Mynster

First Appearance and Context

At sunrise during Apert, avout gather in the chancel for music and rites as a beam of sunlight is admitted from a quartz prism atop the Starhenge and washed down a lightwell into the hall. In the same moment, the main weight begins to drop to open the Day Gate, while the longer‑cycle gate weights descend on their rails into view.

Layout and Access

Centered on the Praesidium and its great clock, the Mynster’s fabric extends into naves, screens, galleries, and stairworks. The bells are housed in an open‑to‑weather belfry; a ladder up from the Fendant Court reaches a small machinery shelter immediately under the carillon in the lower reaches of the Chronochasm. This route dead‑ends at the shelter and does not grant higher access. Processional routes include a north nave leading into a narthex just inside the Day Gate; beneath a large orrery in that space, the community forms and disperses for formal entries and departures.

At times, tower portcullises and buttress stairs are held closed and the upper works are off limits. The automatic mechanism strikes the hours.

Functions and Roles

• Timekeeping hub: Mechanisms here drive dials, bells, and auxiliary loads such as an orrery, coordinated through the chronochasm.
• Belfries and changes: A fixed movement marks the hours; for formal auts and other events, a trained team of ringers disengages it and rings changes in set patterns understood by avout.
• Underworks and upkeep: Beneath the floor and within service passages, the Ita tend gear‑trains, shafts, and synchronizers and apply subtle corrections to the clock’s rate.

Rites and Usage

• Services in the chancel: Formal observances are held here under the Primate’s direction, with the assembly gathered in the naves behind perforated screens.
• Evocation: When Voco is called, distinctive bell changes summon the community to the Mynster. A choir of Hundreders sings while the officiant reads the name(s); during the farewell, the Thousanders behind their screen have been heard sustaining a deep bass line that makes the stone vibrate. In one witnessed gathering, a sealed list contained six Evoked names, noted by those present as extraordinary; later, at a pre‑dawn service, a larger group was named and the list included a Millenarian.
• Procession and departure: Following the call, those named are led down the north nave to the narthex. Under the great orrery there, junior hierarchs hand out simple clothing, small kits, and watches, and give instructions for leaving. Departures proceed through the Day Gate, often in small parties.

Descriptions and Characteristics

• Dominant feature within the concent: arches, buttresses, and four great naves radiate from the tower.
• Chancel and galleries: an octagonal chancel enclosed by perforated screens; a spiral stair turret leads to a triforium and the bell‑ringers’ place.
• Upper works and roof: above the vault rise instruments and walkways on and around the Starhenge; access is regulated and may be temporarily sealed.
• Workrooms and documents: architectural drawings of the Mynster preserved from earlier centuries are consulted for precise geometry; a compact workroom near the belfry has been darkened as a camera obscura for measurement and observational tasks.
• Acoustics and resonance: The hall is strongly resonant; sustained bass drones during chants can set the stone to vibrate. It is described as having “natural harmonics,” and thousands of casks are stacked against its walls. Some avout interpret prolonged droning within the Mynster as conducive to certain kinds of focused thought.
• Foundations and scale: described as resting on colossal foundation‑stones.
• Construction note: cited as having been “constructed in the same style” as long‑duration mathic works accomplished by hand without heavy equipment; used as a point of comparison when considering the scale of a large excavation elsewhere.
• Cultural shorthand: invoked by non‑avout as emblematic of the avout world’s center; an Ita compared his order’s information‑filtering systems to what the Mynster represents to avout.

Current Status

Active and intact. The Mynster continues to host rites and winding, to sound its bells and automatic chimes, and to provide regulated access to the triforium and upper works. It was recently used at night for an Evocation in which many were named; the hall served both as the venue for the call and as the staging point for their departure.