emergence

Definition

In Vale-lore, an "emergence" is a situation in which there is no time to formulate or discuss plans; trained responses must be selected and executed immediately. Practitioners emphasize recognizing the moment and acting, not inventing strategy on the spot.

Context and Usage

Accounts trace the idea to the time of the Reconstitution, when a mixed group of newly sworn avout was beset by hostile locals in a remote desert outpost. Some among them had studied ancient martial disciplines; the pressure of that encounter forced them to act without deliberation. The concept was then cultivated within the tradition that became the Ringing Vale (Math), whose avout study when - not merely how - to use training.

In a later incident in Mahsht, a Ringing Vale fraa stated that his group "saw it as an emergence" when a mob turned violent. They intervened rapidly, used pre-learned cues from military history to coordinate (e.g., a brief comparison to a specific cavalry maneuver), and created space to extract the target while minimizing further escalation. Their description stresses that, during an emergence, there is "no time ... to think up plans," only to select a known pattern and execute it.

Related Terms

• Vale-Lore: the broader Ringing Vale curriculum of martial arts, military history, strategy, and tactics within which "emergence" is a key idea.
• Ringing Vale (Math): the math whose avout formalized and train for emergences.
• avout: members of the mathic community; emergence is taught and applied by Valers among them.
• Reconstitution: the epoch in which the formative incident that inspired the idea is said to have occurred.

Notes

• Valers sometimes employ terse historical allusions to communicate a whole plan instantly (e.g., naming a famous maneuver), consistent with emergence constraints.
• Descriptions distinguish between inflicting lasting injury and using techniques that only seem to hurt; the latter were asserted in one account to cause no clinical damage, though the experience is described as extremely painful.
• The concept is presented through first-person testimony and should be understood in-world as a Ringing Vale teaching rather than a universal doctrine.