avout

Definition

Avout are members of the mathic world who reside within a Math (walled cloister) under the Cartasian Discipline (formal rule-set). Their life centers on study, liturgy, and work inside the walls; contact with the outside is carefully bounded.

Context and Usage

• Contact cycles: Formal contact with the outside world occurs during Apert (gates-open observance), when gates open under rules set by the Discipline. Outside authorities cannot enter the math except at this time.
• Legal status: Avout are described as existing wholly apart from the legal system of the Sæcular Power (outside civil authority). They are not recorded in that system, are outside its jurisdiction and benefits, and do not receive identity documents. As a practical consequence, crossing political frontiers that require documents can be difficult or impossible for avout. In some cities, constables explicitly note that incidents involving avout are administratively complicated by this status.
• Travel abroad: When sanctioned, avout may go extramuros (outside the walls) under Peregrin (sanctioned travel) or as part of a formal Voco (official summons). Groups often travel together to preserve the spirit of the Discipline while outside. In speech, avout commonly address one another with honorifics such as “fraa” (male title) and “suur” (female title).
• Collective reference and recognition: Extras use "avout" both collectively and for individuals. A magister in a Kelx service speaks of “the avout in their concents,” and a lay passenger on a coastal vessel asks whether a traveler is “one of the avout,” treating a meeting as an honor.
• Perceptions and slang extramuros: The term “vout” is used by some speakers outside the walls as a derogatory label for an avout; in in‑world lexicography it is associated with iconographies that depict avout very negatively. In crowds, onlookers have been heard to shout “vout,” and some misinterpret an avout’s use of standard kit (e.g., the expanding sphere) as “sorcery.”
• Entry and access: Gatekeepers recite a traditional admonition that one may not pass the gates unless swearing a solemn Vow (oath not to leave). Speakers also assert that one on whom the Anathem has been rung (banishment rite; “Thrown Back”) may not reenter a math, and that an avout who has been Evoked (formally summoned out) to a Convox (mass convocation) should present at the designated host rather than at another math.
• Observed local variation (Ecba): At Orithena, a walled community on Ecba, residents present themselves as avout to outsiders but identify the place internally as The Lineage (ancient tradition) rather than a Cartasian math. Visitors are not made to swear the Vow, and residents indicate they can depart at will. The outward avout presentation serves as a cover for dealing with extras while maintaining avout‑like dedication to work; the community also avoids submitting to an Inquisition (mathic authority).
• Education and terminology: Instruction for fids (novice students) follows long‑standing traditions. Speakers note that different orders of theors (theoretical scholars) prefer different models and terms for quantum theorics; some avout mentally translate between an “old” vocabulary and a more polycosmic (many‑cosmi) phrasing.
• Emergency interaction with outside authorities: In a security response at Orithena, soldiers of the Sæcular Power fitted avout with numbered collars (tracking devices) and directed an evacuation by aerocraft. Avout on site sought to preserve time for learning from a visiting artifact even under pressure from outside authority.

Related Terms

• Math; Cartasian Discipline; Apert; Saecular Power; Ita; Peregrin.

Notes

• Personal kit and property limits: Speakers describe an ancient prohibition that limits avout to owning only three personal tools—“the bolt, the chord, and the sphere.” These are used ingeniously for daily life and problem‑solving.
• Bolt and chord: Made of related fibers that can coil into springy, short forms or relax into long, inelastic strands. Avout adjust them seasonally (warmth vs. length) and employ them for rigging, binding, and mechanical advantage (named tricks include “Saunt Ablavan’s Ratchet,” “Ramgad’s Contraption,” and “the Lazy Fraa”).
• Sphere: A porous, pump‑membrane that can be compacted into a hard pill or softened and expanded like a self‑inflating balloon. In practice it can wedge in confined spaces, serve as an air‑bed, or act as a movable anchor when combined with the bolt and chord.
• Observed speech habit: One avout narrator remarks on a “compulsion to state facts,” offered as a cultural self‑observation rather than a formal rule.
• Honorifics and veneration: Common forms of address include “fraa” and “suur”; “Saunt” is used in names of revered figures and survives in the titles of well‑known tricks.
• Comfort with hypothetical reasoning: An avout narrator notes that they are used to being presented with outlandish cosmographical hypotheses and, in theorics, assume them provisionally to see where they lead.
• Philosophical currents: Avout study and debate the Split between syntactic and semantic approaches (associated with Saunt Proc and Saunt Halikaarn) and the “Aboutness Problem.” Some frame these debates with reference to the Hylaean Theoric World. In casual speech, terms like “Procians” and “Faanians” appear.
• Dialog (formal disputation): Mathic literature preserves Dialogs that are studied, re‑enacted, and memorized by fids (novices); formats range from the classic two‑speaker exchange to the Triangular (savant, seeker, and imbecile), among others.