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 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. Seasonal preparations can include chant rehearsals around equinox observances.
• 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 sometimes 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.
• Chores and materials: During page‑tree harvests, younger pupils pick suitable leaves while older avout stack them in baskets, string leaves on lines to dry, and later press them under stones for a long aging before cutting pages for books in the concent.
• Avocations and fallback: Avout select practical avocations to support life in the concent—such as woodworking or beekeeping—and some "fall back" to such work full‑time if they prove unsuited to advanced study. During seasons when other duties ease (for example, when younger members spell them on clock‑winding), individuals may try different avocations before settling on one.
• Discipline and censure: On rare and solemn occasions an aut of Anathem may be declared; the individual is anathematized and Thrown Back beyond the gates, losing the use of fraa/suur honorifics. The community marks this with a wrathful song and then reaffirms vows and rededicates to the Discipline.
• Martial and tactical study: Some avout—notably those of the Ringing Vale—maintain traditions in Vale‑lore, an omnibus covering armed and unarmed practice alongside military history, strategy, and tactics. In informal speech it is often shortened to "vlor," and extramuros usage of "Vlor" refers to an entertainment genre and to training academies.

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: A formal rite called Voco exists by which a fraa or suur may be called out to perform practical work; within the maths it is treated as a solemn farewell and final departure for the one who is Evoked.
• 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.
• Property limits and historical Lineages: Personal property is restricted to a minimal kit—often summarized as bolt, chord, and sphere. In earlier eras, some avout formed Lineages that accumulated wealth beyond these limits and passed it to designated heirs; such practices were abolished in reforms following the Third Sack, and lingering rumors of hidden hoards sometimes color inter‑order relations.
• 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.
• Names and vows: Upon taking their vow, individuals adopt avout names used with the honorifics noted above. Habit can lag for recent changes, with peers informally using pre‑vow names. Senior avout may take a fid as a mentee, and teaching can be chosen as an avocation.

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.