Ecba

Ecba is an island of black volcanic rock dominated by a steep, caldera-topped mountain. Traditions connect its rock and shoreline to the ancient Halls of Orithena; in the present day a resident math (scholars' cloister) or lineage-run cloister oversees a formal excavation there.

Geography and Geology

• The island is approximately round with a single prominent volcano. The north face appears regular but is dangerously steep.
• The south slope exploded and collapsed in -2621, burying the Temple of Orithena and filling in a former harbor; ash and rubble now descend in a broad fan from summit to sea.
• Along the northeast shore are closely spaced coves divided by fingers of hardened magma that once ran down from the caldera. A small offshore islet breaks and diffracts incoming surf, making the waves small but unpredictable. Some coves are shallow and rock-bound, suitable only for the smallest boats.
• Midday conditions can be severe, with intense sun and heat; exposed metal at the compound gates radiates stored warmth.
• Groundwater within the cloister has a noticeable sulfur taste, consistent with nearby geothermal springs.
• Travelers descending from the polar region describe courses “more easterly than the meridian that passes through Ecba,” using the island’s meridian as a rough navigational reference.

Settlement and Infrastructure

• Ecba's only notable settlement apart from the compound surrounds the ferry terminal on the northwest coast. A ring road follows the island's shore; distance by road can be several times longer than line-of-sight.
• A solar-powered desalination plant in town makes and sells water; visiting parties have been able to provision there.
• Within the outer wall above the south slope, long-cultivated orchards, vines, and grain fields create shaded paths and provide fruits and oils; irrigation indicates reliable water sources.

Orithena Excavation and Compound

• Two wall systems are in use: an inner wall about twenty feet high of cast fused-ash blocks with large steel gates and flanking bastions, enclosing the living cloister and the main dig; and an outer wall, much lower, that traces far up the mountainside to the caldera, symbolically defining the working lands.
• Inside the inner wall are cloister buildings, including a clock-tower and a small fountain; a broad ramp spirals into a deep excavation pit where the buried structures of Orithena are uncovered.
• Digging is organized in day/night cycles; crews commonly work at night to avoid heat.
• Facilities include a bath house where hot water from volcanic springs is routed through vertical shafts for fast "sluice" bathing.
• A guest lodge set apart from the cloister houses visitors; Saecular (non-mathic world) guests have been permitted to keep jeejahs (handheld communicators) there and to join communal dinners without devices, where they received a formal welcome from a resident host.
• At the gate, interlocutors speak and behave as if the place were a standard math, requesting a vow; a first-hand account from a visiting avout (cloistered scholars) reports entry and residence without a formal vow and identifies the community as a Lineage (pre-Cartesian tradition) rather than a math. Outward presentation as "avout" appears to be a practical cover for their dedicated work.

Ownership and Governance

• Research on the Reticulum (global network) identifies the entire island as a single parcel held by a private foundation akin to a Dowment (endowment-like trust) for roughly nine centuries. Earlier eras saw Ecba as a small principality passed between empires and private owners.
• One visiting account reports that shortly after the Third Sack (major upheaval) a wealthy burger purchased the island and created a dowment (endowment-like trust) with extensive bylaws intended to endure; executive power is described as resting with a mixed Sæcular (non-mathic world) and mathic (monastic scholarly) board of governors.
• A resident named Landasher is portrayed as running day-to-day affairs; the same account inferred he was beholden to no one except, possibly, the dowment that owns Ecba.
• The current project is described as long-term and highly organized, with planning consistent with coordination across Apert (opening interval) cycles and the millennial Convox (council of avout).
• While at Elkhazg, comparisons are drawn to a long-lived complex of financial interests—quite possibly the same entity—that runs both places; characters refer to it as a Lineage. The extent and continuity of this control remain unclear.

Status and Access

• Recent on-site accounts describe camping in an unposted northeast cove that appeared to be neither private property nor a park; later findings about private ownership suggest signage and enforcement may be minimal in some places. Beach tarping against heat and sun was necessary.
• The ferry terminal and town are active; avout (cloistered scholars) wearing bolts and chords have been observed moving openly in public. Vehicles are turned back at the checkpoint below the compound; large steel gates and a small person-door control direct entry, and gatekeepers question visitors.
• A small souvenir shop stands down the road outside the gate toward a nearby cove; visitors have used it as a rendezvous before being escorted inside.

History

• In -2621, an explosive event on the south slope buried the Temple of Orithena and obliterated a harbor once used by early physiologers voyaging from around the Sea of Seas.
• Since the year 3000, a new math at Orithena has been noted as under construction above the excavation, with access works and a fortified perimeter becoming visible from the coastal road.

Recent events

• During the period surrounding the gathering later called the Convox, witnesses describe a sudden destructive incident at Ecba followed by visible eruption activity. On a neighboring island upwind, locals gathered to watch, and emergency aerocraft landed to offload evacuees.
• The area was placed under the control of the Sæcular Power (civil government). Perimeter cordons, decontamination, and interviews were conducted in a tented staging area while authorities managed the response.
• Some speakers—most notably Fraa Lodoghir in a public Plenary at Tredegarh—refer to the initiating blow as a kinetic "rod" strike (high-velocity projectile) and attribute it to a Geometers faction acting in response to an illicit probe; this is an argued interpretation rather than an established finding. In the same forum, other voices questioned the evidentiary basis and cautioned against assigning responsibility without direct proof.
• Several aerocraft reportedly ran out of fuel and ditched at sea; evacuees used their standard spheres as flotation until recovered by a second wave of aircraft. A temporary camp nicknamed "New Orithena" was raised on the beach while operations continued.
• According to an account from Gan Odru aboard the Daban Urnud, the Fulcrum planned an exchange of "blood for blood" by conveying vials of their own blood to Arbre. Guided by a planet‑side Analemma signal sent by Fraa Orolo, Jules Verne Durand identified Ecba as the symbolic destination and proposed delivering the samples there; diverted to another operation, he did not go. Lise took the berth instead and was shot while boarding the probe.
• Results reported from Laboratorium, based on tests performed on four vials of fluid—assumed to be blood—on the Ecba probe, indicate that each sample is composed of a different, mutually incompatible kind of matter distinct from that of Arbre; some participants see this as evidence that the four Geometer groups originate from different worldtracks, though interpretation remains under discussion.
• Iconography on the four vials depicts four different planets, matching emblems shown on the visitors' ship; informal labels in circulation refer to these as Antarct, Pangee, Diasp, and Quator.
• In later briefings and conversations, at least one Sæcular technical advisor characterized the Ecba incident as a serious provocation—possibly an act of war—and described authorities preparing for potential escalation while seeking to compel the visitors’ ship to maneuver and reveal more of its structure.
• Subsequent analyses circulated among avout and technical circles identify the deceased woman recovered with the Ecba probe as belonging to the “Antarct” group, while the projectiles taken from her body are attributed to the “Pangee” cosmos; these interpretations inform ongoing debate but remain provisional rather than settled.

Scholarship and dialogs

• During later debates among avout about consciousness and the polycosm, Fraa Erasmas refers to his "Ecba dialogs" with Fraa Orolo, conducted on the island. In those conversations, Orolo frames consciousness as spanning nearby, real cosmi and uses worldtracks in Hemn space as a way of speaking about it; the dialogs become a touchstone for subsequent discussion.