Geometers

"Geometers" is the working name used by participants at the Convox (emergency convocation) for the alien visitors; "Cousins" is an alternate label heard among other observers. The term carries no confirmed self-designation from the visitors and reflects human usage only. A newer usage in the same milieu is "PAQD" (Pangee‑Antarct‑Quator‑Diasp), sometimes shortened to "the pact" or "pact," favored by those who wish to emphasize a four‑way alliance across distinct matter types rather than an anthropomorphic label.

Context and Usage

• The names appear in discussions around the Convox and are used by avout (cloistered scholars) and Saeculars to reference the aliens without presuming motives or identity.
• The aliens are linked to a massive icosahedral vessel commonly called the Hedron, seen with a circular pusher plate oriented toward nearby craft. A leaked speely shows the Hedron keeping its pusher plate toward a human capsule, jamming communications, and manipulating the capsule via a robotic probe.
• In a recorded encounter, a single representative—identified as the Warden of Heaven—was sent from the human capsule toward the Hedron at what appears to be the visitors' request to "send one." Communications from the capsule were jammed during the transfer. Hours later, the Hedron opened a central port on the base plate and ejected the Warden's body back toward the capsule. Whether the Warden died before or after ejection is not established in current accounts.

Direct Contact at Orithena

• Descent and landing: Witnesses at Orithena describe a guided re-entry of a parachute‑retarded vehicle that transitioned to a rocket‑powered descent and landed on the Decagon plaza near the Analemma. The craft had a saucer‑like base, an upper cylindrical "bucket" with a domed top, deployable insect‑like legs, and several tall narrow hatches. No windows were seen. Observers repeatedly call it a "probe" and attribute it to the visitors.
• Hatch markings and access: Around a trapezoidal hatch, onlookers report Geometer‑writing stenciled in paint, with arrow‑like lines pointing to small fastener‑held panels concealing T‑handles. The same stencil appeared in multiple places. When the handles were operated, a pressure‑equalizing hiss was heard before the door fell inward; participants inferred these were opening instructions.
• Occupant: Inside sat a humanoid female‑appearing figure (close to Arbran morphology but recognizably different). She was warm to the touch when first reached but showed no pulse shortly thereafter. A physician on scene described many large circular puncture wounds across the back and concluded death had occurred within minutes. An experienced observer identified the pattern as consistent with a close/medium‑range shotgun‑type injury; this is presented as practical diagnosis, not lab confirmation.
• On‑scene sensory notes: Early discussion at the site concluded the landing plume smelled of steam (hydrogen/oxygen propellants), with no toxic odor detected. Later, inside the probe, witnesses noted a distinct unfamiliar odor associated with the body; the smell was novel to those present.
• Box of tubes: A fibrous case contained four clear tubes of red liquid, each labeled in Geometer script alongside a distinct circular planet ikon (not depicting Arbre). Onlookers inferred these to be blood or biological samples, but their purpose is not established.

Material Composition and Spectral Findings

• Unusual laser wavelength: During a widely observed illumination event, a laser spot from the visitors was recorded onto a photomnemonic tablet (precision recording plate). Its measured wavelength does not match any naturally occurring spectral line known to avout.
• Recovered materials: Earlier laboratory analyses of the Orithena probe’s hardware and remains described all sampled nuclei as engineered "newmatter." Recent tests now report that the four vials of fluid—assumed to be blood—are each made of nuclei incompatible with Arbre’s matter and also mutually incompatible with one another. Speakers are reframing the earlier "newmatter" reading as evidence of four distinct kinds of matter consistent with slightly different physical constants.
• Provisional group labels: In discussion, the four kinds are informally nicknamed Antarcts, "Pangees," "Diasps," and "Quators," based on planet iconography seen on the vessel and vials. These are human coinages, not confirmed self‑designations.
• Ship subassemblies by matter type: A spectroscopy group at Tredegarh reports that the Hedron incorporates subassemblies originating from all four of the PAQD cosmi, with the oldest elements traced to Pangee, very few to Diasp, and the bulk from Antarct and Quator; of those two, Quator material appears to be more recent. This is presented as in‑world reporting, not as final confirmation.

Subsequent Strike and Interpretations

• Kinetic event: Shortly after the landing, witnesses report a brilliant white object approaching from the west and striking the volcano above Orithena. Accounts describe it as a dense rod that penetrated the cap rock and vaporized, producing an earthquake, eruption, and a fast, incandescent ash‑cloud (pyroclastic flow) that destroyed structures at Orithena. Narrators attribute the strike to the visitors; this attribution is based on observation and in‑scene inference rather than direct claim by the visitors.
• Possible internal conflict: Some speakers infer that factions among the visitors may be in conflict—one attempting to share information (e.g., by sending the probe) and another acting to prevent it, up to and including lethal force. A later claim holds that the deceased probe occupant's blood aligns with "Antarct" matter while embedded projectiles came from "Pangee," which participants cite as supporting this hypothesis; this remains an in‑story assertion rather than lab confirmation presented to readers.
• Rhetorical indictment at Tredegarh: During a public dialog, a prominent Procian voice advanced a specific narrative that Saunt Orolo had signaled the visitors by means of an analemma, prompting their landfall at Orithena; he interpreted the subsequent kinetic strike as evidence of internal factional retaliation and cast Orolo’s later actions as an acceptance of responsibility. This was presented as argument, not as established fact, and drew mixed reactions in the nave.
• Aftermath and information control: Military units from outside the walls arrived, collared and mustered witnesses, and secured the site. A live feed over the Reticulum (planetary network) was reportedly jammed locally by those forces; this concerns human response and does not clarify the visitors' intentions.

Related Observations and Inferences

• Propulsion and posture: Observers note the Hedron's pusher plate and shuttered central port; some infer a nuclear‑pulse style propulsion. Detailed close‑ups show a heavy, egg‑like module mounted to a shock‑absorbing strut by oversized brackets and surrounded by a lattice of thrusters, spherical tanks, and antennae; some readers dub it a very large thermonuclear device that could be repositioned to an orbit opposite the mother ship. This remains analysis by Convox participants and does not establish the visitors' intent.
• Attitude control and internal layout: Based on a recent forced reorientation, some teams now propose that the Hedron contains paired momentum‑wheel systems along three axes, allowing it to store and exchange angular momentum without firing thrusters.
• Fluids indication: A subsequent analysis of the same maneuver notes small oscillations during spin‑up consistent with a large internal volume of standing water that "sloshes" when the ship is torqued suddenly.
• Orbital countermeasure event: A silent reconnaissance satellite was deliberately maneuvered to pass near the Hedron so that, if the vessel reoriented to bring its pusher plate—presumed to serve as a shield—between itself and the approach, ground‑based telescopes could view structures normally hidden from Arbre. At the appointed time, witnesses on the ground saw a brief flash at the Hedron’s position and later stated the satellite had been "nailed" with a directed‑energy shot; one onlooker specified an X‑ray laser. The anticipated forced reorientation was not confirmed in those accounts.
• High‑resolution imaging and authenticity: Subsequent ground‑based observations yielded phototypes that show additional structural detail, and the Adrakhonic diagram is plainly visible on the vessel. A Procian hypothesis that the image seen earlier had been forged into a phototype was publicly withdrawn.

Interior architecture and shipboard safety (reported)

• A Laterran account later assembled into a working model by the Antiswarm describes the main ship—named Daban Urnud—as an "Orbstack": sixteen steel spheres roughly a mile across, each half‑filled with water and stacked in four layers with a quarter‑turn twist. A central, despun "chimney" carries structure, power, and passageways. When the craft spins, water is flung outward, creating a curved “floor” with pseudogravity; inhabitants live on houseboats tethered across the water’s surface, with rooftop farms.
• The Orbstack is wrapped in an icosahedral rubble shield hung on shock pistons. Exterior nodes at the vertices support instruments and vehicles; nine are pressurized modules (some used by the Command in weightlessness), one is an optical observatory, and some have through‑tunnels for small craft. Inside, pressurized corridors link the orbs, and trunk lines of optical fibers pipe sunlight from the exterior down to the inhabited areas.
• Reported safety culture: the visitors are said to have a particular dread of fire in zero‑gravity parts of the ship. Lockers stocked with respirators, fire‑suits, and extinguishers are encountered frequently along corridors.
• Additional internal features (observed): large ball‑valves control passage between the despun Core and the orbs; smaller one‑person airlocks are mounted nearby for routine access. Long tubular "Tendons" connect vertex nodes to the Core’s forward bearing chamber, where streams of firefighters and soldiers can converge during emergencies. A moving conveyor‑ladder runs the length of the Core to speed travel along it. At a vertex housing the optical observatory, the telescope’s spherical dome functions as a giant airlock: technicians can close and pressurize the dome for maintenance; the instruments themselves are commonly operated remotely over the visitors’ Reticulum‑equivalent. A prominent emergency‑pressurization control exists but is said to trigger ship‑wide alarms if used.

Orbstack organization (reported)

• At a Core Nexus, four large orifices lead to the heads of the Orb stacks (Orbs 1, 5, 9, and 13). Lower‑numbered Orbs in each stack are used by higher‑ranking members of their respective communities.
• Reported assignment by stack: Orbs One through Four are for Urnud; Five through Eight for Tro; Nine through Twelve for Laterre (Antarct); the remainder for Fthos. Orb 5 is marked for high‑ranking Troäns.
• Surrounding the forward Nexus, a ring of offices and corridors—the Command Torus—shows physical partitions consistent with a Pedestal–Fulcrum division.

Orbital surveillance, jamming, and interdiction

• Navigation jamming: Operators working in low orbit report sustained jamming against navigation satellites attributed in-context to the visitors, forcing manual terminal guidance using visual fixes and star checks.
• Line‑of‑sight windows: The visitors’ main vessel—named Daban Urnud by a Laterran informant—moves on an elliptical track around Arbre between roughly fourteen and twenty‑five thousand miles in altitude, taking on the order of fifteen hours per revolution. Low‑orbiting objects (~a hundred miles up) lap it frequently, creating predictable intervals when Arbre blocks mutual view. Coordinators have timed certain actions to those occlusion windows.
• Detection modalities: When long‑wavelength surveillance is confounded by chaff, observers expect the visitors to rely on optical phototypes coupled to analysis that flags objects that "don’t look right." Teams note that decoy orbits behave differently from guided payloads and that once the visitors build a census of orbiting objects, any thruster‑driven changes may draw scrutiny. Accounts also note that short‑range radars for illuminating nearby objects exist but are not typically kept powered unless visitors are expected, making purely optical spotting important at close range.
• Radar and countermeasures: Observers characterize the visitors’ search radar as using microwave frequencies. Countermeasures include a reflective “Cold Black Mirror” engineered to bounce such radar returns away from the line of sight while hiding heat sources beneath it and pointing radiators toward Arbre.
• Kinetic strikes from orbit: From low orbit, witnesses later observed multiple high‑velocity rod strikes against major launch facilities near the equator, each followed by a rising hemispherical glow. These attacks are ascribed in‑story to the Pedestal.

Structural Changes and Missing Apparatus (claims)

• A team studying a triangulated network of struts projecting from the despun section reports that the arrangement appears designed to mount a significant device and that the device itself is now absent. One commentator interprets the missing module as an inter‑cosmic transport drive relocated farther out in the system. This is characterization from in‑story voices; no direct confirmation is available.

Cognitive universals line of inquiry

• One investigator frames the approach via the Sconic Discipline (epistemic discipline), arguing that any conscious mind must integrate sensory givens into spatiotemporal models and run counterfactuals; from this, he supposes the visitors would naturally converge on geometry and proof. This is presented as method and inference, not confirmed fact.

Plurality‑of‑worlds models

• A set of speakers frame the differing matter as evidence that Arbre and the visitors’ origins trace separate trajectories ("worldtracks") in Hemn space that were once very close; this remains theorical framing to make sense of laboratory results.

Resource sourcing viewpoint

• A Sæcular official argues the visitors can obtain water from comets and materials from asteroids and may not be capable of ordinary interstellar voyages; this is offered as a political framing for patience rather than as a tested claim.

Infiltration and first disclosures at Tredegarh

• Revealed identity: During a protected session at Tredegarh, a doyn who had been passing as a Matarrhite removed his bolt and body transmitter once the room was shielded by a grounded mesh and identified himself as Jules Verne Durand of Laterre (the world known locally as "Antarct"). His minder—called Orhan—was from Urnud ("Pangee").
• Seizure and insertion (his account): He stated that an Urnud/Tro team had seized a Matarrhite concent and used the opportunity to infiltrate the Convox in borrowed dress; the true Matarrhites were described as held, unharmed, but incommunicado.
• Mission and fears (his account): He described himself as a junior linguist assigned to Orth and tasked by a military intelligence command to determine whether stories of Incanters (and Rhetors) had substance. According to him, the Urnud/Tro axis—calling itself the "Pedestal"—fears such powers and weighs a pre‑emptive strike.
• Internal alignments (his account): He divided the PAQD into four origin worlds—Urnud (Pangee), Tro (Diasp), Laterre (Antarct), and Fthos (Quator)—with Urnud and Tro allied, Fthos opposed to them, and Laterre split in its loyalties.
• Travel and provenance (his account): He summarized a history in which a ship called Daban Urnud, using a geometrodynamic route, crossed into other Narratives rather than backwards in time, yielding successive Advents that eventually brought the visitors here. This was offered as explanation, not as laboratory result.
• Dietary incompatibility: He requested Laterran food, noting that Arbran enzymes could not act on his victuals (and conversely), consistent with earlier reports that their matter is incompatible with ours.
• Weapons note (his reaction): He acknowledged the existence of destructive devices developed in Urnud’s wars and expressed horror at mention of a "World Burner." No claim was made as to current intent.

Activity around the World Burner (observed)

• Work crews: Observers describe large numbers of space‑suited visitors working across the World Burner’s lattice and its supporting vertex complex, which was brightly lit and appeared to be in a heightened state of preparation.
• Ship response to an explosion: A sequence of flares and a silent shudder in the icosahedral frame is described, followed by lockdown behavior and surging traffic through the forward bearing chamber as firefighters and soldiers moved between Tendons and the Core. One onlooker conjectured that propellant tanks had been blown.
• Boarding action: During the same period, a Ringing Vale detachment of Valers is reported to have executed a covert boarding of the World Burner structure.
• Subsequent report: An Arbran account later narrates an activation referred to as Everything Killers during a confrontation deeper within the ship. The description emphasizes lethal radiation focused on living beings rather than destruction of structures. Attribution and details are given there.

Related Terms

• "Cousins" — an alternate human nickname for the same visitors.
• "Hedron" — an in‑world nickname for the visitors' icosahedral craft (not their confirmed name for it).
• "PAQD" / "the pact" — a naming convention highlighting the four inferred cosmi: Pangee, Antarct, Quator, Diasp.

Negotiations and Arbran delegation (reported)

• Following the loss of the World Burner and the seizure of a vertex by a Ringing Vale detachment, shipboard leaders initiated talks involving the Pedestal, the Fulcrum, and Arbre’s two magisteria (the Sæcular Power and the mathic Antiswarm).
• A mixed Arbran delegation numbering on the order of four dozen was collected from the surface and conveyed to Daban Urnud to participate in those discussions. The party included physicians and supplies appropriate to Arbran biology.

Suit design and atmosphere compatibility (reported)

• Suit construction noted in on‑scene accounts contrasts soft, flexible suits used by the visitors with rigid suits worn by Valers from the Ringing Vale.
• The ship’s breathing mixture differs slightly from Arbre air; unacclimatized Arbrans experience altitude‑like symptoms (shortness of breath, wooziness, impaired concentration). Supplemental oxygen eases the effects, and acclimatization over a week or two is reported by those aboard. Some residents seldom leave their home Orb because of the mix, while others who work in common areas are accustomed to it.
• In at least one emergency, medics treated an Arbran with oxygenation and controlled hypothermia in a hyperbaric setting as a precaution against neurological injury while stabilization proceeded.

Daily life and movement aboard (observed)

• Within each stack, adjacent Orbs sit close enough that portals can be left open; cable‑chair systems link the portals to houseboats below, and ring‑ladders and catwalks provide access when portals are at the zenith.
• Surfaces are intensively cultivated: rooftop terraces double as gardens, glass‑topped tables shelter rows of vegetables beneath, and bowers of vines arch overhead. Fiber‑optic “sunlight” is routed across the ceiling to create diurnal cycles, while hard‑routed fiber‑pipes feed indoor growing spaces so plants can grow around the clock. Observers note that the setup can sustain dense populations from onboard production alone.
• Habitations form mats of houseboats lashed together with flexible gangways. Public rights‑of‑way thread across roofs and terraces; social convention favors ignoring passersby. Heavy goods move on deep‑draught gondolas through narrow leads of open water that tunnel under bowers.
• Movement toward the Core includes blindfolds to ease Coriolis effects during ladder ascents. Escorts pace climbers to prevent motion sickness as weight diminishes nearer the axis.
• Interior security favors non‑ballistic weapons (batons, aerosols, electrical devices) to reduce hazard in pressurized environments.

Orb Four meeting complex and ceremonies (observed)

• The Urnudan meeting center is arranged around an elliptical pool divided into four equal quadrants and enclosed by four glass‑walled pavilions. In at least one case, visitors without nose‑tubes used sealed “aquarium” pavilions and checked breathing packs at the door. Translator booths overlook the pool, with earbuds distributed for Orth and Fluccish.
• Ceremonial handling of remains was negotiated in advance: Arbran representatives insisted on respectful transfer rather than dissection, and a mixed honor guard conveyed coffins across the water for formal return before talks.
• Opening rites and document signing were conducted on a barge in the center of the pool by designated leaders from the visitors’ factions and Arbre’s magisteria, marking the commencement of structured negotiations at Orb Four.

Ceremonial presence at Saunt Orolo (observed)

• At the cornerstone‑laying for the island seat to be named for Fraa Orolo during the Second Reconstitution, Geometers from all four races (Urnud, Tro, Laterre, and Fthos) were present among the witnesses; many wore nose tubes while on the surface.
• The cornerstone was a carved cube cut from a rod dropped from orbit during the earlier strike; it was set at noon and inscribed "YEAR 0 OF THE SECOND RECONSTITUTION."