The Lineage

Context and identification

At Orithena, a walled community describes itself as "the Lineage," an old tradition said to predate the Discipline (formal rules). Gatekeepers use familiar math (monastery-like order) language with visitors, but insiders state this is not a math. A visitor's account reports that admission followed the recognition that the place was "not a math," after a scripted gate exchange.

Roles and activities

• Oversees a controlled excavation of the ancient temple site, including the Decagon plaza where Metekoranes is traditionally placed. Digging is done at night due to heat; finds are organized and labeled, and a small museum houses notable pieces, including a body-cast believed by some to be Metekoranes (ancient theor at Orithena).
• Actively studies the Teglon (ancient tiling puzzle). Members demonstrate with reproduction tiles made from molds they report discovering; the plaza is used to lay out patterns.
• Maintains extensive terracing, orchards, and waterworks up the mountainside; the grounds include an inner wall around the cloister and dig, and an outer wall reaching toward the caldera. A bath house uses hot spring water routed through vertical shafts.

Description and organization

• Outward forms: Members use avout (cloistered scholars) titles such as fraa/suur and keep familiar spaces (cloister, refectory) yet indicate they are independent of the Discipline. No vow is required to enter or remain, and residents imply the freedom to depart.
• Governance: An FAE (local title) named Fraa Landasher performs public welcoming; Dymma is heard at the gate; Suur Spry guides visitors within the excavation. Around a hundred fraas and suurs are present at meals.
• Ethos: Described as devoted to work first, with a willingness to set aside later rules when those would impede excavation and study; one account says they would not submit to dictates of any Inquisition (disciplinary authority).
• Coordination and "communication": A resident explains that what outsiders take for secret messaging is mostly independent convergence: people who watch the same phenomena tend to think similar thoughts, like meteorologists comparing the weather.

Relationships and affiliations

• Place: Operates within the walls and slopes of Orithena and is closely connected to the site's history and to the Halls of Orithena tradition.
• People: Orolo is encountered here and functions alongside residents in daily activities; his long interest in Orithena makes the association notable. Estemard has been conjectured elsewhere in connection with the Lineage's concerns, but membership remains unproven. See Fraa Orolo and Estemard.
• Intellectual lineage: Traditions credit early Orithenans and Metekoranes with shaping the Lineage's enduring focus on geometry and the Teglon.

Intellectual sense and genealogy of the term

A resident clarifies that a "chart of the Lineage" is best read as a family tree of theors who try to make sense of the Hylaean Theoric World (ideal theory realm). When branches widely judged to be fanatic or dead-end are pruned, the tree resembles a "dowel" running from early figures such as Cnoüs through Metekoranes and Protas to Evenedric. In this usage, "the Lineage" can refer not only to the Orithena community but also to this intellectual chain. The same source remarks that Evenedrician "datonomy" (study of givens) is important in principle yet often unsatisfying to pursue, except during extraordinary circumstances that make it newly relevant.

Current status

Active on site at Orithena, combining excavation, curation, agriculture, and study. Outwardly math-like in forms and titles, the community asserts independence from later institutional rules.

Notes

• Names in use include "the Lineage" and "Old Lineage"; "Orithenans" also appears for people working at the site, ancient and modern, but is broader than the Lineage as an organization.
• Several details above are reported through a visitor's observations; where phrased as "described," "appears," or "believed," the attribution is preserved.