Antiswarm

During the Convox at the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh, organizers describe and begin to stage a contingency dispersal network known as “the Antiswarm.” Named by the Ita, it is framed as risk mitigation should the opposing faction escalate: the community would scatter into the Sæculum in pre‑assigned small cells of avout, yet remain coordinated over the Reticulum so essential functions continue while dispersed.

Each participant is already assigned to a cell, but only cell leaders are briefed in advance. Leaders receive evacuation plans and responsibilities; the rank‑and‑file are issued rucksacks and a dormant badge. If activation is ordered, a person’s badge awakens and directs them to their cell’s rendezvous. Cells are designed to include Ita, ending the usual avout–Ita segregation for the duration and shifting work toward immediately Sæcular tasks.

Public logistics—open‑air distribution of gear with military support—are used as a deterrence signal that dispersal can happen at once. Sæcular officials described as the Panjandrums are visibly involved in arrangements.

Some participants explicitly compare the Antiswarm’s envisioned effects to a “second Rebirth” (a renewed Praxic turn), though this remains a characterization rather than a formal declaration.

Operational use and support cells

Accounts from later operations describe the Antiswarm actively functioning as a distributed support web. Numbered ground cells coordinate over the Reticulum to assist mission teams, supplying navigation prompts, checklists, narrow‑beam communications, resource tracking, and medical oversight that enforces rest and hydration. Examples include Cell 87 coordinating from an equipment shed far from Tredegarh, a support team working out of a drained swimming pool in a Kelx parochial suvin, and another operating from an unmarked drummon at a maintenance depot. Individual support cells can themselves be backed by other cells, forming layered assistance networks.

In this role, the Antiswarm is shown operating beyond deterrence: it can sustain complex, distributed work while dispersion remains an option.

Distributed modeling and shared tools

When a Laterran witness, Jules Verne Durand, transmitted a compact description of the visitors’ craft over the Reticulum, Antiswarm participants assembled a remarkably faithful three‑dimensional model of the Daban Urnud within days. The model was pushed into field suits for rehearsal and planning; users could “fly through” the structure and see semitransparent notes in Orth marking where details were conjectural. This demonstrated the Antiswarm’s capacity to turn sparse testimony into shared, practical tooling at speed.

Messaging load and integrity under stress

As activity intensified, Ita‑run defenses on the Reticulum that filter misleading “bogons” interacted with traffic in a way that introduced a low‑level bug in reputon weighting. Ground support cells began to receive and sometimes send contradictory status—such as mismatched headcounts or mistaken reports of fatalities—until links stabilized and filters resynchronized. Physical carriage and jamming were not at fault; the issue arose from information dynamics under heavy coordinated use. The episode highlights a practical limit when many cells are exchanging sensitive traffic at once and the need for cautious message handling during Antiswarm operations.

Dispersal and political recognition

After the explosions that wrecked the World Burner and the ensuing shipboard emergency, the Convox and other large concents dispersed into the Antiswarm. The dispersal shifted daily work into pre‑assigned, Sæculum‑facing cells while preserving coordination over the Reticulum.

In the negotiations that followed, the Mathic world—now operating as the Antiswarm—was treated as one of two magisteria alongside the Sæcular Power. Those talks also involved the Pedestal and the Fulcrum.