The Precipice

Context and first sight

Accounts describe an approach to the Precipice through haze and damaged visor-plate, contrasting with poetic depictions that favor dawn and sunset. Observers note that poets wonder what the Thousanders (avout order) do in their turrets, while practical details emphasize the rock’s hidden infrastructure and political protections.

Formation and structure

• The Precipice is the remnant of a granite dome roughly three thousand feet high whose western face collapsed, leaving a sheer cliff.
• Avout (cloistered scholars) cleared the debris below and repurposed the rubble for buildings and walls at the base.
• The community set the Mynster (great ceremonial complex) at the base of the cliff, then cut tunnels, galleries, ledges, and turrets into the granite above—sculpting the Precipice into their working Clock. A succession of dials has been added over long periods, each higher and larger than the last, and they still tell time.
• The lobe beneath is “riddled with tunnels” used for storage of nuclear waste; its noted Inviolateness (protected status) arises not from walls or defenders but from an agreement between the mathic world and the Saecular Power (worldly government).
• Bells high on the face ring out to mark times such as the call to Provener, audible from the Mynster below; one account explicitly wonders how the great clock here is wound.

Location and associations

• The Precipice stands within the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh (cloistered community). Approaches from the aerodrome pass through the lofty Day Gate and the precincts around the Mynster.
• The Mynster complex is massed at the base of the cliff; from there, galleries and ledges ascend the face and connect to the time dials.
• The Precipice is closely linked in reputation to the Thousanders, whose turrets it crowns. During major gatherings such as a Convox (large convocation of avout), the area around the Mynster at the base is a focal point.
• Inductions associated with the Convox, including Inbrase (Convox induction rite), are conducted in the Mynster at the base of the Precipice.

Description and character

• In harsh light and obscuring haze the cliff presents a stark, ancient aspect—"a thousand years older" than surrounding works—inviting distant, cosmographer-like contemplation.
• In calmer accounts, poets favor viewing it at dawn or sunset, framing its turrets and clock-faces in dramatic light.

Current status and access

• Reached via an inlaid road through Tredegarh’s grounds and chapter precincts, with a clear line from the Day Gate to the Mynster and its entrances beneath the cliff.
• During the present Convox, the Precipice and its Mynster base host plenary gatherings and formal rites connected to the influx of peregrins (temporary extramuros period) and their induction.

Notes

• Storage of nuclear waste within the underlying tunnels is explicitly stated by narrators; this, together with standing arrangements with the Sæcular Power, is given as the reason for the Precipice’s Inviolateness.
• Thousanders (long‑cycle mathic cohort) are repeatedly associated with the turrets high on the face and have a reserved presence within the Mynster during major rites.