Avout

Avout are members of a Math who live under the Cartasian Discipline, distinct from the world Extramuros.

First Appearance and Context

The term designates those who reside within a walled Math and who have sworn the Cartasian Discipline. In current scenes centered on Apert, avout are seen moving between their cloistered routines and tightly regulated contact with people Extramuros. The word is used both by insiders and outsiders to mark that boundary.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Timekeeping and observances: Avout maintain and wind the great clock during public rites such as Provener; bell‑ringing and other coordinated duties are part of the community’s rhythm.
• Learning and outreach under Discipline: During Apert, avout may briefly go extramuros for errands and fence‑mending conversations, while visitors enter select precincts. Training stresses safety and expectation‑setting, including study of recurring outsider patterns cataloged as Iconography.
• Information hygiene: Avout minimize unintended information flow between maths and with the outside. When communication across groups is unavoidable, it is routed through hierarchs and established procedures.
• Historical mobilization: In past crises, large convocations of avout have been assembled to address practical dangers; an oft‑retold example recounts a rapid, world‑spanning effort that built a spacecraft to nudge an approaching rock, later repurposed as a study mission when the threat passed.
• Research boundaries and allowances: Following reforms after the First Sack, avout are forbidden to conduct further development of Newmatter; limited production continues within the mathic world for specific uses.

Relationships

• Ita: Avout keep a formal distance from the Ita, who tend tolerated mechanisms tied to the clockworks. Just as Ita would not enter certain sacred spaces, avout avoid Ita work areas and use hooding or silence to reduce contact when paths cross.
• Saecular world and authorities: The outside world protects and constrains maths to varying degrees. A long‑standing belief holds that information handled by practical cadres may lead to Evocations (voco), in which an avout is called out to perform needed work; this is treated by avout as rumor rather than daily practice.
• Orders and cohorts: Within a math, avout belong to orders and cohorts that shape duties and study; some groups open their gates more rarely than others, coordinating their cycles at Apert.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Attire and kit: Everyday clothing centers on a long strip of cloth called a bolt, typically managed with a waist cord ("chord") and a portable sphere used as a seat. These items are commonly made from newmatter and favor durability and utility over ornament.
• Daily texture: Routines blend study with chores; benches along the cloister host light crafts and conversation. Sleeping cells are assigned and may rotate to prevent patterns of attachment.
• Speech and terms: Members are addressed by traditional honorifics (e.g., fraa and suur). Preferred media reflect the Discipline’s austerity and emphasize words and diagrams over mechanical recording.

Current Status/Location

Avout are presently living under the revived rules observed after the Reconstitution, within the walls of their math. During the ongoing Apert, limited two‑way traffic is allowed under watch, while most daily life continues on intramuros schedules shaped by clockwork, study, and order duties.