Mynster

The Mynster is the great stone‑vaulted complex at the heart of the math, built around the central tower, the Praesidium, which bears the great clock and rooftop Starhenge. It is the main hall for rites and the visible timekeeping hub of the Concent.

First Appearance and Context

At sunrise during Apert, avout gather in the Mynster’s chancel for music and rites. A beam of sunlight is admitted from a quartz prism atop the starhenge and washed down a lightwell into the hall. In the same moment, the main weight begins to drop to open the Day Gate, while the longer‑cycle gate weights descend on their rails into view, to general acclaim.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Timekeeping hub: The Mynster concentrates the mechanisms that drive dials, bells, and auxiliary loads. A mechanical orrery—placed in the narthex between the Day Gate and the north nave—is part of this system.
• Belfries and codes: The belfry movement can play fixed tunes to mark hours; for auts and other events, a team of ringers disengages it and rings changes in set patterns understood by avout. Bell‑ropes rise to a carillon above, while shafts and chains from the tower’s chronochasm trigger automatic chimes.
• Underworks and maintenance: Devices tended below the floor operate auxiliary mechanisms (such as the orrery) and apply subtle corrections to the great clock’s rate; these under‑vault systems are maintained by the Ita.
• Chancel and services: The chancel hosts formal services attended by the Primate; visiting hierarchs from other concents, including Inquisitors, may appear during observances.

Relationships

• The Ita have a reserved corner and portal at the northeastern side, communicating with their covered quarter and subterranean access to the clock‑works.
• Screens within the chancel manage sightlines so that groups gathered in different naves share a rite without seeing across into each other’s spaces.
• Edharian chapters in other concents display images of this Mynster in their chapter houses, reflecting its status as the mother house for that order.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Dominant feature: Within the concent, the Mynster is the dominant architectural feature; the Hylaean Way is the next most prominent complex.
• Plan and towers: A multi‑towered fabric webs out from the Praesidium with arches, buttresses, and four great naves aligned to the cardinal directions. The southwestern tower includes an elaborate cupola of stone‑carving depicting planets, moons, and early cosmographers.
• Chancel, screens, and triforium: An octagonal chancel sits at the core, enclosed by eight perforated screens—dark on the nave sides and bright within—so that each nave sees “its” chancel. A spiral stair turret rises to a triforium gallery that encircles the chancel beneath the clerestory and leads on toward the bell‑ringers’ place and the higher stairs.
• Light and gates: At sunrise the starhenge’s prism sends light down into the hall; on the appropriate cycles the gate weights descend: the daily main weight for the Day Gate, and, at longer intervals, the others that open longer‑cycle gates.
• Upper works and roof: Above the vault rises the starhenge and walkways. Features observed include twin domes for the large telescope, smaller domes, a heated chapel where photomnemonic tablets are examined, the fixed fisheye instrument known as Clesthyra’s Eye, and the Pinnacle—the highest point of the Mynster.
• Stonework and ornamentation: Much of the stone used in the Mynster was carved from large boulders long ago strewn across the meadow by earlier works; a few remain for decoration and as raw stock. Stonecutters continue to refine gargoyles, finials, and related details.

Current Status/Location

Active and intact. The Mynster continues to host rites and winding, to sound its bells and automatic chimes, and to provide regulated access to the triforium and upper works. During Apert, it is the focal point for openings and for limited, disciplined movement between intramuros and extramuros.