Thousanders

First Appearance and Context

At the Concent of Saunt Edhar, the Thousanders are the crag‑dwelling cohort based in the Millenarian Math. In the hall they are heard from behind their screen during major rites, and local usage associates them with the deepest parts of the singing.

Role and Structure

• Long-cycle cohort: The Thousanders are the thousand‑year cohort resident on the crag. At this concent they are identified with the Edharian Order.
• Convox responsibilities: Accounts state there have only been a few great "Convoxes"; the first coincided with the Reconstitution, then ones at each Millennium have compiled the next edition of the Dictionary and handled other business concerning the Thousanders. Additional Convoxes have been held for the Big Nugget and at the end of each Sack. During a Convox, avout travel together to preserve the Discipline within their Peregrin group, contrasting with solitary departures under Voco. The designation of a concent as a Convox is situational and made as needed.
• Practical life: Because their precinct has little room for livestock, Thousanders are noted as typically eating little meat.

Activities and Influence

• Red‑light tracing: One night a narrow, grainy red light fell from above onto the crag; smoke and steam raised from the math made the beam’s path visible, letting observers trace it to a moving red point aloft. News images soon showed similar red light on the Millenarians’ spire at the Concent of Saunt Rambalf, and on works at Saunt Tredegarh. As inferred by Fraa Jad, the choice of those three sites—remembered locally as "the Three Inviolates"—may have been a deliberate signal; this is presented as interpretation rather than established fact.
• Farewell at a Voco: In a recent overnight calling, a respected Millenarian elder was among those Evoked; the cohort answered with a powerful farewell before the group departed.
• Peregrin leadership and discipline: While traveling extramuros in a Peregrin cohort, a Thousander elder has been observed directing group movements and exercising discretion over sensitive notes, underscoring the deference often shown to Millenarians by other avout.
• Ecba excavation awareness: Travelers report a large, long‑running excavation on Ecba to reach the buried Temple of Orithena. Discussion credits Edharian sponsors with launching the effort during a millennial gathering and notes that many Edharian maths contributed avout to establish a math at the site; a Millenarian at Saunt Edhar is said to have recognized images of the dig immediately. Subsequent look‑ups on public reticules attribute the project to Edharian initiators and date its inception to A.R. 3000.
• Perception and lore: Among extras—and sometimes among avout—the Thousanders are credited with uncanny foresight or near‑supernatural insight; others treat this as reputation rather than fact. A commonly retold, contested account from near Muncoster claims that overnight chanting from the Thousanders’ tower coincided with the abrupt disappearance of a newly uncovered skeleton in a parking ramp; tellings stress that physical traces vanished but "ripples" in records remained. The story is preserved here as circulating lore rather than established history.

Relationships and Affiliations

• Within this concent: The Thousanders share the Mynster with other cohorts but maintain a screened presence and a dedicated, covered stair to and from their crag precinct. Locally they are aligned with the Edharian Order.
• Wider ties: In current movements, some avout connected with this concent are traveling in Peregrin toward the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh, which is acting as a Convox receiving Evoked from multiple concents.
• Iconographies and public narratives: According to adherents of an extramuros ark known as the Warden of Heaven, the Thousanders are cast as bearers of hidden truth set against Tenners and Hundreders in a conspiracy‑tinged story. Avout speakers describe this as outside rhetoric rather than mathic doctrine.

Current Status

Active on the crag above the hall. A number of avout associated with this concent have lately departed under Voco toward a distant Convox, while the resident community continues its long‑cycle work on the crag.