Sæcular Power

Not to be confused with Sæculum, the worldly realm outside the maths; this entry concerns the worldly governing authority.

Overview

The Sæcular Power is the outside authority that governs the worldly realm beyond mathic walls. Within the maths its formal communications are treated as legitimate and binding when delivered through established rites such as Voco (formal summons). In mathic usage, avout commonly use “Sæcular Power” as a convenient umbrella across eras and regimes; in the present day it is described as a federation of political units that roughly align with continents. Members of the avout (cloistered scholars) typically stand outside its legal system.

Purpose and Structure

• Non‑mathic governance: Recognized as the worldly authority in the Sæculum (outside realm); particulars vary across eras, but the umbrella label remains useful for mathic discourse.
• Federation and borders: Travel is generally free within each federated unit, while crossings between units require documents that avout usually do not possess.
• Separate legal sphere since the Reconstitution: The Sæcular Power holds no records of avout, has no jurisdiction or responsibility over them, and cannot draft or tax them. Its officials do not enter concents except at Apert. It does not provide pensions or medical care to avout, and avout do not receive identity documents from it. Protection from mobs or armies may be offered at its discretion. Distinct from mathic oversight: it is separate from the mathic Inquisition (disciplinary authority), which polices Discipline within and among concents.
• Treaty and protected sites (described): The Inviolateness of the Precipice at Tredegarh is described as grounded in a longstanding arrangement between the mathic world and the Sæcular Power; the granite lobe beneath is said to be riddled with tunnels for storage of nuclear waste. In messal discussion it was further stated that the “Three Inviolates” are nuclear‑waste repositories and were probably protected by the Sæcular Power; this was presented in‑world as an “open secret.”
• Historical memory noted in dictionaries: A widely held—but unproved—belief holds that complicity of theors in developing “Everything Killer” praxis contributed to universal agreement that theors should be segregated from non‑theorical society, a policy that when effected became synonymous with the Reconstitution.
• Comparative analogy from a visiting official (account): A shipboard “Gan” characterized his office’s long relationship with the “Prag” as analogous to mathic vs. worldly spheres—“Gan” aligning with avout authority and “Prag” with the Sæcular Power’s kind of outside governance. This is retained here as his explanation.

Practices

• Rites and directives: Uses Voco to call avout into the Sæculum; when a rendezvous is named, the receiving concent can function as a Convox (authorized traveling group), enabling groups to travel while preserving elements of the Discipline.
• Reported channels: Speakers describe messages reaching practical orders via the Reticulum (planetary network) with instructions to seed specific observation tasks, sometimes bypassing hierarchs. Others interpret this as a pragmatic way to obtain needed work “quietly.” These are recorded as speakers’ accounts and interpretations.
• Site control and emergency response (observed): At Orithena, authorities rapidly responded to the descent of a visitors’ probe. Onlookers describe jamming of the Reticulum, commandeering and cordoning of the landing beach, imposition of site control with numbered collars and sampling teams, and then escorting avout to aerocraft for evacuation ahead of an advancing ash cloud. Quarantine procedures included chemical decontamination (hosing), biometric scans, issue of paper coveralls to be burned after use, distribution of rations, and segregation of groups for interviews and phototyping.
• Messal logistics and monitoring (observed): Sæcular staff have installed one‑way sound systems to carry messal audio into work spaces such as kitchens; the narrator assumes the feed also reached listeners beyond the building. Convox sessions are described as being attended—and monitored—by Sæcular officials.
• Cost and results emphasis (noted by staffers): Within the Convox, Sæcular advisors described the effort as expensive and expressed satisfaction when it produced discernible results. Commentary framed this in terms of practical management concerns.
• Fallback communications and go‑to‑ground orders (observed/briefed): When wireless Reticulum links were cut, Ita maintained connectivity over land lines. Orders to field cells included “go to ground” and regroup at prepositioned sites, with training to follow once stationary.

Known Associations

• Concents: Formal calls are received in the Mynster; recent movements involved departures from the Concent of Saunt Edhar and a gathering at Tredegarh under a Convox framework.
• Practical orders and intermediaries: Practical brethren are cited in accounts as receiving or relaying discrete tasks; attribution remains in‑character and partially interpretive.
• Convox assemblies (observed/inferred): Sæcular attendees are present in visitors’ naves during formal mathic auts such as Inbrase. Observers infer a parallel cabinet of high Sæcular officials (“Panjandrums”) operating alongside mathic hierarchs during Convox proceedings, separated by screens. Some attendees were noted to be in military uniforms.

Recent Activity

• Logistics and public order: Large military convoys moving toward the far north disrupted normal harbor routines and street life in Old Mahsht; civilian lodging overflow and ad hoc crowd control followed as officials prioritized convoy throughput.
• Spacecraft encounter decisions (as described): In a leaked speely recorded aboard a state capsule, onlookers credit the Sæcular Power with sending a single representative—referred to by shipboard personnel as “the Warden of Heaven”—to meet the Geometers after the visitors requested that “one” be sent. Communications with the capsule were jammed during parts of the encounter; subsequent commentary by speakers debates motives and implications rather than offering confirmed attributions.
• Shipboard account of the episode (as related later): A visiting “Gan” recounted that the Warden of Heaven removed his suit aboard Daban Urnud, suffered a sudden failure consistent with a burst aneurysm, and that the manner of the body’s return was decided by a “Prag” for political effect; this is retained as that official’s account rather than an established finding.
• Information control (attributed by speakers): Speakers report that “the Powers That Be” curtailed much of the Reticulum to limit the spread of the leaked speely; some speakers equate this with Sæcular authorities, though responsibility is not established in‑text.
• Orithena probe landing and response (observed): At Orithena, authorities rapidly responded to the descent of a probe attributed to the Geometers. Onlookers describe jamming of the Reticulum, imposition of site control with collars and sampling teams, and then escorting avout to aerocraft for evacuation ahead of an advancing ash cloud. Due to suit isolation and jamming, soldiers initially appeared unaware of a recovered body from the capsule; this is recorded as an observation from on‑site witnesses.
• Convox Plenary at Tredegarh (observed): Sæcular crews staged a public dialog in a nave using outside equipment (scaffolds, a raised platform, projection screen, and lighting), and officials attended. A ministry staffer identified himself as Emman Beldo and referenced his doyn, “Madame Secretary” Ignetha Foral. Sæcular attendees voiced an emphasis on addressing “the threat,” while mathic participants pursued theorical lines of inquiry. Observers also allude to a mission brief from Sæcular authorities guiding the Convox. The outcome of an orbital countermeasure gambit was celebrated within the Convox for yielding a trove of phototypes for analysis.
• Orbital countermeasure gambit (described by a Sæcular advisor): A Sæcular technical advisor explained that an old reconnaissance “bird” in synchronous orbit was quietly re‑tasked to pass near the visitors’ icosahedral craft. The aim—anticipated by planners—was that the ship would reorient to bring its shielded face toward the incoming object, exposing normally hidden structures to ground‑based telescopes pre‑aimed for the moment. Witnesses later reported a brief flash at the craft’s position and speculated that the satellite had been “nailed” by a directed‑energy shot; the maneuver was followed by widespread study of newly obtained ground‑based phototypes.
• Precautions during the maneuver (reported): The same account says high officials (“Panjandrums”) sheltered in caves and bunkers in case of retaliation. A staffer added that the mathic world has experience coping with nuclear aftermaths; this was offered as context, not as policy.
• Parallel signaling proposals (reported in Lucub): Participants describe a network of small Lucubs discussing how to signal the visitors directly using guide‑star lasers on large telescopes—specifically to avoid Sæcular interception except on the beam line. Some claim that members of the Ita are aware and supportive. These are in‑story reports, not confirmed policy.
• Convox reorganization and dispersal readiness (observed/inferred): Work within the Convox was suspended except for essential auts while teams were reassigned along Sæcular lines to focus on praxic tasks such as building a precise 3‑D model of the visitors’ ship. A Sæcular syntactic‑modeling system was brought online by staffers, and theor groups integrated new phototypes into the model. Soldiers set up open‑air serving lines and a sound system on the plaza before the Mynster, and later distributed pre‑packed rucksacks and electronic badges that would activate with evacuation instructions. An organizer states the Sæcular Power had tasked her with risk‑mitigation planning to disperse the Convox—and, if needed, concents—into cells that would keep working over the Reticulum; the Ita are to be embedded in those cells. The visible hand‑out and staging were presented as a deterrence signal that the community could scatter at a moment’s notice.
• Orbital launch plan and training (observed/briefed): A field cell was relocated to a secluded facility for intensive training on matte‑black modular space suits and personal upper‑stage rigs that mount directly to the suits. Briefings describe an imminent, tightly synchronized launch window using mobile ballistic missile carriers, with a small number bearing personnel, others lifting supplies, and the remainder serving as decoys and chaff. The aim is to assemble in low orbit and attempt a rendezvous with Daban Urnud. Operational particulars were compartmentalized.
• Countermeasure concepts discussed (attributed in‑world): Within the same conversations, a strategist outlined a concept for placing extremely small nuclear microreactor devices—Everything Killers—into orbit as a potential deterrent or strike option against the Geometers. He judged the cell’s mission more likely to serve as a diversion while some other delivery method was used. These remarks are presented as analysis, not confirmed policy.
• Orbital operation and World Burner incident (observed/attributed): Participants later describe insertion aboard Daban Urnud. As activity surged around the World Burner, a specialized contingent attempted covert boarding. Subsequent sequences include a reported activation event consistent with Everything Killers. These accounts are presented in‑character; specific chains of command are not established in the narration.
• Analytical viewpoint on implications (attributed): Fraa Jad characterized the World Burner as a bluff that compels “our military” to act differently than it otherwise would; he held that destroying it would return a measure of freedom to Arbre, while what the Sæcular Power would make of that freedom remains uncertain.

Status

Active and engaged. Formal calls continue to be treated as binding when properly delivered, while implementation involves outside logistics, intermediaries, and (by speaker account) selective use of reticular channels. Current accounts also describe an assertive posture in orbit and a precautionary stance on the ground, alongside parallel grass‑roots proposals to communicate with the visitors outside official channels.