Panjandrum

First Appearance and Context

During a Tenth Night dinner at Saunt Edhar in Apert (decennial opening), tradition called for the highest‑ranking Panjandrum present to stand and formally hand newcomers over to the mathic authorities (monastic leadership). In that instance, the role was performed by the city’s mayor. The handover was solemnized by the speaking of oaths and the ringing of a bell, marking the moment when the newcomers passed from Sæcular (outside civic) into mathic jurisdiction (monastic authority).

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Singular label for an individual civic official representing the wider authority commonly referred to as Sæcular Power (civil authority).
• Presides over the legal handover of foundlings and entrants to a math (monastic order), a ceremonial transfer that includes oaths and a bell.
• Customarily “delivers remarks” to the assembled visitors and avout (cloistered scholars) during the occasion, though the substance may be ceremonial rather than substantive.
• The specific office is not fixed by the term; the role is fulfilled by the highest‑ranking official present (e.g., a mayor).
• Collective usage: “the Panjandrums” refers to the set of such officials acting together; in an avout reconstruction of events, they are said to have notified hierarchs (mathic leaders) that an orbiting object was to be treated as a Sæcular matter and directed the closure of every starhenge (observatory circle), with Inquisitors (Sæcular tribunal agents) sent to ensure compliance.
• During the Convox (rare mass convocation of avout) hosted at the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh, observers describe a “cabinet of Panjan-drums” assembled as the Sæcular counterpart to the mathic high council, separated by a screen in the Mynster; this is presented as an inference by the narrator.

Relationships

• Serves as the Sæcular counterpart in rites that transfer responsibility for newcomers to mathic authorities (monastic leadership), clarifying the boundary between Sæcular and mathic jurisdictions. In broader usage, “Panjandrums” is shorthand for the cadre of extramuros (outside the walls) officials of the outside authority.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Used in the singular for an individual dignitary; distinct from the colloquial plural nickname sometimes applied to the authority itself.
• Associated with formal civic attire and public speaking during the ceremony.
• The ceremony’s bell and oaths emphasize the legal gravity of the jurisdictional change.

Current Status/Location

Active in civic–mathic interfaces. In current avout accounts, the Panjandrums are described as asserting Sæcular jurisdiction over observations of an object in orbit and as prompting the temporary closure of starhenges, with enforcement by the Inquisition. Following the landing of a foreign probe inside a concent (walled monastery), one avout warned of an imminent “invasion of the Panjandrums” and anticipated a rapid response by the Sæcular Power (civil authority); this usage underscores a colloquial extension of the term to a broader Sæcular presence.

At present they are also described as among those summoned from across Arbre to the Convox at Tredegarh, with quarantine and separation protocols noted as protecting both avout and Panjandrums during proceedings.