Pedestal

The Pedestal is the self‑designation for the Urnud/Tro axis—an alliance of two PAQD worlds: Urnud (called Pangee on Arbre) and Tro (called Diasp). A Laterran visitor from Antarct explains that Urnud and Tro act together as this bloc, opposed by an internal movement called the Fulcrum led by Fthosians, while Laterre is internally divided. Within the four‑world presence often called the Geometers, the Pedestal denotes the Urnud/Tro grouping.

Activities and Aims (reported)

• Infiltration at Tredegarh: During the Convox, operatives controlled by the Pedestal seized the concent of the Matarrhites and infiltrated Tredegarh in Matarrhite garb. Once their outbound signals were cut inside a grounded mesh, one removed his disguise and identified himself as a Laterran linguist working under a Pedestal military‑intelligence mandate.
• Mission: The stated task was to determine whether legendary Incanters (and Rhetors) correspond to any real practice within the maths or are merely iconography.
• Posture: The same source warned that Pedestal leaders fear such powers and have considered a pre‑emptive strike. This is presented as the informant’s account, not as a confirmed declaration of intent.

Background and Internal Outlook (as related)

• Intercosmic history: Reports trace the Pedestal’s lineage to Urnudan efforts that developed the ship later known as Daban Urnud. A geometrodynamic route meant to reach their own past instead shifted the vessel into neighboring Narratives, leading to successive Advents that eventually brought Urnud, Tro, Laterre, and Fthos into contact.
• Institutional character: According to a Laterran linguist who has lived aboard Daban Urnud, the Pedestal began as a community of rational theors but, during long years of wandering, took on the character of a priesthood; the closer its priests feel to their god, the more fearful and reticent they become.
• Command torus partition: Conflict between Pedestal and the Fulcrum led to the Command torus at the Core being split into unequal sections, with hatches locked, partitions welded, guards posted, and some cables severed.
• Terms for power drift: Shipboard accounts say that “the Pedestal” and “the Fulcrum” are long‑used labels for two countervailing tendencies aboard Daban Urnud. Over long voyages, authority tends to accrete to tactical officers (Prags), while around an Advent, power shifts back toward the strategic leadership (Gans). The Pedestal is used for the Prag‑aligned tendency; the Fulcrum for the Gan‑aligned one.

Operational Posture (current assessments in‑world)

• Launch‑site threats: A Valer liaison asserts that normal launch sites on Arbre are assumed to be under threat of orbital "rods" if preparations are detected, which has driven planning toward dispersed, mobile launchers.
• Counter‑decoy detection (reported): Off‑world experience credits the bloc with coupling excellent telescopes to syndevs to sift very large image sets for anomalies; decoys such as balloons behave differently under drag, and inventories of objects in orbit let analysts notice items that maneuver with thrusters. These descriptions are attributed to advisors familiar with Urnudan practice.
• Knowledge sources: The same liaison judges that the Pedestal’s understanding of Arbre derives largely from leakage of popular culture into space, and therefore may omit certain Sæcular capabilities (e.g., older families of mobile, storable‑propellant missiles).
• Capture risk during approach (in‑world discussion): While a mission cell maneuvered near Daban Urnud, participants weighed the possibility that Pedestal personnel might capture them and dispose of or dismantle their suits; the concern informed contingency planning. This is presented as their anticipation rather than a witnessed action.
• Deterrent deployment plan (reported): A large weapon described as a last‑resort deterrent was being readied by the Pedestal to be launched and hung over Arbre as pressure. An Urnudan strategic officer characterized such a device as intended for deterrence rather than actual use.

Current Status

• Exposure at Tredegarh: The impostors posing as Matarrhites were unmasked inside a shielded room during a messal; one declared his Laterran origin and named the Urnud/Tro axis as the Pedestal. Local authorities proceeded with a wide dispersal of Convox participants. The Pedestal is regarded as an active external danger in ongoing planning.
• Orbital "rod" strikes on launch sites: During a night‑side pass, observers in low orbit saw brilliant linear traces descending to major equatorial launch facilities on Arbre, each followed by a hemispherical bloom of light comparable to a nuclear flash without fallout. The action is described in‑world as Pedestal bombardment and is treated as confirmation of earlier warnings about launch‑site vulnerability.
• World Burner incursion and shipboard emergency (observed): While Urnudan and Troän personnel were working on the World Burner at a vertex of Daban Urnud, a team identified with Ringing Vale covertly boarded the device. Subsequent explosions in propellant tanks lit the complex and triggered a frantic emergency response around the forward bearing chamber. A Laterran advisor characterized the episode as the Pedestal’s worst military embarrassment in a thousand years. These details are presented as in‑world observations and reports from participants.
• Casualties and containment (reported): In the same sequence of events, shipboard leaders attributed thirty‑one deaths to fraas and suurs associated with Ringing Vale, and said that eighty‑seven more had been sealed in a chamber. Avout sources described the latter as a safety measure rather than hostage‑taking.
• Four‑way talks (reported): In the immediate aftermath, leaders moved to initiate negotiations among the Pedestal, the Fulcrum, the Sæcular Power, and the Mathic World, with the mathic side organized as the Antiswarm. This is recounted in post‑event briefings delivered aboard Daban Urnud.

Relations and Episodes (attributed accounts)

• Handling of the Warden of Heaven: Shipboard accounts state that a Prag‑led plan sought to draw unfavorable comparisons between the Gan and the Warden of Heaven. The Warden removed his suit in a ceremonial room and died shortly afterward; researchers took samples and began an autopsy. The body was later returned to Arbre in a manner that signaled contempt, a decision tied to internal politics. Members aligned with the Fulcrum reportedly felt shame and proposed a symbolic exchange of blood for blood by delivering samples to the surface; the attempt was thwarted when the boarding of a probe was met with gunfire.
• Opening a channel: Following the loss of the weapon and the ensuing crisis, the Prag in command reached out to the Gan to discuss the situation, seeking talks even as tactical preparations continued.