Mynster

The Mynster is a vast, stone‑vaulted complex at the heart of a math, organized around its central tower, the Præsidium. The Præsidium carries four great dials high on its walls; though crafted in different ages and styles, they are all driven by the same internal works. Together they proclaim the time, day, month, lunar phase, year, and other cosmographical details read by the knowledgeable.

First Appearance and Context

The Mynster comes into focus in a description of the great clock and the Præsidium’s dials at the center of a mathic community.

Structure and Features

• Central tower (Præsidium): Square in plan at lower levels, then chamfered to an octagon, then a sixteen‑sided polygon, and finally round at the top. Its roof is a slightly domed disk that bears the Starhenge, which is mechanically coupled to the clock‑works that drive the dials.
• Dials and belfries: Each dial sits above a screened belfry. Below these, the tower throws out plunging stone buttresses for stability.
• Outlying towers and tracery: Four shorter, squatter towers stand around the Præsidium to the same general plan. Systems of arches and tracery web these to one another, swallowing the lower half of the central tower and defining the broad plan of the Mynster.
• Vaults and roof: The Mynster’s ceiling is steeply vaulted stone. Above the vault lies a framed flat roof that supports additional structures.
• Aerie and walk: Built upon the roof is the aerie of the Warden Fendant. Around its perimeter runs an open sentinel’s walkway from which a circuit of the Mynster can be paced in minutes, with long views toward the horizon except where obstructed by buttresses or pinnacles; much of the surrounding concent can be observed from here.
• Braces, gargoyles, and windows: Dozens of close‑spaced braces curve up from the walls to support the walk. Each brace terminates in a gargoyle; half gaze outward (associated with the Fendant), half bend inward toward the concent (associated with the Regulant). Tucked between the braces are the squat Mathic arches of the Warden Regulant’s windows.

Relationships and Functions

• Timekeeping hub: The Mynster houses the interlinked mechanisms that drive the dials (and the rooftop starhenge), making it the architectural and mechanical heart of timekeeping within the community.
• Outward and inward watch: From the Warden Fendant’s aerie and the Warden Regulant’s high windows, much of the concent below can be watched; few places lie beyond their view.

Current Status

Active and intact, with the clock’s dials functioning and the upper walkways serving as vantage points for sentinels. The building’s mixed‑age fabric—dials from different eras integrated into a single mechanism—suggests long, ongoing use and maintenance.