Second Sack

The Second Sack is remembered within the mathic community as a major upheaval—one of the Three Sacks—that affected the Concent of Saunt Edhar and its central building, the Mynster.

First Appearance and Context

In accounts of the Mynster’s layout and history, a pipe‑organ once stood in the east nave but was ripped out during the Second Sack. In the years that followed, stricter rules under the Cartasian Discipline prohibited the use of other musical instruments inside the concent. A mathic dictionary entry further uses “Second Sack” as a chronological marker: up to the Second Sack, the Ita are described as a faculty, while later usage describes them as a proscribed artisanal caste.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

  • Part of the sequence of Three Sacks that mark moments of violence and disruption in the concent’s history.
  • Operational lore holds that during such upheavals the great Clock could continue in a reduced mode using a sealed reserve when routine winding was interrupted.
  • Referenced in connection with “Second Sack reforms,” which proscribe syntactic devices; concents built around Great Clocks are said to be in technical violation because their clocks include subsystems employing such devices, and within those places the Ita operate and maintain those subsystems while observing segregation from the avout.

Relationships

  • Tied to the fabric and practices of the Concent of Saunt Edhar, most visibly in the Mynster’s east nave where the former organ is absent.
  • Serves as a dividing line in mathic terminology and policy concerning the Ita and the handling of syntactic devices.

Descriptions/Characteristics

  • Specific causes, participants, and chronology have not been detailed in the narrative available so far.
  • Concrete effects presently described include the removal of the organ from the east nave and the subsequent instrument‑free liturgical tradition.

Current Status/Location

A historical event whose legacy endures in physical absences within the Mynster and in policy language that invokes “Second Sack reforms.”

Summary:

One of the three historical sackings affecting the Concent of Saunt Edhar. It is cited as the time when the pipe-organ that once stood in the Mynster's east nave was torn out; later, stricter Discipline banned other musical instruments. Mathic sources also use it as a dividing line for later reforms: up to the Second Sack, Ita were a faculty; afterward, syntactic devices were proscribed and the Ita became a tolerated, segregated caste where Great Clocks require their work.

First seen:
Part 1: Provener - Chapter 4: Saunt
Most recently seen:
Part 2: Apert - Chapter 9: Ita
Known as:
The Second Sack