Sæcular Power

Overview

The Sæcular Power is the outside authority that governs the worldly realm beyond mathic walls. Within the maths its formal communications are treated as legitimate and binding when delivered through established rites (notably Voco). Avout commonly use “Sæcular Power” as a convenient umbrella across eras—extras sometimes object that it oversimplifies—but for mathic purposes it serves to bundle whatever empire, republic, papacy, or other regime lies beyond the gates. In the present day it is described as a federation of political units that roughly align with Arbre’s continents.

Purpose and Structure

• Non‑mathic governance: Recognized by avout as the worldly authority in the Sæculum. Its particulars can vary over time; the label remains useful for mathic discourse.
• Federation and borders: Travel is generally free within each federated unit, while crossings between units require documents. Such documents are usually obtainable for extras but are difficult or impossible for avout to acquire.
• Separate legal sphere since the Reconstitution: The Sæcular Power holds no records of avout, has no jurisdiction or responsibility over them, and cannot draft or tax them. Its officials may not enter concents except at Apert. It does not provide pensions or medical care to avout, and avout do not receive identity documents from it. Protection from mobs or armies may be offered at its discretion.
• Distinct from mathic oversight: It is separate from the mathic Inquisition, which polices Discipline within and among concents.

Practices

• Rites and directives: Issues calls via Voco, sometimes naming many at once. When a rendezvous is named, the receiving concent functions as a Convox, enabling groups to travel while preserving elements of the Discipline.
• Reported communication channel: In present accounts, a message attributed to the Sæcular Power reached an Ita through a reticular route with instructions to discreetly inform a cosmographer, bypassing hierarchs. A senior avout later suggested a simpler motive: outside authorities needed telescopes and skilled operators quickly and quietly. These are recorded as speakers’ accounts and interpretations.
• Civic works and cycles: As observed along Evoked travelers’ routes, farmlands in the region have historically been irrigated “from age to age” under Sæcular auspices; the same lands can fall into disrepair when such efforts wane (evident in deteriorated roads and fouled ditches).

Known Associations

• Concents: Communicates formally with maths through rites held in the Mynster; recent calls involved departures from the Concent of Saunt Edhar and a gathering at the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh.
• Ita: Practical order cited as having received a discreet instruction to seed an observation task; this is presented as a direct account by an Ita and a subsequent interpretation by avout.
• Inquisition: Separate body concerned with Discipline inside the maths; Voco can proceed with or without Inquisitors present.

Recent Activity

• Mobilization and transport: Civilian volunteers—drivers associated with local institutions—were asked to help move Evoked avout “from Point A to Point B” with minimal explanation beyond the statement that a puzzle needed avout attention; participants expressed curiosity and pride at seeing the mechanism engaged.
• Quiet enlistment of expertise (as reported): An Ita states that he was told (via a reticule channel) to alert a cosmographer so that telescope images could be obtained; a senior avout framed this as a practical expedient to secure images without involving hierarchs. Some speakers infer subsequent crackdowns were connected to this, but the chain of responsibility remains unproven in‑text.
• Border and documents context: Speakers describe the current federation’s border controls—documents are required to cross between units, and avout lack such documents—shaping how avout plan long‑distance travel without passing through ports of entry.

Status

Active and engaged. Its recent directives have led Evoked groups toward Saunt Tredegarh under a Convox framework, with ad hoc civilian support and targeted, low‑profile communications to obtain needed observations. Within the walls, formal calls continue to be treated as binding when properly delivered, even as their implementation involves outside logistics and intermediaries.