary energy outside the Joxi–Sentinel bloc.
Formed during the Era of Imperial Conquest (~3,500–3,000 years before modern Geba), Zhikhan was assembled from Thazvaari guilds that had resisted Geban expansion. These guilds specialized in coastal fortifications and rapid-deployment rail. After prolonged campaigns, Emperor Vaer’Karesh offered amnesty to surviving engineers in exchange for designs and service. Integrated as a semi-autonomous producer, Zhikhan shifted from regional defense to imperial-scale manufacturing.
Zhikhan’s portfolio includes heavy rail, bridgeworks, armored trains, siege engines, and supply depots—systems that move armies and lock terrain. Civilian contracts exist but are secondary. Today, Zhikhan and Haavu contest the ~30% of energy not controlled by Joxi and Sentinel, targeting untapped geothermal fields and recursion-linked reserves, a rivalry marked by industrial secrecy, procurement battles, and occasional sabotage through intermediaries.