speely

First Appearance and Context

While describing the interior screens of the Mynster, the narrator notes that extramuros people use a “screen” to watch a speely or play a game, whereas for avout a screen is a carved barrier of stone or wood through which one sees and hears. On the same day, an artisan from outside the walls is present in the north nave with a speelycaptor during the aut of Provener, underscoring that this medium belongs to the outside world. Later conversation with an extramuros artisan clarifies that speely content is also distributed as “casts,” and that an attempt to make a speely of Provener was refused due to the capturing device’s capabilities.

In the New Library, a conversation between Fraa Orolo, Fraa Erasmas, and an artisan from outside the walls (Flec) further highlights these boundaries: Orolo remarks that the avout do not possess a speely‑device and, under the Cartasian Discipline, their permitted media are limited to chalk, ink, and stone. He also expresses a preference for human observation rendered into words over uncurated moving pictures.

Description and Role

“Speely” refers to moving‑picture content—recordings or broadcasts meant to be displayed on devices common outside the walls. It is associated with extramuros media, entertainment, reportage, and announcements. Within the mathic world it mostly appears as a point of contrast to the avout’s preference for words, direct observation, and enduring materials. Accounts also show it used as informal instruction: the narrator remarks that childhood speelies gave a general idea of how the wireless works. In casual speech, some use “speely” metonymically for the viewing unit itself.

Relationships and Functions

• Viewing devices: A speely can be watched on a viewer or “speely‑device,” a general label for extramuros apparatus used to display moving pictures.
• Recording devices: Moving‑picture recordings are captured with a speelycaptor. One described speelycaptor is a sleek, silver tube roughly the size of a finger, carried by an artisan from outside the walls.
• Compatibility: Older systems such as “Farspark” are distinct; content from those systems cannot be watched directly on a speely without conversion, according to extramuros artisans.
• Broadcast/distribution: Speely content may be disseminated as “casts” followed by listeners extramuros.

Usage

• As an event or pastime: avout recount “going to speelys” when extramuros; travelers also pass time by watching speelies when conditions permit.
• Practical limits: on a rough overland sledge ride, vibration made watching speelies hardly worth it, and among one small group of passengers no one had a speely to hand.
• As a cultural analogy: sequential drawings intended to be viewed in order may be described as unfolding “like a speely.”

Terminology

• “Speel in” is a Fluccish expression for engaging with moving‑picture media.
• Terminology for similar media technologies varies by era; different cohorts may use different names for related devices and systems.

Current Status

Speelies are common extramuros but are not part of ordinary practice inside the maths. Avout living under the Cartasian Discipline do not keep or use speely‑devices. Requests to record within the math may be declined and permitted uses, if any, remain supervised; no ongoing use within the math is indicated at this time.