Præsidium

The Præsidium is the central tower of the Mynster, where the four great clock dials are mounted high on its walls. Those dials—made in different ages but driven by the same internal works—proclaim the time, day, month, lunar phase, year, and other cosmographical details read by the knowledgeable. Above, the roof supports the starhenge, which is mechanically coupled to the same clock‑works.

First Appearance and Context

Introduced during a description of the great clock and the central building, the Præsidium is identified as the Mynster’s core tower, the place most people mean when they speak of “the clock” because of its four visible dials.

Structure and Features

• Plan and elevation: The tower stands on four pillars and is square in cross‑section for much of its height. Above the dials, the corners are cleaved to form an octagon, then a sixteen‑sided polygon, and finally a round upper stage. Its roof is a slightly domed disk (“lens”) to shed rain.
• Starhenge and clockworks: The roof carries megaliths, domes, penthouses, and turrets of the starhenge, which drives—and is driven by—the same works that power the dials.
• Dials and belfries: Each dial is set above a screened belfry.
• Buttresses and outlying towers: Below the belfries, the tower throws out plunging stone buttresses that find footing amid the topmost spires of four outlying towers. These surrounding towers are shorter and squatter but follow the same general plan, and systems of arches and tracery web them together, swallowing the lower half of the Præsidium and defining the broad plan of the Mynster.

Relationships and Functions

• Architectural and mechanical hub: Serves as the focal point of the Mynster’s timekeeping apparatus and as the structural center to which outlying towers and upperworks connect.
• Overlook and oversight: Built above the Mynster’s vaulted ceilings is the aerie of the Warden Fendant. Around it runs an open sentinels’ walkway from which a full circuit can be paced in minutes. The walkway’s supporting braces end in gargoyles: half face outward (associated with the Fendant) while the inward‑bending “Regulant” gargoyles look down toward the community. Tucked between the braces, and shaded below the walkway, are the Mathic arches of the Warden Regulant’s windows, from which most of the Concent can be surveyed.

Current Status

Active and intact. The dials function in concert with the starhenge above, and the surrounding upperworks provide vantage points for patrols and inward watch.