jeejah

Overview

A jeejah is a hand-sized extramuros (outside the walls) device with a screen and built-in communications features. Inside a Math (walled scholarly enclave), communications are disabled per the Discipline (intramuros rules), but the device remains useful as a timepiece and media player.

Description and Use

• Screen-based personal device used for everyday tasks outside the walls.
• Functions observed: time display; media playback (including viewing a speely (screen drama)); audio output via earphones; phototype (photo) capture; audible alerts.
• Video capture in "speelycaptor" mode (moving-picture recording) used to document events continuously.
• Low-light imaging: the device's camera and screen can serve as a night-vision viewer when aimed into dark spaces.
• Live broadcast over the Reticulum (planetary communications network) when service is available; transmissions can be jammed by the Sæcular Power (state authority outside maths).
• Accepts on-device input; observers note people "thumbing" entries into a jeejah while working through phototypes.
• Commonly carried on a shoulder strap (often "unslung"); easily passed hand-to-hand.

Provenance/Ownership

• Ubiquitous among people living extramuros; visitors commonly carry them when admitted.
• Avout (monastic scholars) do not habitually keep jeejahs; when visitors bring them into a math, communications features are disabled under the Discipline, but other functions (timekeeping, offline media) continue to work.
• The Ita (practical order allied to maths) are often seen operating jeejahs and other tolerated devices on behalf of or alongside avout.

Notable Mentions

• Earlier use: an artisan consulted a jeejah for the time while working in a library; public-tour visitors used jeejahs to play recorded guides and take phototypes; many people in town scenes were seen carrying them. A driver wore earphones plugged into a jeejah while receiving real-time guidance, and a companion later used a jeejah to show a recorded speely.
• At Orithena (temple complex), during the arrival of the Geometers (alien visitors in orbit) probe, an Ita used a jeejah in speelycaptor mode to document the scene, employed its screen as a low-light viewer inside the capsule, and briefly streamed over the Reticulum until access was jammed by the Sæcular Power.
• During a messal at the Convox, a participant was seen thumbing entries into a jeejah while reviewing phototypes and listening to dialog.

Status/Access

Common and widely available extramuros. Permitted inside a math only under restricted settings (comms disabled); other basic functions remain usable.