Hylaean Way

First Appearance and Context

The Hylaean Way is an exhibit-lined architectural route within the Unarian Math. Its entrance stands off the plaza reached through the Year Gate. During Apert, avout guides lead visitors through its sequence of spaces.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Interpretive route: Presents a narrative of the mathic tradition that begins with Cnous’s insight and proceeds through early schools, the Halls of Orithena, the Peregrin period, the theoric golden age at Ethras, and the rise of Baz and its Ark. The path ends in a stark chamber symbolizing the withdrawal into the maths and the dawn of the Old Mathic Age, then loops around the Unarian Cloister.
• Public use: Serves as a principal tour for visitors during openings, offering a structured way to encounter the mythic and historical foundations referenced by the avout.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Standing in the concent: After the Mynster, it is described as the dominant architectural feature of the concent. Its style is more Bazian than Mathic—broad and horizontal, reminiscent of arks that spread wide to welcome entrants.
• Threshold and fossil chamber: A grand entrance leads into a deliberately close, dim vestibule whose walls and floor are paneled with greenish‑brown shale rich in fossils, used as a teaching exhibit.
• The Rotunda: A broad, light‑filled circular hall under a dome with a triangular oculus. At its center stands a famous marble of Cnous; companion statues depict Hylaea and Deat. Two exits flank these statues, marking the symbolic fork between Deolater and Hylaean paths; to continue, visitors take Hylaea’s door.
• Diorama Chamber and galleries: A vaulted gallery sequence includes a scale model of the Temple of Orithena and frescoes tracing Adrakhones, Diax, the Peregrins, and later the theors in Ethras.
• Final sequence: Scenes of Baz’s glory, the fall and burnings, and an austere stone chamber that represents withdrawal to the maths. Beyond, the Way circles the Unarian Cloister and presently peters out, leaving room for future exhibits.

Relationships

• Location and approach: Oriented near the Unarian plaza and bridge; the entrance lies a short walk from the wedge‑shaped memorial tumulus raised to avout who returned during an earlier siege.
• Guided practice: Often narrated by avout as part of public education during openings; the route’s fork at the Rotunda is used to frame contrasts between Deolater and Hylaean interpretations.

Current Status/Location

Active and maintained as a major visitor route inside the Unarian precinct. It is open to guided groups during openings and remains part of the concent’s core fabric between openings.