Præsidium

First Appearance and Context

Accounts describe ascending within the tower toward the rooftop Starhenge and, on descent, encountering a portcullis supervised by the Master of the Keys. Observers have noted periods—such as during Apert—when multiple corner‑tower gridirons stood closed at once, temporarily sealing the stair. The summit vault spans the top of the tower with power shafts penetrating the stonework; a stair coils around the largest shaft to a controlled door that opens onto the roof of the Mynster.

Description and Location

The Præsidium is the central stone tower of the Mynster, carrying the great clock’s dials and anchoring the rooftop starhenge. An inward‑curving vault caps the tower; vertical shafts couple rooftop instruments to the clockworks below. An interior stair rises through tracery to the controlled door on the roof. It is a prominent landmark visible across the city; along outbound routes that pass the slines’ quarter and into a seasonal “tidal zone” of gardens and orchards, it can be seen until the road bends and the tower drops from view.

Structures and Features

• Access control: Upper access is gated by portcullises; when sealed, the buttress stair is inaccessible and the upper Præsidium is off limits.
• Belfry and carillon: The belfry sits in the lower reaches of the Chronochasm; a compact machinery room near the bells shelters part of the ringing mechanism. From the Fendant Court, a ladder rises to this room and dead‑ends there, allowing bell maintenance without permitting ascent higher into the tower.
• Exposure and optics: The bells stand open to the weather above this room. An old ventilation opening was boarded, leaving only a pinhole that, when the room is darkened, projects a small image of the sun onto a screen; this ad‑hoc camera‑obscura has been used to measure a sky‑borne object’s track, refining an inferred orbital inclination to roughly fifty‑one degrees relative to the equator. Observers including Ala have used this setup to follow a trail of sparks across a page to track Daban Urnud as it settled into a particular orbit.
• Timekeeping coupling: The tower mechanically couples rooftop instruments to the great clock through vertical shafts; the carillon can strike automatically at the hour, with ringers disengaging the mechanism to ring changes manually for rites and signals.

Relationships and Affiliations

• The Master of the Keys schedules and enforces access to the upper works, and can seal the stair entirely when required.
• Changes rung here include patterns that summon the community for Voco.
• The tower functions in concert with the Mynster and the rooftop starhenge for observation and synchronization.

Current Status

Active and central to timekeeping and observation. Recently, a red glow from above was observed illuminating the tower at night; similar coverage showed other distant maths under the same light, with cause unstated in‑text. During the same period, routine operations continued: the bells sequence known as Provener sounded, and the clock had been wound despite the absence of some usual participants. Access to the upper works continues to be regulated as needed via the portcullises.