Concent of Saunt Edhar

The Concent of Saunt Edhar is the walled setting of a mathic community built around the towering Mynster and its great clock. It stands at a river bend beneath rocky bluffs and coordinates daily life and public openings under long‑standing rules within the broader concent system.

First Appearance and Context

The concent is presented as the home ground of Decenarian avout during routine observances and as a focal point during Apert. As the opening nears its end, tables are raised for the communal Tenth Night meal beneath a vast canopy whose newmatter struts date to the founding and give off a soft, even light at dusk. After the close‑of‑Apert service, gateworks are actuated: chains move, water‑valves open, a silver thread runs along the aqueduct, and the Decade Gate grinds closed while a few spectators watch from outside; the canopy is then struck and tables folded away.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Houses multiple maths and offices within its walls, including the Decenarian, the neighboring Centenarian, and the crag‑top Millenarian communities.
• Regulates contact with extramuros. Visitors—when permitted—enter by the Day Gate to observe rites and festivals; at a formal moment, the highest secular official present hands newcomers over to mathic jurisdiction by spoken oaths and the ringing of a bell.
• Maintains and couples major mechanisms: the great clock, auxiliary loads, and water‑powered works that open distant gates at Apert. The Ita tend under‑floor systems and practical arrangements. Access to the rooftop is scheduled so that only one math uses the high stair at a time.
• Discipline and penance: The Warden Regulant oversees inward‑facing order from high windows and keeps cells along an inner walkway above the chancel; sentences can confine an avout there to copy and recite prescribed texts in seclusion until examined and released.
• Regulant proceedings and recordkeeping: Formal interviews may be convened in senior chalk halls (e.g., Saunt Zenla’s) under the Warden Regulant. Shorthand transcripts are taken by staff, and documents can be impounded from niches as part of an inquiry.
• Starhenge access control: During a period of heightened scrutiny associated with visiting members of the Inquisition, portcullises leading to the rooftop were observed closed by day and access to the starhenge sealed; avout described this as unusual and debated its cause.
• Evocation (Voco): When the aut of Voco rings, all avout assemble for a solemn summoning and farewell. In one such instance, a Centenarian was called and, afterward, an aerocraft landed on the plaza before the Day Gate to carry away the Evoked alongside visiting Inquisitors.
• Rare anathematization: On a separate occasion, the aut of Anathem was proclaimed. The assembly gathered; a named member was Thrown Back and departed by the Day Gate, after which vows were reaffirmed and discipline re‑declared.
• Seasonal observances: Approaching the equinox, chant rehearsals are held and routine horticultural work (including tangle planting) proceeds in the meadows.

Relationships

• The maths share space by long‑standing arrangement of naves and corners in the central hall, and each cohort’s routines are coordinated so that they can observe without interfering with one another.
• Outside the walls, a burgers’ town stands near the Day Gate causeway; during openings, observers gather extramuros and a controlled trickle of visitors is received intramuros.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Site and walls: The concent nestles in the crook of a river below the terminus of a long range. Fortifications span both banks: most buildings lie inside the river bend, while a strip on the far bank carries walls and bastions.
• Gates and waterworks: Three bastions on the far bank hold the Unarian, Decenarian, and Centenarian gates. Upstream of a cataract, a pool and aqueduct feed a high‑placed pond outside the Day Gate; monumental valves can route water to systems that, at Apert, power the long‑cycle gates. A causeway crosses the pond from the burgers’ square to the Day Gate, flanked by paired fountains.
• Bridge and driveshaft: A stone‑arch bridge spans the river where a round tower on the near bank houses a cistern and water‑wheel. From there, a shaft runs across the bridge into a bastion, where gearing couples directly to the gate hinge‑pins.
• Upperworks and access: The central tower, the Praesidium, supports a rooftop starhenge—a ring of megaliths with telescopes and workrooms. A fixed all‑sky lens records meteor tracks and a quartz prism at the Pinnacle admits noon light into the hall when skies are clear. Passage upward is controlled so that only one math has the roof at a time, and the route includes a transition the avout call the chronochasm. Within the starhenge, instrument stations include an objective known as Clesthyra’s Eye and a control chamber sometimes referred to as the M & M; photomnemonic tablets can be inserted or retrieved there. A low parapet along the rooftop provides a perch; stone knobs allow staff to hang satchels while cleaning the optics or taking a brief meal. In winter weather, snow can obscure the all‑sky lens until cleared. On very bright days, rooftop workers have been seen wearing heavy dark goggles when looking toward the sun.
• Chalk halls and study spaces: Named chalk halls (e.g., Saunt Grod’s and Saunt Zenla’s) serve lectures, collaboration, and official business; galleries are lined with pigeonholes for leaves and journals.
• Refectory and kitchens: The Refectory hosts communal meals and rotating kitchen duty. Hierarchs occasionally dine there but avoid letting Sæcular information slip.
• Towers, courts, and ledges: The Regulant court and the Warden Fendant’s court occupy high levels. A parapeted Fendant’s ledge offers a controlled view into the grounds; avout hood themselves at parapets to keep sightlines intramuros. A statue of Amnectrus marks a landing above.
• Muster rooms and stores: High towers include muster rooms with heavy wooden doors and metal‑box stores (ammunition) kept on a decades‑long replacement cycle and moved up the stairs by hand chains when renewed.
• Grounds and meadow: A clover meadow occupies the near bank within the walls. Sandy margins along the inner river favor hardy shrubs and vines—slashberry and starblossom among them—while Shuf’s Dowment rises on the opposite bank. Avocations may be staged here, such as a planned horticultural re‑enactment of the Battle of Trantae mapped onto plant growth and succession. The cutbank of the inner river forms undercut overhangs that offer secluded spots out of direct sight from the Warden Regulant’s windows; avout sometimes use the soft ground there for falls practice or drills. Grandsuurs have been seen punting along the river within the walls. At times, cooking from Ita quarters upwind can be smelled in the grounds. Shuf’s Dowment has lately seen heavier use by avout, making its workrooms busier than before.

Current Status/Location

Following the closing of Apert, the gates are shut and inward routines resume. Starhenge access has been kept sealed under the eyes of hierarchs, and visiting Inquisitors have departed by aerocraft after a Voco aut. More recently, a rare aut of Anathem was proclaimed: one member was Thrown Back via the Day Gate, and the community reaffirmed vows thereafter.