Geometers

Definition

"Geometers" is the working name used by participants at the Convox (emergency convocation) for the alien visitors; "Cousins" is an alternate label heard among other observers. The term carries no confirmed self-designation from the visitors and reflects human usage only.

Context and Usage

• The name appears in discussions around the Convox and is used by avout (cloistered scholars) and Saeculars (people outside maths) to reference the aliens without presuming motives or identity.
• The aliens are linked to a massive icosahedral vessel commonly called the Hedron, seen with a circular pusher plate oriented toward nearby craft. A leaked speely shows the Hedron keeping its pusher plate toward a human capsule, jamming communications, and manipulating the capsule via a robotic probe.
• In a recorded encounter, a single representative—identified as the Warden of Heaven—was sent from the human capsule toward the Hedron at what appears to be the visitors' request to "send one." Communications from the capsule were jammed during the transfer. Hours later, the Hedron opened a central port on the base plate and ejected the Warden's body back toward the capsule. Whether the Warden died before or after ejection is not established in current accounts.

Direct Contact at Orithena

• Descent and landing: Witnesses at Orithena describe a guided re-entry of a parachute‑retarded vehicle that transitioned to a rocket‑powered descent and landed on the Decagon plaza near the Analemma. The craft had a saucer‑like base, an upper cylindrical "bucket" with a domed top, deployable insect‑like legs, and several tall narrow hatches. No windows were seen. Observers repeatedly call it a "probe" and attribute it to the Geometers.
• Hatch markings and access: Around a trapezoidal hatch, onlookers report Geometer‑writing stenciled in paint, with arrow‑like lines pointing to small fastener‑held panels concealing T‑handles. The same stencil appeared in multiple places. When the handles were operated, a pressure‑equalizing hiss was heard before the door fell inward; participants inferred these were opening instructions.
• Occupant: Inside sat a humanoid female‑appearing figure (close to Arbran morphology but recognizably different). She was warm to the touch when first reached but showed no pulse shortly thereafter. A physician on scene described many large circular puncture wounds across the back and concluded death had occurred within minutes. An experienced observer identified the pattern as consistent with a close/medium‑range shotgun‑type injury; this is presented as practical diagnosis, not lab confirmation.
• On‑scene sensory notes: Early discussion at the site concluded the landing plume smelled of steam (hydrogen/oxygen propellants), with no toxic odor detected. Later, inside the probe, witnesses noted a distinct unfamiliar odor associated with the body; the smell was novel to those present.
• Box of tubes: A fibrous case contained four clear tubes of red liquid, each labeled in Geometer script alongside a distinct circular planet ikon (not depicting Arbre). Onlookers inferred these to be blood or biological samples, but their purpose is not established.

Material Composition and Spectral Findings

• Unusual laser wavelength: During a widely observed illumination event, a laser spot from the visitors was recorded onto a photomnemonic tablet (precision recording plate). Its measured wavelength does not match any naturally occurring spectral line known to avout.
• Newmatter conclusion: Analyses at the Convox report that all recovered hardware from the Orithena probe—and the recovered body—are composed of newmatter (engineered atomic nuclei), explaining the spectral anomaly.
• Biohazard implications: Speakers at Tredegarh reason that while simple chemical bonds can form between our matter and theirs, complex biochemistry is unlikely to cross over. Accordingly, mutual infection is considered improbable in the short term, though some caution remains. A Centenarian researcher further noted that an unfamiliar odor was detectable from recovered material, suggesting some interaction with human olfactory receptors; controlled tests were proposed.

Subsequent Strike and Interpretations

• Kinetic event: Shortly after the landing, witnesses report a brilliant white object approaching from the west and striking the volcano above Orithena. Accounts describe it as a dense rod that penetrated the cap rock and vaporized, producing an earthquake, eruption, and a fast, incandescent ash‑cloud (pyroclastic flow) that destroyed structures at Orithena. Narrators attribute the strike to the Geometers; this attribution is based on observation and in‑scene inference rather than direct claim by the visitors.
• Possible internal conflict: Some speakers (notably Orolo) infer that factions among the visitors may be in conflict—one attempting to share information (e.g., by sending the probe) and another acting to prevent it, up to and including lethal force. This remains an in‑story hypothesis.
• Rhetorical indictment at Tredegarh: During a public dialog, a prominent Procian voice (Fraa Lodoghir) advanced a specific narrative that Saunt Orolo had signaled the visitors by means of an analemma, prompting their landfall at Orithena; he interpreted the subsequent kinetic strike as evidence of internal factional retaliation and cast Orolo’s later actions as an acceptance of responsibility. This was presented as argument, not as established fact, and drew mixed reactions in the nave.
• Aftermath and information control: Military units from outside the walls arrived, collared and mustered witnesses, and secured the site. A live feed over the Reticulum (planetary network) was reportedly jammed locally by those forces; this concerns human response and does not clarify the visitors' intentions.

Related Observations and Inferences

• Propulsion and posture: Observers note the Hedron's pusher plate and shuttered central port; some infer a nuclear‑pulse style propulsion. During a prior encounter, the visitors' probe appeared to recognize and use a lifting bracket on a human suit, suggesting technical understanding of human equipment.
• Strategic posture: The vessel's orbit and earlier plane‑change maneuvers lead some participants to suggest that the visitors must manage limited "fuel" for propulsion. Members of the traveling party interpret a prior night of laser illumination as signaling interest in sites believed to hold nuclear material, naming major concents such as the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh. These are interpretations voiced in‑story and are not verified facts.
• Mathematical signage and proof culture: Avout who have seen images describe a diagram on the Hedron that is widely interpreted as a proof of the Adrakhonic Theorem (a classical geometric result), along with letter‑like symbols and four planet glyphs. Speakers infer this as deliberate use of universal mathematics to initiate contact and as evidence that the visitors value Truth and Proof; the specific reading remains interpretive, and not all witnesses (e.g., Orolo) have viewed the images firsthand.
• Cognitive universals line of inquiry: Orolo frames his approach via the Sconic Discipline (epistemic discipline), arguing that any conscious mind must integrate sensory givens into spatiotemporal models and run counterfactuals; from this, he supposes the visitors would naturally converge on geometry and proof. This is presented as method and inference, not confirmed fact. One later remark attributed to him—"They must have deciphered my analemma"—suggests he thought the visitors had understood a beach‑drawn analemma; its meaning in this context remains unclear. In the same forum, a prominent Procian voice (Fraa Lodoghir) challenged the assumption of shared cognition and cautioned against over‑relying on resemblance or introspection, while others summarized the visitors as "looking like us." The debate remains open.

Related Terms

• "Cousins" — an alternate human nickname for the same visitors.
• "Hedron" — an in‑world nickname for the visitors' icosahedral craft (not their confirmed name for it).

Notes

• The Geometers' motives, internal structure, and self‑designation are unknown. Current references derive from human observation and recordings; claims are presented here with attribution or hedging when based on in‑story inference rather than direct confirmation.