Theors

First Appearance and Context

In the Hylaean Way’s historical galleries, a fresco of Diax driving fortune‑casters from a temple explains that he coined the term “theorics,” and that his followers adopted the name “theors” to set themselves apart from number‑worshipping Enthusiasts. Subsequent exhibits show the community’s rise around Orithena and its spread through the classical period.

Methods and Practice

Theors are portrayed and described as practitioners who favor abstract methods for understanding the world. Rather than relying solely on raw coordinate descriptions (e.g., positions and velocities along set axes), they translate such “state‑vector” information into forms that better reveal structure. In cosmography, this means working with six orbital elements that immediately show an orbit’s character (such as whether it passes over the poles or follows the equator). More generally, theors move their work into abstract theorical spaces governed by action principles. Early in the Praxic Age, Saunt Hemn introduced configuration spaces (often called Hemn spaces) as a general toolkit; novices may first labor in coordinate systems like Saunt Lesper’s before being shown how trained theors change spaces to make problems tractable.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Origins: Presented as the disciplined cohort around Diax; after he defined “theorics,” his followers identified themselves as theors to differentiate their practice from the Enthusiasts.
• Principle: The maxim remembered as Diax's Rake—do not believe a thing merely because you like to believe it—captures the theors’ stance against credulous or emotive reasoning.
• Institutions: Early leadership is credited to Adrakhones at the Temple of Orithena; later, during the classical theoric flowering, theors are depicted teaching and debating in public spaces.
• Civil sphere: In the golden‑age scenes centered on Ethras, theors appear advising generals and emperors; in later depictions, priests and prelates of the Ark of Baz take prominence while theors recede into the background.

Relationships

• Diax: Names the discipline (theorics) whose adherents call themselves theors; his maxim persists as a touchstone of the tradition.
• Thelenes and Protas: Figures placed within the theoric tradition in the Ethran displays, portrayed teaching and dialoguing in public.
• Adrakhones: Founder linked to the Temple of Orithena and the Adrakhonic Theorem.
• Enthusiasts: A contrasting cohort expelled from the temple precincts by Diax; their practices are held up as examples of what theors reject.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Emphasis on disciplined inquiry and clear argument over number‑worship or divination.
• Public teaching and dialog are recurring motifs: frescoes show theors drawing figures on the Plane and instructing students in vine‑covered bowers.

Current Status/Location

The term “theors” survives in mathic discourse as a label for the theoretical tradition, and is also used informally to denote fully trained practitioners as distinct from beginners. In historical sequences, theors remain visible as background figures and exemplars of reasoned practice even as other religious authorities take the foreground.