Fraa Lodoghir

Fraa Lodoghir is the First Among Equals of the Centenarian Chapter of the Order of Saunt Proc at Muncoster. At the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh during a large Convox, he serves as the loctor (interlocutor) for Fraa Erasmas in a widely attended Plenary concerning the recent events at Orithena and contact with the Geometers.

First appearance and context

He is encountered in the Unarian nave at Tredegarh as crews erect a stage and speely projection for a Plenary. Before the formalities, he greets Erasmas and compliments his singing, asking where the piece was learned (Orithena). Identifying himself by office, he takes the stage with Erasmas, has microphones fitted, and formally opens the assembly in a voice pitched for the hall. The format he sets is an extemporaneous dialog rather than a prepared lecture.

Affiliations and roles

• First Among Equals (Centenarian Chapter), Order of Saunt Proc, based at Muncoster.
• Loctor for Erasmas at a Tredegarh Plenary; he conducts questioning drawn from notes provided by various interested parties as well as his own topics.
• Within Tredegarh’s messal customs, he claims Erasmas as his servitor and himself as doyn, directing where they will take sustenance and how service is to be rendered. At the Plurality of Worlds messal he identifies himself as the Procian voice in that forum.
• During preparations for the Antiswarm at Tredegarh, he is named by Ala as part of a circle of cell leaders meeting for deeper follow‑ups on risk‑mitigation plans and potential contact with the visitors.

Actions and positions at the Plenary

• Frames the session’s scope as the Visitation at Orithena, preferring structured interrogation to a narrative account.
• Presses Erasmas about his peregrination and Orithena, at times with dry or baiting humor; he characterizes aspects of Orithena in skeptical terms while maintaining that evidence should decide disputed points.
• Later reflections suggest Lodoghir intended to “plane” Erasmas—using the Plenary to challenge the Edharian contingent’s newfound celebrity and take one of them down a peg.
• Advances a speculative argument about Orolo’s involvement: that an analemma might have been used as a signal, presented as three “mysteries” (why the probe landed at Orithena, why Orolo’s final acts involved an analemma, and how to construe his responsibility). Others in the nave protest the leap from conjecture to conclusion, and Erasmas answers by calling for evidence before assigning blame. Lodoghir’s framing is recorded here as his position, not established fact.
• Subsequent accounts report evidence from Edhar’s M & M that its guidestar laser had been programmed to sweep an analemma; this is taken by some—including the narrator—to corroborate Lodoghir’s allegation regarding Fraa Orolo, while others frame it differently, leaving the philosophical implications contested.

Positions and actions at the Plurality of Worlds messal

• At the Plurality of Worlds messal hosted in Avrachon’s Dowment, he presents a Procian framing: language and thought are symbol‑manipulations whose meanings are assigned by culture; until shared experiences with the Geometers exist, any attempted exchange will remain equivocal or impossible.
• He argues that the messal’s practical aim should be to develop, and if possible implement, a program for the Sæcular Power—with avout assistance—to build shared culture and language with the visitors, “turning the plurality into one world.”
• He cites the ejection of the Warden of Heaven, the delivery of a fresh murder victim into a cult site, and a volcanic “rod” as gestures from the visitors that cannot be understood outside of a shared culture; he presents these as examples of why work on common meaning is urgent.
• He engages with elders—most notably Fraa Jad—as discussion broadens to Hemn space, Narratives, and worldtracks. When the Hylaean Theoric World is broached, he contends that belief in it is akin to faith rather than a result of pure theorics.
• He trades barbed courtesies with Ignetha Foral, who challenges the group to stay on consequential ground; he accepts her rebuke at one point while insisting that metatheorics bears directly on policy.
• In a later session centered on metatheorics and the Hylaean Theoric World, he acknowledges that an earlier conjecture—that a diagram seen on the visitors’ ship might have been inserted by Saunt Orolo or another—was incorrect.
• From a Procian stance, he argues that mathematical properties (for example, the primeness of three) depend on definitions supplied by minds, pushing back against claims that the cnoöns exist independently of observers.
• He presses interlocutors on verification: how any hypothesis about the Hylaean Theoric World could be tested, and whether Arbre might stand as another world’s HTW.
• His manner can be exuberant; he may hold the floor at length, drawing accusations of Sphenic rhetoric from rivals, yet he meets pointed rebuttals with laughter and returns to substantive questioning.
• In debate over parallels between Arbre and the visitors, he and Fraa Paphlagon test whether the Hylaean Flow could influence evolution; Lodoghir spells out how only signals impinging on nerve tissue could be selectively amplified by minds and societies, emphasizing that computed outcomes—not merely inputs—steer behavior.
• Picking up Fraa Jad’s compressed remark about consciousness and “weak signals,” he helps unpack the idea of selective amplification and accepts feedback as a tool to explain convergence, proposing that shared results—including celebrated diagrams—may be attractors in a complex system, while keeping a Procian eye on testability.
• When a Matarrhite doyn’s tale about “Saunt Atamant” and a copper bowl is aired, he asks for polycosmic translation and demands mechanisms; after the speaker is unmasked as a visitor, Lodoghir pivots to clarification, deducing by elimination a local name for one of the other cosmi.

Traits and presentation

• Age and bearing: described as a man in his sixth or seventh decade with a commanding stage presence.
• Dress: wears refined garments markedly more elaborate than a simple bolt.
• Manner: quick, impatient when interrupted, and adept at public rhetoric; the narrator characterizes him as a Procian rhetor who uses jests and sharply framed questions to steer the exchange.
• Speech and usage: punctilious about terminology and pronunciation (for example, stressing “interlocutor”) and teasing over old‑fashioned versus current usage (“savant” versus “saunt”).
• At table as a doyn he is exacting and quick to summon service, brusquely rejecting a dish he calls “Edharian gruel”; his messal manner mixes rich laughter with impatient, incisive turns.
• When engrossed in debate he will sometimes ignore his plate for long stretches, pausing only to wet a dry throat before resuming.
• Forms of address: juniors occasionally address him as “Pa Lodoghir,” a respectful usage heard among avout.

Aboard the Daban Urnud

• Presence in the delegation: Joins the Arbran delegation aboard the Daban Urnud. He is first seen near the Core en route to an Urnudan orb used for ceremonies; two companions traveling with him are identified as Thousanders.
• Exchange with Erasmas: In a brief, discreet dialog with Fraa Erasmas, he acknowledges knowing the truth behind reports of Fraa Jad’s fate and steers the talk toward consequences. He frames the practical way forward as closer coöperation between tendencies colloquially labeled “Rhetors” and “Incanters,” noting that recent joint efforts have yielded startling results to those aware of them.
• Ceremonial role and remarks: At an opening rite centered on an elliptical pool, Lodoghir and Gan Odru, speaking from opposite sides, each offer a few words of remembrance for those who have died on Arbre and aboard the ship.
• Peace proceedings: During the signing phase, a Thousander associated with Lodoghir represents one Arbran chair at the table. Lodoghir remains active as a Procian voice in the surrounding discussions.
• Counsel on what may be changed: In a private exchange as the ceremonies proceed, he counsels that certain desired reversals (bringing particular persons back, or erasing losses) would undo the conditions that make the peace possible; he uses the Procian phrasing of persons being “absent” or “present.”

Current status

With the Arbran delegation aboard the Daban Urnud during the opening phase of peace arrangements in an Urnudan orb. He is engaged in public and private exchanges, including brief counsel to Fraa Erasmas, and is observed coordinating closely with senior Thousanders.