Ita

Overview

The Ita are a hands-on order distinct from the Avout (monastic scholars) that operates within concents (walled monastic communities) while remaining segregated by custom. They are most closely associated with the Mynster (central sanctuary; houses Clock) and its great Clock (great timekeeping mechanism), and are widely identified with practical maintenance and tolerated device work, as well as message‑relay and information handling via the Reticulum (planetary communications network).

Purpose and Structure

• Segregated order, not avout: the Ita maintain their own quarters by the Mynster and work through service passages and under‑floor spaces. Custom marks their separation from avout life; some observers describe a longstanding taboo on close contact.
• Identification and presence: accounts note visible attire for easy recognition (e.g., tall stovepipe hats) and a reserved role at public observances. Though sometimes assumed to be subservient, one avout narrator remarks they can feel like minders—competent overseers of praxis and communications.
• Self‑conception and aims: an Ita voices that being “useful to the Saecular Power” (civil authorities) is not their only concern; the Ita can have other aspirations, including pursuing problems they judge important on their own terms.
• Segregated logistics: during movements related to major gatherings, small Ita detachments have been observed traveling in their own vehicle, apart from avout contingents bound for Tredegarh. This reflects the customary separation in day-to-day contact and transport.
• Role in planned dispersal (the “Antiswarm”): in risk‑mitigation planning around Tredegarh, the orderly scattering of Convox participants has been dubbed the “Antiswarm” by Ita. Each designated cell is to include Ita so that groups remain connected on the Reticulum while dispersed; this implies a relaxation of customary avout/Ita segregation in favor of tasks of immediate Sæcular relevance.

Practices

• Mechanism care: inspection, cleaning, and subtle rate corrections on gear‑trains, shafts, synchronizers, and couplings tied into the clockworks. Routine rooftop service includes cleaning and brief checks of access covers and optics.
• Device limits and access: place visitors, convey what is permitted under the Cartasian Discipline (rules restricting devices), and elevate issues to the Warden Regulant (senior concent official) when needed.
• Reticulum work and filtering: described as creators/operators of the Reticulum's filtering interfaces since the Reconstitution. An Ita explains that searches return meta‑information about source repute (few high‑repute vs. many low‑repute posts); requests for restricted reticules can require a repute process sometimes called an "asamocra," with decisions taking days. In practice they run syntactic programs to match images, pull live feeds, and review noisy, ambiguous data rather than tidy dossiers.
• Field pragmatics: while extramuros (outside walls), Ita work from handhelds—jeejahs (handheld device)—cache results for later review when coverage is patchy, and sometimes use stored information "in lieu of money" during resupply.
• Wireless and spectrum awareness: avout accounts contrast Ita with praxics and with avout themselves when discussing how the wireless works; Ita are implicitly the people expected to understand radio operation, bandwidth limits, and jamming effects.
• Terminology: in discussing machine results, an Ita casually refers to the answer as the "output" (device result), reflecting practical jargon.
• Analytic orientation: in discussing how to interact with an automated, deterministic system, an Ita frames the problem as code analysis based on observables, and suggests the Ita could convene their own Convox (ad hoc council) to address such a challenge. Related debate touches on the "Aboutness" question (whether symbols can have semantic content in a purely syntactic device), reflecting Ita engagement with practical‑theoric questions when needed.
• Event communications support: at a formal messal, the Saecular Power tasked Ita to rig a one‑way sound system so that those working in the kitchen could hear every word spoken in the messallan; the avout narrator inferred that remote listeners were also connected. This illustrates Ita support for secure, event‑wide audio distribution at official gatherings.

Known Members/Associations

• Sammann — an Ita technician traveling with an avout Peregrin (sanctioned journey) party, providing route‑finding, Reticulum research, and image‑matching to support the group's aims.

Recent Activity

• Convox technical modeling: as analysis turned to reconstructing the visitors’ ship, Ita worked in Laboratoria to bring a complex Saecular syntactic modeling and display system online, enabling theorists to integrate phototypes into a precise three‑dimensional model.
• For a high‑level messal held at a dowment, the Saecular Power directed Ita to install a one‑way audio feed carrying proceedings from the messallan to the kitchen; according to an avout observer, the feed likely extended to distant listeners as well. This underscores Ita support for communications infrastructure during formal proceedings.
• An Ita traveling companion demonstrated Reticulum image‑matching to locate a large, orderly excavation and later obtained limited access to restricted reticules, surfacing a brief speely (short video) that suggested eight suited people boarded before a widely shown launch that officials had called unmanned. These episodes highlight the Ita's emphasis on filtering, source repute, and careful inference while working with incomplete data.
• Ongoing travel reports underscore that Ita‑avout contact remains sensitive: some treat companionship with an Ita as a breach of custom, while others judge it the surest way to preserve the spirit of the Discipline when abroad.
• While encamped by the sea, an Ita articulates that the Ita have aims beyond mere usefulness to the Saecular Power and outlines how they might tackle a fully automated adversary: by analyzing observables and, if needed, organizing a focused Convox. The exchange underscores both their practical bent and willingness to engage with questions of Aboutness when it bears on real‑world systems.
• During the Geometers’ probe landing at Orithena (ancient cloister site), an Ita used a jeejah (handheld device) in speelycaptor mode to record events, live‑streamed across the Reticulum until new arrivals jammed communications, and then reported he could not penetrate their transmissions. He also tossed the device up to provide night‑vision imaging for a colleague inspecting the probe's hatch. These actions illustrate field improvisation, real‑time relay, and the limits of Reticulum access under jamming by the Saecular Power (civil authorities).
• In the run‑up to a Convox at Tredegarh, a small Ita detachment arrived separately and remained in their own vehicle; Sammann coordinated with them and anticipated flying on the same aerocraft as an avout companion but in a different section, consistent with separation practices.
• Observatory support: in preparation for a planned viewing of the visitors’ ship, avout cosmographers reviewed pointing calculations prepared overnight by the Ita so that major telescopes could be aimed at the expected maneuver window. This underscores Ita involvement in coordinating large‑scale observation tasks.
• Clandestine contact claims: within a network of Lucubs discussing independent outreach to the visitors, one participant asserts that some Ita are involved in a plan to use observatories’ guidestar lasers to send narrow‑beam messages toward the ship, difficult for third parties to intercept. This is reported speech within the narrative and not an official declaration.
• At a decisive messal in Tredegarh, an Ita ally severed the kitchen speaker’s microphone line; together with a grounded mesh “Bucker’s Basket” assembled by the group, this temporarily isolated the room from wireless and audio relays just before the evacuation.
• During the evacuation from Tredegarh, two Ita briefly boarded a coach to confer with Sammann—reciting counts—then departed; Sammann remained embedded with a designated cell as its communications specialist, relaying messages (including to Suur Ala) and coordinating with military drivers.