Great Clocks

First Appearance and Context

The term "Great Clocks" is invoked in a dictionary note explaining the role of the Ita in later New Orth: they are a proscribed artisanal caste tolerated in thirty‑seven concents that were built around the Great Clocks, because those clocks include subsystems that employ syntactic devices. In the same period, inside the Mynster at sunrise on an opening day, the mechanism was seen to lower auxiliary weights to actuate the Year Gate and the Decade Gate. Just inside the Day Gate stands the Great Orrery, one of the add‑ons driven by the same works.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Timekeeping hub: In the concents built around them, the Great Clocks govern the rhythm of life by driving the primary dials and coordinating add‑ons such as gates, orreries, and bells.
• Ita stewardship: The Ita operate and maintain the syntactic‑device subsystems associated with these clocks while observing strict segregation from the avout. This arrangement reflects post‑Second Sack reforms while accommodating necessary mechanisms in these places.
• Gate actuation: Beyond the daily Day Gate cycle, long‑interval gates are opened by auxiliary weights that descend on their schedules (e.g., annual and decennial openings).

Relationships

• Housed within the Mynster at each affected concent, the works of the Great Clock are the parent mechanism that powers the public faces summarized on Clock and add‑ons like the Great Orrery.
• The Ita are institutionally responsible for the subsystems employing syntactic devices; avout interact with the visible parts (such as winding) but remain segregated from the Ita’s spaces.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Architecture and couplings: The main works are distributed through the Mynster’s central tower, with mechanical linkages that also drive add‑ons. In observed operation, auxiliary polyhedral weights (a cube and an octahedron) ride rails and descend to power the Year and Decade gates.
• Subsystems: It is stated that these particular clocks include subsystems using syntactic devices; tending them falls to the Ita. Among residents, it is also rumored that the device below the floor can make subtle rate corrections that keep dials and add‑ons in agreement.
• Add‑ons: The Great Orrery inside the Day Gate is driven by the same works that operate the gates and dials.

Current Status/Location

• General: Thirty‑seven concents are said to have been built around the Great Clocks; in those places the arrangement with the Ita persists under segregation.
• Distribution among major concents: In current talk, the world’s major concents—practically, those that house hundreds or thousands of avout and that have these clocks—are discussed together; among them the northernmost lies near 51.3° north latitude at the Concent of Saunt Edhar.
• Local example: At Saunt Edhar’s Mynster, the mechanism was witnessed opening time‑gated portals at sunrise on an opening day, with the octahedron and cube weights descending in view of the gathered community; the Day Gate admits visitors past the Great Orrery when permitted.