Syntactic Device

Known names: ['Syntactic Device', 'Syntactic Processor', 'syndev'] Summary: A syntactic device (often shortened to "syndev") is a processor-driven mechanism that can generate text and control tools or instruments by making decisions based on measurements. It is common extramuros and is tolerated in limited praxes within the maths, where specific uses have been formally permitted.

First Appearance and Context

During Apert at the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a household note is described as having been generated by a syntactic device. Later the same day, in a metalworking hall near the concent, avout observe a large machining installation whose control head houses a bank of syntactic processors governing a complex cutting operation; the operators refer to syndev control while calling out axes and parametric moves. On the starhenge, a photomnemonic tablet is demonstrated; its interactive functions are recognized as requiring an embedded syntactic device.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Automation and control: Syntactic devices monitor measurements and drive machines accordingly, exemplified by a five-axis electrical discharge mill that executes linear and parametric moves under processor control.
• Text generation: Outside the walls, household documents can be produced by a device that lays out neat rows of letters.
• Embedded instruments: Photomnemonic tablets use an internal device to store layers of images and allow scrolling and zooming through long-running records (e.g., the supernova observed by Saunt Tancred).
• Mathic allowances and limits: Within the maths, certain praxes involving syndevs are permitted while others are not, framed by the Cartasian Discipline and historical settlements following the Sacks. Explicitly permitted examples mentioned alongside syndev use include Newmatter in avout gear and in adaptive telescope mirrors.
• Practical maintenance: The Ita operate and maintain tolerated subsystems tied to the great clock and are seen handling precision parts and cabling while syntactic devices run nearby.
• Simulation and training: During preparations at the Caravansery of Elkhazg, multiple devices were connected to large wraparound speely screens to support zero‑gravity training. Control inputs from suit‑mounted arms were routed through the devices, and in‑suit units superimposed indicators and readouts on the wearer’s view through the face‑mask.
• Analytical/solver use: A Decagon courtyard displaying a completed Teglon tiling was said to have been solved either by a master geometer or by a syntactic device, illustrating their use as configurable solvers on tiling problems when so arranged.
• Seizure and analysis: During operations surrounding the evacuation of Tredegarh, Sæcular units seized devices from Matarrhite quarters; Ita reported “virtualizing” the captured units to extract and analyze embedded records, including timestamped documents.

Relationships

• Discipline and history: Decisions about which praxes using syntactic devices are allowed are described as dating from Convoxes following the earlier Sacks, shaping present practice within the walls.
• Operators and maintainers: Artisans extramuros run syndev-controlled machines; inside the concent the Ita tend clock-linked systems where tolerated devices are integrated.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Capabilities: A syndev serves as the machine’s "brain," enabling decisions based on sensor input, coordinated multi-axis motion, countdowns, and continuously updated numerical readouts.
• Interfaces and readouts: Observed units present changing numeric displays for axes, rotations, tilts, and process timers; during simple moves one value advances while others hold, and during compound moves multiple values evolve together.
• Forms and embedding: Devices may appear as standalone control heads on industrial machines or be embedded within instruments such as photomnemonic tablets.
• In‑suit integration: When built into space suits, devices drive head‑up overlays and handle mapping of rotational and translational controls to suit thrusters, compositing status and guidance information into the face‑mask view.
• External integration for training: Training setups at Elkhazg connected devices to wraparound displays and disembodied suit arms, enabling realistic orbital‑maneuver simulation through the same control mappings used in the field.

Current Status/Location

Common extramuros in shops and homes; present within the mathic world only in explicitly permitted contexts (e.g., instrument subsystems and clock-linked mechanisms), under the constraints of the Discipline. Within that framework, devices have been observed in active use during training at Elkhazg, including as built‑in suit processors and as controllers for simulation rigs.

Concent of Saunt Edhar - Apert - Ita - Cartasian Discipline - Newmatter - Saunt Tancred - The Three Sacks