The Hzataalar (“Hunters”; Imp. sing. Hzataal) are an activist and political pressure group - and, to an extent, a secret society - among the Chosen of the Citadel. Hzataalar is what the inner core of the group call themselves; the public name of the movement as a whole is the Friends of the Future.

The group has coalesced around the teachings of the Oracle Dlyss and exists to put them into action and to convince other Chosen of their veracity.

• Motto or slogan: As we are Chosen, so let us choose
• Alternative names: Friends of the Future (public)
• Demonym: Hzataal/Hzataalar (private), Friend/Friends (public)
• Foundation date: c. 83 Cloud 4
• Current leader: Mortoth (de facto)
• Known members: Kurass (non-Hzataal), Shoss (non-Hzataal), Shemyl (non-Hzataal)

The bulk of the Friends' efforts, in terms of sheer takma-power, are concentrated in the Citadel. It is especially active in the lower end of the valley system, where most of the Chosen population lives, but makes a certain effort to circulate its charitable efforts to more remote settlements and homesteads. The “rescue” branch of the movement is relatively small by comparison, but operates chains of hidden outposts throughout the less densely-settled regions of the heartlands and the hill-lands north of the spine_of_sirdanth.

While there is an undercurrent within the group membership sharing Dlyss' ambivalence toward Chosen settlement of other worlds as accessed through Books, the Friends will provide assistance to the more focused colonies. The inner Hzataalar membership also maintains its own other-world base on Oghiras.

As with most Citadel-based institutions, which must deal with the competing mentalities of Srian and Kaean individuals, the Friends of the Future are relatively loosely organized.

The Friends are nominally independent of Dlyss herself; she is not a member nor a formal leader. But the group's alignment with her views, its acceptance of her assistance and guidance, and indeed the fanatical devotion of the Hzataalar in particular to her, causes it to be subservient to her will in many ways.

The organizational heart of the movement is the coordination committee, whose public purpose is to ensure that different interests within the movement are speaking to each other and aware of each others' needs and activities and communicate the Friends' goals and work to others. They circulate lists of tasks requiring action, volunteers, and/or resources and encourage those things to be sent to the priority cases. They also generally the recipients and distributors of those resources donated to the movement as a whole instead of to smaller-scale efforts, such as the funding provided by Dlyss herself.

The committee, whose staff is composed almost entirely of self-identified Hzataalar, is also responsible for organizing more clandestine activities, such as the Oghiras colony and the “frictional” actions of members of the rescue branch.

The committee's de facto spokesman, and primary liaison with Dlyss, is the charismatic Mortoth.

The Friends of the Future are motivated by Dlyss' message of Chosen solidarity, believing that in a hostile world they must be able to rely on each other. For the vast majority, the Oracle is simply a reasonable and knowledgeable voice that it is wise to heed, and their response manifests in terms of social activism: rescuing and “repatriating” Chosen from the outside world, and assisting those already in the Citadel but in poor circumstances. There are rarely ulterior motives aside from wishing to feel good about oneself and a sense of community (or, in individual cases, the relatively mundane motive of having a chance to misuse resources or position).

The Hzataalar, by contrast, are far more focused. They hew more closely to Dlyss' teachings and directives, and amongst themselves - only amongst themselves - place a stronger emphasis on the coming conflict between Chosen and Unchosen, accompanied by the conviction that said conflict is not merely inevitable, but desirable, and many of their more secretive activities are dedicated to preparing for it and bringing it about. The Hzataalar serve as a hidden group-within-a-group, and while some may know them by that name, few suspect that they are anything other than the most motivated Friends; they are generally viewed by other Friends as worthy of respect, if somewhat eccentric.

Its most well-known activities, and the ones it promotes most heavily, are its economic assistance efforts for less fortunate Chosen and its missions to relocate persecuted Chosen from the outside world into the Citadel; but the core membership believes strongly in Dlyss' message of Chosen supremacy and the ultimate inevitability of conflict with the Unchosen.