Arbre

Not to be confused with Arbrans.

Overview

Arbre is the inhabited world on which avout (cloistered scholars) live within the Mathic World (monastic‑scholar communities) and others live extramuros (outside the cloisters) beyond the walls. The name anchors formal dating in the A.R. era (Reconstitution‑based calendar). Accounts describe long‑term climatic swings and migrations after the Terrible Events, with communities adapting to arid basins, irrigated valleys, and mountain terraces.

Notable Features

• Sea of Seas: a relatively small but intricate saltwater basin linked to the great oceans by three straits, widely treated as the cradle of classical civilization.
• Continents: traditions differ on counting Arbre’s continents, with some sources using ten historical names and others recognizing seven; the discrepancy traces to ancient naming around the Sea of Seas and to far‑northern land that wraps over the pole and connects regions once thought separate.
• Skywatching infrastructure: many maths maintain roofline observatories such as the Starhenge; orreries commonly include a lapis sphere representing Arbre.
• Sæcular networks (civil‑world infrastructure): paved highways, freight traffic, and a navigation‑satellite system used by cartablas. Reports note that portions of the road network outside major towns can be rough or degraded and that, on a recent morning, devices across a wide region failed to obtain fixes (cause unconfirmed).
• Polar overland route: at extreme northern latitudes, sledge ports dispatch over‑ice trains that haul freight (and sometimes vehicles and travelers) between northern lands when markets and conditions permit; caravans of drummons feed these ports from the “deep ruins” country.
• Terrain and land use: lower mountain slopes in some regions support fuel‑tree plantations served by dirt logging roads and heavy trucks; higher elevations open into wild country with tarns, old tracks, and disused structures such as abandoned fortresses and cabins. These areas are sparsely settled and used seasonally for hunting and camping.
• Orithena on Ecba: an ancient temple site and dual‑walled complex Orithena on the volcanic island of Ecba. A cloistered community there presents outwardly as avout while identifying internally as a Lineage (pre‑Cartasian tradition); excavation is organized in cool hours, orchards supply food along the slope, and hot springs feed bath‑houses. Breezes off the sea and ash‑fused masonry are noted features, and local trees are described as the oldest living on Arbre.
• Orbital and upper‑atmosphere environment: at low altitudes near a hundred miles, an object circles Arbre in roughly ninety minutes. Ascent accounts note a bright blue limb and, at high velocity in the thinning air, visible plasma against edges of nearby structures. The ionosphere conducts and Arbre’s magnetic field is sufficient for a long current‑carrying tether to generate gentle, continuous thrust. Orbiting teams also report use of a sextant‑like device that recognizes constellations and, combined with the positions of the sun, the moon, and Arbre plus an ephemeris, yields orbital elements for navigation.

Associations

• Calendrical and institutional: Arbre’s cycles frame observance in the A.R. system and the mathic calendar.
• Cultural landmarks: references to the “Three Inviolates” commonly point to maths at the Concent of Saunt Edhar, Saunt Rambalf’s math, and the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh.
• Terminology and time units: “Arbran” is commonly used as the adjectival/demonymic form (e.g., “Arbran years”). During current preparations, theors derived a working conversion between local years and “Urnudan years” using timestamps in documents captured from Matarrhite quarters and reference events on Arbre. This suggests the visitors’ first inter‑cosmic departure occurred roughly 910 Arbran years earlier (±20), overlapping with the era leading up to the Third Sack. These figures are treated as estimates rather than confirmed disclosure.

Recent Activity

• Contact at Orithena: witnesses on Ecba describe a parachute‑retarded, rocket‑braked probe descending over the temple and settling onto the tiled forecourt known as The Decagon. Orithena residents opened a hatch and recovered a humanoid visitor “not from Arbre,” together with a sealed case of labeled blood tubes. Sæcular responders in protective suits arrived, issued tracking collars, and jammed the Reticulum (planetary network). Shortly afterward, observers saw a high‑velocity object enter the volcano’s cap above the site, followed by an orange, glowing pyroclastic cloud that overran Orithena; many people were evacuated by aerocraft. Participants attribute the strike to the orbital Geometers (off‑world visitors) and report signs of disagreement among them; others note that formal confirmation is pending.
• Orbital object: ground and instrument observers describe an icosahedral object in Arbre‑centered orbit. Features noted include a network of edge members meeting at rounded vertices and, on at least one face, markings laid out as a geometric construction akin to a proof. A separate inscription on a forward strut uses characters resembling, but not identical to, familiar alphabets. Observers note that the craft keeps a broad “pusher plate” oriented toward Arbre as a shield, limiting ground‑based views of forward structures. Within avout circles, some have begun calling the presumed visitors the “Cousins.”
• Narrow‑beam illumination: on at least one night, a red beam from the object illuminated prominent maths; examples shown publicly included Saunt Rambalf’s and Saunt Tredegarh’s. In dialog among travelers, a Thousander (avout of the Thousanders order) reports that long‑term waste repositories exist beneath Edhar’s crag, with similar sites at Rambalf and Tredegarh; others treat this as sensitive and not publicly confirmed.
• Systems effects: contemporaneous reports also mentioned a navigation‑satellite outage; explanations circulating range from festival interference to deliberate disruption, none verified.
• Planetary sentiment: travelers describe a surge of world‑level identification and concern—speaking of feeling like “citizens of the world”—in response to the orbital craft’s appearance; some invoke laments for the Third Sack when imagining worst‑case outcomes.
• Convox (worldwide mathic convocation): a large gathering of avout (cloistered scholars) from concents (walled monastic complexes) across Arbre—together with Sæcular (civil) officials—has assembled at Saunt Tredegarh in response to the visitors. Attendees describe its proceedings as political and driven by compromise; a cited dictionary notes such Convox are normally held at a Millennial Apert (gate‑opening) or after a sack and may also be convened, in exceptional circumstances, at the request of the Sæcular Power.
• Laser‑color anomaly and matter analysis: a cosmographer at Saunt Rambalf exposed a photomnemonic tablet to the red beam and obtained its exact wavelength; specialists report it matches no naturally occurring spectral line. Laboratory work on fragments and a recovered body indicates “newmatter” (synthetic nuclei altering chemistry), which some use to argue that cross‑infection risk is minimal for either side; quarantine practices are under review by authorities.
• Four‑sample divergence (current discussion): reports circulating among attendees at Tredegarh describe tests on the four fluid vials recovered at Ecba showing that each sample’s nuclei are mutually incompatible with the others and with Arbre‑native matter. Many now discuss this as evidence that the visitors originate from distinct cosmi (or “worldtracks”), rather than as a propulsion‑induced “newmatter” effect. Informal nicknames in use for the four are “Antarct,” “Pangee,” “Diasp,” and “Quator.”
• Tredegarh Precipice arrangement: accounts describe tunnels beneath Tredegarh’s Precipice for nuclear‑waste storage and claim that its Inviolateness stems from a long‑standing arrangement between the mathic world (monastic‑scholar communities) and the Sæcular Power (civil authority), rather than fortifications; this is treated as sensitive information.
• Coordinated observation and satellite gambit: following an influential messal after the Visitation at Orithena, Sæcular planners quietly repositioned a long‑silent reconnaissance “bird” from synchronous orbit onto a trajectory designed to force the hedron to turn its shield toward a radioactive approach vector, enabling ground‑based instruments to image its forward sections. Observatories across Arbre prepared to watch at the appointed time. Witnesses then reported a brief, pinpoint flash where the intercept should have occurred; some onlookers identified it as a directed‑energy strike from the object (one called it an “X‑ray laser”). Senior officials sheltered in bunkers as a precaution, while mathic communities noted their experience with nuclear‑aftermath coping should the attempt provoke retaliation.
• Potential “World Burner” device (working inference): close analysis of the new images identifies a detachable grey “egg” mounted on a shock‑absorber strut by oversized brackets. Calculations on the bracket dimensions imply the pod is extraordinarily massive—consistent with a fissionable payload far beyond known Arbran devices. Observers infer it could be maneuvered into an orbit opposite the main craft and, if detonated, flood a visible hemisphere of Arbre with radiant energy; this possibility is why some speakers now nickname it a World Burner. These readings are presented as working inferences rather than confirmed disclosure.
• Independent contact proposals: private lucubs have discussed using observatory guidestar lasers to send tightly aimed signals directly to the icosahedron, difficult to intercept off‑beam. Reports say some Ita support the technical arrangements. The same circles debate whether to pursue dialogue specifically with one visitor faction based on laboratory hints and field observations; others warn that such moves run counter to the post‑Reconstitution settlement.
• Historical research notes: some Laboratory groups have been assigned to review very old technical documents—specifications, manuals, and sketches—dating from just before the Terrible Events. Participants believe these concern so‑called “Everything Killers,” a category of weapons remembered in dictionaries and folk history; the prospect of reviving such praxis is controversial and has prompted talk of a “post‑mathic” turn and even a “Second Rebirth” in some quarters.
• Protected‑room disclosure and evacuation at Tredegarh: in a grounded‑mesh “Bucker’s Basket,” a doyn dropped his Matarrhite guise and identified himself as a linguist from Laterre while naming his minder as from Urnud; he described internal divisions among the visitors and fear of Arbre’s rumored Incanters. Shortly thereafter, Tredegarh initiated a controlled, night‑time evacuation of the Convox, using rucksack badges for routing, blasted apertures in the ancient wall to create exits, staging drummons across the glacis, and airlift to move designated cells.
• Coordinated low‑orbit operation and decoys: a timed salvo of many small missiles lofted balloons, radar‑chaff, and mixed payloads into low orbit. Teams used Arbre’s bulk to slip out of the Daban Urnud’s line of sight, hiding behind balloons to rendezvous and assemble equipment while the Geometers were forced to sift decoys. Later movements were screened by a cold, reflective surface intended to bounce sensors and minimize heat signature.
• Orbital “rod” strikes on equatorial launch facilities: during a night‑side pass, observers in low orbit saw brilliant linear traces descending to major launch complexes around the equator, each followed by a hemispherical bloom of light. The effect was compared to a nuclear flash without fallout and matches descriptions of dense kinetic projectiles (“rods”). Attribution to the Pedestal is a working inference voiced in‑world; formal confirmation has not been given.
• Reticulum integrity anomaly and surveillance capture (current reports): orbiting observers describe a reputon‑space fault that led to inconsistent or contradictory status messages among ground support cells and the automatic creation of prioritized audio/video recordings when sensitive topics were discussed; to prevent unintended leakage while the issue is unresolved, their transmitter was physically disabled.
• Boarding action and observatory entry (current operations): a mixed Arbran team—including members of the Valers—reached the Daban Urnud, traversed facets of its rubble‑shielded icosahedron in stealth, and observed many suited workers swarming over the presumed World Burner. Four Vale specialists covertly boarded the device while others entered an optical observatory dome that functions as a large airlock; after pressurization, operatives breathed shipboard air and moved inward via a Tendon toward the rotating Core.
• Onboard flashes and radiative event (reported from orbit): near the World Burner complex, observers saw a boiling flare consistent with propellant‑tank destruction; later, during a confrontation inside the ship’s Urnudan VIP sphere, an Everything Killer was triggered by an Arbran, producing a lethal burst within the vessel. In‑mission framing presents these actions as intended to prevent the World Burner’s launch against Arbre.
• Visitor account and internal factions (newly reported): In a formal audience inside the icosahedron, Gan Odru (a “Gan,” akin to an admiral aboard the Daban Urnud) described a long‑standing split between strategic Gans and tactical Prags, mirrored by tendencies called the Fulcrum and the Pedestal. He said the Warden of Heaven removed his suit in a ceremonial chamber, suffered acute breathing difficulty, and died of a ruptured vessel despite a hyperbaric attempt; researchers took samples and an autopsy followed before the body was returned, fueling outrage on Arbre. According to this account, a “blood for blood” gesture from the Fulcrum sent blood samples down to Orithena via a probe; the boarding was undertaken by a woman later identified in‑world as Lise after a linguist who had prepared for Orth contact was reassigned, and she was shot while departing. Odru also stated that a Ringing Vale team killed thirty‑one aboard and sealed eighty‑seven others in a room for safety—interpreted by the Prag as hostage‑taking—and presented the destroyed heavy device as a deterrent intended to hang overhead rather than be fired. In the same discussion, Odru and an avout spoke of the Hylaean Flow and of visions reported by a much earlier Gan that now seem to match later devastation remembered on Arbre; whether such signals were sent or simply perceived remains an open question in‑world.

Status/Access

Arbre is active and inhabited across both cloistered concents (walled monastic complexes) and the Sæcular world. Travel conditions vary widely by region and era of maintenance, from well‑kept highways to broken “new gravel” stretches in the countryside. Crossing between continent‑scale political units under the Sæcular Power typically requires documents, which avout do not generally hold; over‑ice sledge routes at high latitude provide one practical path between northern lands without passing through sea or air ports of entry. Observational access to the sky continues through instruments wherever permitted; information about the orbital object is being compiled from both public images and private measurements. In remote highlands, hand devices such as jeejahs may have thin connectivity and navigation tools may struggle to acquire fixes.