Reconstitution

Overview

Reconstitution is the name given to a post–Terrible Events settlement that re-centered rites within the Mynster around its clock and established the A.R. dating epoch. In current usage it marks the boundary between “before” and “after” practices across the mathic world.

Preceding Context

Accounts pair the Reconstitution with the upheaval that ended the Praxic Age. In its wake, reforms and consolidations followed, with liturgy and governance reorganized around the Mynster and its clock, and long‑term safeguards instituted (including the securing of hazardous remnants at select concents). The label “Reconstitution” functions as a collective name for these moves rather than a single moment.

What Happens

• Adoption of the Revised Book of Discipline, which codifies liaison types and updates the rule‑set avout live under.
• Ritual and instructional practice are re‑centered on Mynster time and observances, creating a shared rhythm across maths.
• Foundational works: Contemporary references to Year 0 describe newly sworn avout surveying sites for new maths and laying cornerstones for clocks and Mynsters.
• The A.R. epoch becomes the standard way of citing dates in reference works and displays.

Aftermath and Consequences

• Legal separation: Since the Reconstitution, avout have existed apart from the legal system of the Sæcular Power. In practice this means the Sæcular Power holds no records or jurisdiction over avout, cannot draft or tax them, and does not routinely extend benefits such as pensions or medical care; conversely, avout do not receive identity documents from the outside, and outsiders may not step through math gates except at Apert. Protection from mobs or armies is discretionary and situational in outside authorities’ hands.
• Practice and memory: Everyday speech, rites, and instruction routinely contrast customs “before” and “after” the Reconstitution, treating it as a hinge in institutional memory. Outside histories and city descriptions also use it as a time marker (for example, an old port district in Mahsht is described as having been built “a thousand years before the Reconstitution”).
• Interpretation: Narratives differ on emphasis—some describe the avout as having “retreated” into the maths, others as having been “herded” or compelled into renewed separation; present accounts preserve this ambiguity without resolving it.