Saunt Cartas

Overview

Saunt Cartas is a revered saunt of the mathic tradition whose treatise the Saeculum (Treatise) frames the maths as a counterbalance to worldly authority and underlies the Cartasian Discipline. She is invoked in daily practice and, in discussion among avout, serves as a chronological benchmark; claims that certain traditions go back “farther even than Cartas” are used to signal pre‑Cartasian antiquity. At Orithena, residents describe their lineage as predating Cartas by roughly a millennium, underscoring how her name functions as a temporal marker.

Appearance and Traits

Cartas is depicted as a symbol of austerity. In the Hylaean Way exhibits, a statue shows her cradling singed, tattered books while looking back toward a narrow exit, with nearby frescoes of the Sack of Baz and a burning library; beyond lies a bare stone chamber evoking retreat to the maths and the dawn of the Old Mathic Age. Within the community she is cited as so austere that secret comforts would make her “roll over in her chalcedony sarcophagus.”

Roles and Actions

• Author of the Saeculum, presenting the mathic community as a counterweight to the Sæcular Power rather than an accommodation to it.
• Early codifications attributed to Cartas include strict rules on liaisons; later formulations vary on which liaisons are sanctioned, but her framework remains foundational.
• Credited by in‑world references with originating a short list of forbidden plants—later known as the Eleven—that expanded over centuries as new species were discovered.
• Invoked in daily practice: avout are described opening communal meals with an Invocation of Cartas, affirming mutual reliance for bodily needs while minds are nourished by earlier thinkers.
• Gate exchanges: gatekeepers at walled sites present a set formula requiring the Vow (entry pledge) before admission; this ritual phrasing is said “since Cartas,” and Orithena is noted following the pattern even as it presents itself as a lineage rather than a formal math.
• Later summaries (e.g., entries in The Dictionary) characterize other traditions as defining themselves in relation to Cartas’s framework.

Legacy and Influence

• Early centers: Elkhazg is described as one of the oldest Cartasian centers, founded by fraas and suurs who had personally witnessed the Fall of Baz and knew Cartas. The complex later developed a caravansery and ferry and adopted a practice of copying each book and scroll that passed through (see Caravansery of Elkhazg).
• Austerity in later commentary: Accounts evoke Cartas’s uncompromising stance by suggesting such accommodations to commerce would have scandalized her, consistent with portrayals of her as an exemplar of strict Discipline.
• The name “Cartas” appears in everyday speech as an exclamation of thanks or relief (e.g., “Thank Cartas”), reflecting ongoing cultural reverence beyond formal invocations.
• Contemporary usage among avout is observed in high‑stress moments; for instance, Arsibalt exclaims “Thank Cartas” on first breathing foreign air inside an observatory, underscoring the idiom’s persistence.

Relationships

• Referenced and explicated by Fraa Orolo, who recommends consulting her Saeculum in Old Orth, noting that excerpted translations can soften key passages.

Current Status

Historical figure known via texts and portrayals. Her Saeculum continues to circulate and is studied and cited within the maths; her positions on liaisons and other practical matters remain touchstones in discussion.