Mystagogue

Mystagogue is defined in The Dictionary across successive forms of Orth, reflecting a notable shift in meaning over time.

Usage and historical senses

• Early Middle Orth: a theorician specializing in unsolved problems, often one who introduced fids to the study of such problems.
• Late Middle Orth: a member of a suvin that dominated the maths from the middle of the Negative Twelfth Century until the Rebirth; this faction discouraged theoric research, locked libraries, and made a fetish of mysteries and conundrums.
• Praxic and later Orth: a pejorative label for anyone thought to resemble the Late Middle Orth sense above.

Context and connotations

Within the mathic world, the later sense carries a strongly negative connotation: hostility to open inquiry, preference for obscurity, and institutional pressure against theoric work. The word functions as a warning term rather than an honorific in current use.

In-world usage to date

The term appears first as a headword excerpt in The Dictionary. It is then invoked in conversation by an avout during an interview with an artisan in the concent’s library, contrasting a “Throwback‑turned‑Mystagogue” with a “Bottle Shaker.” The remark underscores the modern, pejorative sense and frames “Mystagogue” as a label for someone claiming mathic authority while discouraging genuine theoric practice.

Status

Current usage emphasizes the pejorative sense; the earlier, more neutral or positive meaning survives mainly in historical discussion.