Newmatter

First Appearance and Context

While walking extramuros during an Apert day, newmatter is seen patching an old steel bridge near a tributary of the town’s river. In the same outing it appears in consumer goods, such as iridescent tires on vehicles. Within the concent, it is cited as one of the praxes “grandfathered in,” allowed for specific uses (including in avout spheres and bolts), and is described as the material used in adaptive telescope mirrors at the starhenge atop the Mynster.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Extramuros use: Commonly employed to repair infrastructure and in manufactured goods (e.g., tires), suggesting broad availability outside the walls.
• Mathic allowances: Explicitly permitted as a limited praxis within the Discipline; it shows up in avout gear (spheres and bolts) and in precision instruments.
• Historical framing: Decisions permitting its continued use are said to date from Convoxes following the First and Second Sacks, when rules about praxes and interactions with the Ita were formalized.

Relationships

• Discipline and praxes: Newmatter’s allowed status is an exception within the Discipline, preserved for specific practical purposes.
• Ita and mechanisms: While not described as an Ita craft per se, rules about praxes—including those that touch newmatter—are linked in-text to the same historical settlements that define Ita-related boundaries.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Form and appearance: Seen as a patching material on aged steelwork and as colorful, iridescent components in consumer items (such as tires).
• Optical application: Mirrors made of newmatter in the starhenge telescopes can change shape in response to guide‑star measurements, correcting atmospheric distortion before focusing light into photomnemonic tablets.
• Names in text: The material appears as both “newmatter” and “new‑matter.”

Current Status/Location

• Widespread extramuros, visible in public works and products.
• Present within the mathic world under controlled allowances, including in avout spheres and bolts and in the adaptive optics of the telescopes above the Mynster.