Warden Regulant

First Appearance and Context

Avout cite this office when rules about visitor devices and recording are at issue, warning that breaches will come to the Warden Regulant’s attention and may result in penance. The holder is seen seated among the hierarchs in the chancel during major rites. In a rooftop episode near the upper works, Suur Trestanas arrived with the Master of the Keys after multiple portcullises were shut and then spoke privately with a senior fraa while the Master of the Keys escorted a Tenner away—an exceptional matter rather than routine penance.

During Apert, the Warden Regulant has been seen hurrying with the Warden Fendant to address incidents in the meadow, deferring to visiting Inquisitors as needed. In ordinary times, the boundary between their jurisdictions is the top of the wall; during Apert this boundary becomes complicated as the wall effectively ceases to exist for ten days.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Enforces the Cartasian Discipline inside the walls and assigns penances for lapses or violations (including neglected communal duties and misuse of devices or recording by visitors).
• May “throw the Book” by assigning specific chapters of the Book as penance (for example, ordering an avout to undertake multiple chapters in the Mynster), and can threaten escalated sanctions in serious cases.
• Supervises the Master of the Keys, who controls nightly portcullis access to the upper works and starhenge.
• Provides an inward-facing complement to the outward watch of the Warden Fendant.
• Coordinates at the jurisdictional boundary with the Warden Fendant—normally the top of the wall—which requires special handling during Apert when that boundary is suspended.
• Sits with other hierarchs in the Mynster and administers internal order during public observances and the opening days when movement between intramuros and extramuros is regulated.
• Keeps or oversees reports about incidents that may later be entered in the Chronicle and used when determining penance.
• Receives intelligence from the Ita; avout accounts suggest the Ita exercise judgment in what to pass on, so not every observation or suspicion reaches the Warden Regulant directly.
• Is technically part of the Inquisition; reports to the Primate and, in specified circumstances, can depose a Primate with her officers. The office’s presence is routine even when no specific case is afoot.
• Sets the terms of confinement for penances and may grant limited exceptions for universally attended rites (e.g., instructing one under penance to view from behind the Primate’s screen and return immediately afterward).

Relationships

• Counterpart office: Warden Fendant (outward-facing watch).
• Current holder: Suur Trestanas; older avout remark that new holders typically hand out many small penances early in their tenure.
• Hierarchy: superior to the Master of the Keys; appointed by the Primate.
• Selection context: Fraa Spelikon was passed over for the office in favor of Suur Trestanas.

Descriptions/Characteristics

Tucked between the braces that support the sentinels’ rooftop walkway are inward-looking Mathic-arched windows associated with the office. Gargoyles on those braces are paired to mirror the two wardens’ domains; the inward-facing Regulant gargoyles look down over the concent, while outward-facing figures align with the Fendant’s watch.

• Regulant court: a level of the Mynster housing doorless penance cells that open onto an inner walkway. Sightlines from these cells reach into the upper works but not down to the chancel floor; the court sits beneath the Warden Fendant’s overhanging ledge.
• Observation point: avout moving furtively on interior grounds have been known to check sight-lines to the Warden Regulant’s windows—suggesting that those windows command views across commonly trafficked areas such as the meadow and riverbank.

Current Status/Location

Active as the inward-facing disciplinary authority of the math. Held at present by Suur Trestanas, who has been observed acting decisively with the Master of the Keys to secure privacy and order during an exceptional rooftop exchange, and is remembered for a strict early period typical of new appointees.