Doyn

Definition and role

A doyn is the senior participant in a messal (small, formal dinner) whom a servitor attends. The pairing organizes both service and conversation: the servitor helps prepare and serve the meal, stands behind their doyn during the dinner, and attends to requests.

First appearance and context

The term is used in practice at the Convox hosted by the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh, where meals are held as messals in small rooms within dowments and chapter houses. Each messal groups a handful of diners and assigns servitors to specific seniors—"your doyn"—for that sitting. Some messals are themed or hosted by particular houses within a Dowment network (for example, a Plurality of Worlds messal at Avrachon’s house), but the doyn–servitor pairing works the same way.

Duties and etiquette (as observed)

• Service posture: The servitor stands behind the doyn when not moving plates or assisting in other ways.
• Table niceties: On request, the servitor provides comforts such as a warm, damp face‑cloth before dinner and folds the doyn’s napkin when the doyn rises.
• Preparation: Servitors report beforehand to help with cooking and setup in the attached kitchen, then remain attentive through the meal.

Signaling and placement

• Summon bell‑pull: In some messallans, a velvet pull beneath each doyn’s place is routed through the walls to a bellboard in the kitchen; a doyn can summon the servitor silently by pulling it.
• Seating politics: Assignments to particular messals and houses can be shifted by hierarchs and are sometimes treated as gestures of favor or rebuke within the Convox.
• Informal feedback: Servitors describe a local custom at certain houses of “voting with their feet” by withdrawing to the kitchen when a dialog is thought unworthy; doyns are expected to notice.

Authority and discipline (described in practice)

• Assigning chapters: Avout describe a doyn’s prerogative to discipline their servitor by assigning chapters in the Book.
• Oversight: Participants note that disproportionate or excessive sentences can be appealed to the Inquisition.

Who can be a doyn

Often the doyn is a senior Avout (fraa or suur). During the Convox at Tredegarh, Sæcular officials may also act as doyns for assigned servitors, reflecting mixed participation at some messals hosted in a Dowment.

Rotation and progression

Some doyns rotate among different messallans on successive evenings. It is stated that, as years pass, a former servitor may in turn become a doyn and be served by a servitor.

Observed instances at Tredegarh

• A senior Procian avout identifies himself as doyn to a junior and specifies servitor tasks (for example, warm face‑cloth and napkin‑folding), then directs both to a distant messal; the placement is perceived as a rebuke.
• A Sæcular attendee names his superior as his doyn, illustrating that Sæculars also use the pairing during mixed messals.