Pedestal

The Pedestal is the self‑designation for the Urnud/Tro axis—an alliance of two PAQD worlds: Urnud (called Pangee on Arbre) and Tro (called Diasp). A Laterran visitor from Antarct explains that Urnud and Tro act together as this bloc, opposed by an internal movement called the Fulcrum led by Fthosians, while Laterre is internally divided. Within the four‑world presence often called the Geometers, the Pedestal denotes the Urnud/Tro grouping.

Activities and Aims (reported)

• Infiltration at Tredegarh: During the Convox, operatives controlled by the Pedestal seized the concent of the Matarrhites and infiltrated Tredegarh in Matarrhite garb. Once their outbound signals were cut inside a grounded mesh, one removed his disguise and identified himself as a Laterran linguist working under a Pedestal military‑intelligence mandate.
• Mission: The stated task was to determine whether legendary Incanters (and Rhetors) correspond to any real practice within the maths or are merely iconography.
• Posture: The same source warned that Pedestal leaders fear such powers and have considered a pre‑emptive strike. This is presented as the informant’s account, not as a confirmed declaration of intent.

Background and Internal Outlook (as related)

• Intercosmic history: Reports trace the Pedestal’s lineage to Urnudan efforts that developed the ship later known as Daban Urnud. A geometrodynamic route meant to reach their own past instead shifted the vessel into neighboring Narratives, leading to successive Advents that eventually brought Urnud, Tro, Laterre, and Fthos into contact.
• Institutional character: According to a Laterran linguist who has lived aboard Daban Urnud, the Pedestal began as a community of rational theors but, during long years of wandering, took on the character of a priesthood; the closer its priests feel to their god, the more fearful and reticent they become.

Operational Posture (current assessments in‑world)

• Launch‑site threats: A Valer liaison asserts that normal launch sites on Arbre are assumed to be under threat of orbital "rods" if preparations are detected, which has driven planning toward dispersed, mobile launchers.
• Counter‑decoy detection (reported): Off‑world experience credits the bloc with coupling excellent telescopes to syndevs to sift very large image sets for anomalies; decoys such as balloons behave differently under drag, and inventories of objects in orbit let analysts notice items that maneuver with thrusters. These descriptions are attributed to advisors familiar with Urnudan practice.
• Knowledge sources: The same liaison judges that the Pedestal’s understanding of Arbre derives largely from leakage of popular culture into space, and therefore may omit certain Sæcular capabilities (e.g., older families of mobile, storable‑propellant missiles).

Current Status

• Exposure at Tredegarh: The impostors posing as Matarrhites were unmasked inside a shielded room during a messal; one declared his Laterran origin and named the Urnud/Tro axis as the Pedestal. Local authorities proceeded with a wide dispersal of Convox participants. The Pedestal is regarded as an active external danger in ongoing planning.
• Orbital "rod" strikes on launch sites: During a night‑side pass, observers in low orbit saw brilliant linear traces descending to major equatorial launch facilities on Arbre, each followed by a hemispherical bloom of light comparable to a nuclear flash without fallout. The action is described in‑world as Pedestal bombardment and is treated as confirmation of earlier warnings about launch‑site vulnerability.

All details above are limited to accounts and observations available so far; where uncertain, claims are attributed to the speakers who provided them.