Anathem

GLOSSARY

A.R.: Year of the Reconstitution. Arbre’s dating system defines Year 0 as the year in which the Reconstitution took place; any year prior to that is assigned a negative number, any year that is expressed as a positive number or, equivalently, followed by A.R., happened afterwards.

Adrakhonic Theorem: An ancient theorem from plane geometry, attributed to Adrakhones, the founder of the Temple of Orithena, stating that, in a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Equivalent to the Pythagorean Theorem on Earth.

Allswell: A naturally occurring chemical that, when present in sufficient concentrations in the brain, engenders the feeling that everything is basically fine. Its level may be artificially adjusted by, e.g., consuming blithe.

Analemma: A shape like a slender, elongated figure eight, observed by astronomers who track the way the sun’s apparent movement across the sky varies from day to day over the course of a year.

Anathem: (1) In Proto-Orth, a poetic or musical invocation of Our Mother Hylaea, used in the aut of Provener, or (2) an aut by which an incorrigible fraa or suur is ejected from the mathic world.

Apert: The aut in which a math opens its gates for a period of ten days, during which time the avout are free to come and go extramuros, and S?culars are free to come in, sightsee, and talk to the avout. Depending on the math, Apert is celebrated every one, ten, hundred, or thousand years.

Arbortect: One who genetically engineers new species of trees.

Arbre: The name of the planet on which Anathem is set.

Ark: Equivalent to a church, temple, synaogue, etc., on Earth.

Atlanian: See Liaison, Atlanian.

Aut: A rite observed in the mathic world. Some of the more important and commonly celebrated auts are Provener, Eliger, Regred, and Requiem. Rarely celebrated rites include Anathem, Voco, and Inbrase.

Avout: A person sworn to the Cartasian Discipline and therefore dwelling in the mathic, as opposed to Sæcular, world.

Baritoe, Saunt: (1) A noblewoman of the mid-Praxic Age, the hostess and the leader of the Sconics. (2) A concent of the same name, one of the Big Three.

Baz: Ancient city-state that later created an empire encompassing the known world.

Bazian Orthodox: The state religion of the Bazian Empire, which survived the Fall of Baz, erected, during the succeeding age, a mathic system parallel to and independent of that inaugurated by Cartas, and endured as one of Arbre’s largest faiths.

Big Three: The Concents of Saunt Muncoster, Saunt Tredegarh, and Saunt Baritoe, all relatively old, wealthy, distinguished, and close together.

Blithe: A weed that was genetically altered to produce the brain chemical known as Allswell. Forbidden to the avout.

Bly, Saunt: A theor of the Concent of Saunt Edhar who was Thrown Back and lived out the remainder of his days as a Feral on a butte, later known as Bly’s Butte. According to legend, he was worshipped as a god by the local slines, who eventually killed him and ate his liver.

Book, The: A tome filled with subtly incoherent material, which misbehaving avout are forced to study as a form of penance. Divided into chapters, the difficulty of which grows exponentially.

Bulshytt: Speech (typically but not necessarily commercial or political) that employs euphemism, convenient vagueness, numbing repetition, and other such rhetorical subterfuges to create the impression that something has been said.

Calca: An explanation, definition, or lesson that is instrumental in developing some larger theme, but that has been moved aside from the main body of the dialog and encapsulated in a footnote or appendix.

Cartabla: A portable location-finding and map-display gadget, like a GPS unit on Earth.

Cartas, Saunt: An educated Bazian noblewoman who, after the Fall of Baz, founded the first math and created the Discipline that was followed all throughout the Old Mathic Age and, with certain renovations, in the mathic world following the Reconstitution.

Cartasian Discipline: The set of rules prescribed by Saunt Cartas, who is credited with having brought the mathic world into being following the Fall of Baz. An avout is a person who has taken an oath to observe the Discipline.

Causal Domain: A collection of things mutually linked in a web of cause-and-effect relationships.

Centenarian: An avout sworn not to emerge from the math or to have contact with the outside world until the next Centennial Apert. Informally, “Hundreder.”

Chapter: Local organizational unit of an Order of avout. Orders generally span the entire mathic world, and may have local Chapters in any number of different maths and concents. Commonly, as for example at Edhar, a math will comprise two or more distinct Chapters, belonging to different Orders.

Chronicle: Log of all events, great and small, taking place within a math or concent. Assiduously maintained and archived by hierarchs.

Chronochasm: In Mathic architecture, the space in the interior of a clock tower housing the workings of the clock and related equipment such as dials, bells, etc.

Cnoon: According to Protan metatheorics, the pure, eternal, changeless entities, such as geometric shapes, theorems, numbers, etc., that belong to another plane of existence (the Hylaean Theoric World) and that are somehow perceived or discovered (as opposed to fabricated) by working theors.

Cnous: Ancient historical figure famous for having a vision in which he claimed to see into another, higher world. The vision was interpreted in two different and incompatible ways by his daughters Hylaea and Deat.

Collect: Used as a verb, to accept a newcomer into a math from extramuros during Apert. Typically the newcomer is within a few years of his or her tenth birthday. Used as a noun to denote such a newcomer.

Concent: A relatively large community of avout in which two or more maths exist side by side. In general, Centenarian and Millenarian orders are only to be found in concents, as practical considerations make it difficult for them to exist as freestanding maths.

Convox: A large convocation of avout from maths and concents all over the world. Normally celebrated only at Millennial Apert or following a sack, but also convened in highly exceptional circumstances at the request of the Sæcular Power.

Cosmi: Plural of cosmos. A coinage necessary for discoursing of polycosmic theorics.

Cosmographer: In Earth terms, an astronomer/astrophysicist/ cosmologist.

Counter-Bazian: Religion rooted in the same scriptures, and honoring the same prophets, as Bazian Orthodoxy, but explicitly rejecting the authority, and certain teachings, of the Bazian Orthodox faith.

DAG: See Directed Acyclic Graph.

Datonomy: An approach to philosophy rooted in the work of the Sconics and based on rigorous study of data, or, literally, givens, meaning what is given to our minds by our sensory apparatus.

Deat: One of the two daughers of Cnous, the other being Hylaea. She interpreted her father’s vision as meaning that he had glimpsed a heavenly spiritual kingdom populated by angelic beings and ruled by a supreme creator.

Decenarian: An avout sworn not to emerge from the math or to have contact with the outside world until the next Decennial Apert. Informally, “Tenner.”

Deolater: One who favors Deat’s interpretation of her father Cnous’s vision and therefore believes in a Heaven with a God in it. Compare Physiologer.

Dialog, Peregrin: A Dialog in which two participants of roughly equal knowledge and intelligence develop an idea by talking to each other, typically while out walking around.

Dialog, Periklynian: A competitive Dialog in which each participant seeks to destroy the other’s position (see Plane).

Dialog, Suvinian: A Dialog in which a mentor instructs a fid, usually by asking the fid questions, as opposed to speaking discursively.

Dialog: A discourse, usually in formal style, between theors. “To be in Dialog” is to participate in such a discussion extemporaneously. The term may also apply to a written record of a historical Dialog; such documents are the cornerstone of the mathic literary tradition and are studied, re-enacted, and memorized by fids. In the classic format, a Dialog involves two principals and some number of onlookers who participate sporadically. Another common format is the Triangular, featuring a savant, an ordinary person who seeks knowledge, and an imbecile. There are countless other classifications, including the suvinian, the Periklynian, and the peregrin.

Diax’s Rake: A pithy phrase, uttered by Diax on the steps of the Temple of Orithena when he was driving out the fortune-tellers with a gardener’s rake. Its general import is that one should never believe a thing only because one wishes that it were true. After this event, most Physiologers accepted the Rake and, in Diax’s terminology, thus became Theors. The remainder became known as Enthusiasts.

Diax: An early physiologer at the Temple of Orithena, credited with driving out the Enthusiasts, founding theorics, and placing it on a solid, rigorous intellectual footing.

Directed Acyclic Graph: An arrangement of nodes connected by one-way links (think boxes connected by arrows) so arranged that it is not possible to follow the links around in a circle.

Discipline: See Cartasian Discipline.

Dowment: In its most general usage, any wealth accumulated and held by a Lineage in the mathic world. Almost always used to refer to a building and its contents.

Doyn: At Concents that observe the mealtime tradition of the Messal, a senior avout who has the privilege of sitting at the table and being waited on by a servitor.

Drummon: A large wheeled vehicle used extramuros to transport heavy freight on roads.

Ecba: A volcanic island in the Sea of Seas, home of the Temple of Orithena until the catastrophic eruption of-2621.

Edhar: A Saunt belonging to the Evenedrician order who in 297 established a new order and later founded a concent, where he lived until he died; both the order and the concent ended up being named after him. The full name of the latter is “The Concent of Saunt Edhar” but in common usage this is often shortened to “Saunt Edhar” or simply “Edhar.”

Eleven: The list of plants forbidden intramuros, typically because of their undesirable pharmacological properties. The Discipline states that any specimen noticed growing in the math is to be uprooted and burned without delay, and that the event is to be noted in the Chronicle.

Eliger: The aut by which a fid chooses, and is chosen by, a specific chapter in his or her math, and thereby ceases to be a fid. Typically celebrated within a few years of the age of twenty.

Enthusiast: Disparaging term for those early Physiologers at Orithena who were driven out by Diax because of their unwillingness or inability to think rigorously.

Erasmas: A fraa at Saunt Baritoe’s in the Fourteenth Century A.R. who, along with Uthentine, founded the branch of metatheorics called Complex Protism. Also, his namesake, a fraa at Saunt Edhar’s in the Thirty-seventh Century who narrates Anathem.

Ethras: A relatively prosperous and powerful city-state in the ancient world that, during its Golden Age (circa-2600 to-2300) was home to many theors, including Thelenes and Protas. The site of many important Dialogs studied, re-enacted, and memorized by fids.

Etrevanean: See Liaison, Etrevanean.

Evenedric: A protege of Halikaarn, credited with carrying Halikaarn’s work forward into the time of the Reconstitution and helping to found the Semantic Faculties.

Evenedricians: An early offshoot of the Halikaarnians.

Everything Killer: A weapons system of unusual praxic sophistication, thought to have been used to devastating effect in the Terrible Events. The belief is widely held, but unproved, that the complicity of theors in the development of this praxis led to universal agreement that they should henceforth be segregated from non-theorical society, a policy that when effected became synonymous with the Reconstitution.

Evoke: To call out an avout in the aut of Voco.

Extra: Slightly disparaging term used by avout to refer to Sæcular people.

Extramuros: The world outside the walls of the math; the Sæcular world.

Faanians: An early offshoot of the Procians.

Fendant: See Warden Fendant.

Feral: A literate and theorically minded person who dwells in the S?culum, cut off from contact with the mathic world. Typically an ex-avout who has renounced his or her vows or been Thrown Back, though the term is also technically applicable to autodidacts who have never been avout.

Fetch: A wheeled vehicle used extramuros, typically by artisans, to transport small amounts of freight, tools, etc. Typically larger and less comfortable than a mobe.

Fid: A young avout; an avout who has not yet joined an Order. See Eliger.

Fluccish: The dominant global language of the Sæcular world. Derived from an ancient “barbarian” (i.e., non-Orth) language, its vocabulary overlaps with that of Orth when dealing with abstractions, technical, medical, or legal terms. When extramuros culture is largely illiterate or aliterate (which is most of the time), it is written in short-lived, ad hoc writing systems such as Kinagrams or Logotype, but it can also be transcribed using the same alphabet as is employed for Orth.

Fraa: A male avout.

Gardan’s Steelyard: (1) A rule of thumb stating that when one is comparing two hypotheses, preference should be given to the one that is simpler. Also referred to as Saunt Gardan’s Steelyard or simply the Steelyard.

Gheeth: An informal term, verging on an ethnic slur, for a particular ethnic group in the Sæcular world.

Graduation: A procedure by which an avout belonging to a Unarian, Decenarian, or Centenarian math may move up to (respectively) the adjoining Decenarian, Centenarian, or Millenarian math, traditionally by passing through a labyrinth that bridges the two maths in question.

Grandfraa: An informal term of respect by which an avout might address a very senior fraa, especially, but not necessarily, one who has celebrated the aut of Regred.

Grandsuur: An informal term of respect by which an avout might address a very senior suur, especially, but not necessarily, one who has celebrated the aut of Regred.

HTW: See Hylaean Theoric World.

Halikaarn: A Saunt from the last decades of the Praxic Age who clashed with his contemporary, Proc. Sometimes called Saunt Halikaarn the Great. Broadly speaking, Halikaarn is seen as the standard-bearer of the school of theorics promulgated thousands of years earlier by Protas and Thelenes and carried forward after his death by his disciple Evenedric and the Semantic Faculties.

Halikaarnian: Of, or relating to, Saunt Halikaarn or any of the Orders that claim descent from the Semantic Faculties. Frequently seen as natural opponents of Procians and Faanians.

Harbinger: One of a series of three calamities that engulfed most of Arbre during the last decades of the Praxic Age and later came to be seen as precursors or warnings of the Terrible Events. The precise nature of the Harbingers is difficult to sort out because of destruction of records (many of which were stored on syntactic devices that later ceased functioning) but it is generally agreed that the First Harbinger was a worldwide outbreak of violent revolutions, the Second was a world war, and the Third was a genocide.

Hemn space: What is called configuration, state, or phase space on Earth.

Hierarch: One of a specialized caste of avout whose responsibilities include the administration of maths and concents, interaction with the Sæcular world and with hierarchs in other maths, defense of the math from Sæcular molestation, policing, and maintenance of the Discipline.

Hundred, to go: To lose one’s mind, to become mentally unsound, to stray iredeemably from the path of theorics.

Hundreder: Informal term for a Centenarian (see).

Hylaea: One of the two daughters of Cnous, the other being Deat. She interpreted her father’s vision as meaning that he had glimpsed a higher and more perfect world (the Hylaean Theoric World or HTW) populated by pure geometric forms, crudely copied by geometers in this world.

Hylaean Theoric World: The name used by most adherents of Protism to denote the higher plane of existence populated by perfect geometric forms, theorems, and other pure ideas (cnoons)

Hypotrochian Transquaestiation: Only one of a very large number of rhetorical tactics drilled into fids, particularly those under the tutelage of Procians. It means to change the subject in such a way as to assert, implicitly, that a controversial point has already been settled one way or the other.

Iconography: An oversimplified and, in most cases, wildly inaccurate schema used by S?culars to make sense of what little they know of the mathic world, often taking the form of a conspiracy theory or an allusion to characters and situations from popular entertainments.

Icosahedron: A roughly spherical geometric figure with twenty faces, each of which is an equilateral triangle.

Inbrase: A rarely celebrated aut in which Peregrins are welcomed back into the mathic world following a journey through the S?culum.

Incanter: A legendary figure, associated in folklore with Halikaarnian orders, said to be able to alter physical reality by the incantation of certain coded words or phrases.

Inquisition: Global body charged with maintaining uniform standards of the Discipline across all maths and concents, typically acting through the Wardens Regulant.

Inviolate: One of the three Millenarian maths that was never breached during the seven decades of the Third Sack. The Three Inviolates were at the Concents of Saunt Edhar, Saunt Rambalf, and Saunt Tredegarh.

Ita: A caste dwelling in the mathic world but segregated from the avout, responsible for all functions having to do with syntactic devices and the Reticulum.

Jeejah: Ubiquitous handheld electronic device used by S?culars, combining functions of mobile telephone, camera, network browser, etc. Forbidden in the mathic world.

Jumpweed: A ubiquitous weed that when chewed acts as a stimulant. Psychoactive in larger doses. One of the Eleven.

Kedev: A devotee of the Kelx or Triangle faith.

Kefedokhles: A smug, pedantic interlocutor.

Kelx: (1) A religious faith created during the Sixteenth or Seventeenth Century A.R. The name is a contraction of the Orth Ganakelux meaning “Triangle place,” so called because of the symbolic importance of triangles in the faith’s iconography. (2) An ark of the Kelx faith.

Kinagrams: A simple set of ideograms used by S?culars in place of a written language per se.

Laboratorium: At a Convox, a daily work session, typically in the morning, in which the attendees gather in groups to which they have been assigned by the hierarchs and pursue specific projects.

Lesper’s Coordinates: Also called Saunt Lesper’s Coordinates. Equivalent to Cartesian coordinates on Earth.

Liaison, Atlanian: An unusual type of liaison between a Tenner and a partner who dwells extramuros, therefore only capable of being consummated every ten years.

Liaison, Etrevanean: A liaison roughly equivalent to going steady in the Sæcular world.

Liaison, Perelithian: A liaison equivalent to marriage in the Sæcular world.

Liaison, Tivian: The most casual and ephemeral type of liaison.

Liaison: A relationship, typically sexual or at least romantic, in the mathic world.

Lineage, Old: According to some traditions, an unbroken chain of mentors and fids beginning with Metekoranes and extending all the way to the era in which Anathem is set, and as such, constituting a community of theors more ancient than, and separate from, the mathic tradition founded by Saunt Cartas.

Lineage: In general, a chronological sequence of avout who, prior to the Third Sack reforms, acquired and held property exceeding the bolt, chord, and sphere, each conferring the property upon a chosen heir at the moment of death. In this sense, frequently connected with Dowments. Also, sometimes used as a shorthand term for the Old Lineage; see Lineage, Old.

Loctor: Informal contraction of Interlocutor, meaning one’s partner in a Dialog.

Logotype: A simple writing system used by S?culars but, during the time in which Anathem is set, being rendered obsolete by Kinagrams.

Lorite: A member of an Order founded by Saunt Lora, who believed that all of the ideas that the human mind was capable of coming up with had already been come up with. Lorites are, therefore, historians of thought who assist other avout in their work by making them aware of others who have thought similar things in the past, and thereby preventing them from re-inventing the wheel.

Lucub: At a Convox, an informal work group that, on the members’ own initiative, meets in the evening to “burn the midnight oil” on some topic of shared interest.

Ma: An informal term of respect by which a fid might address a more senior suur.

Magister: Title bestowed on the clergy of the Kelx faith.

Matarrhite: One of an Order founded at the Centenarian math of the Concent of Saunt Beedle’s between the Second and Third Centennial Aperts. One of the few explicitly religious Orders of avout. Reclusive even by the standards of the mathic world. During the Third Sack they fled to an island in the southern polar regions, where they developed various distinctive cultural traits, including bolts that covered their entire bodies and an austere cuisine based on the limited range of edible things in their environment.

Math: A relatively small community of avout (typically fewer than a hundred, sometimes as small as one). In general, all members of a given math celebrate Apert on the same schedule, i.e., all of them are either Unarians, Decenarians, Centenarians, or Millenarians. Compare Concent.

Messal: At certain (typically larger and older) concents, the traditional way of taking the evening meal, in which no more than seven senior avout (doyns) are waited on by an equal number of junior avout (servitors).

Metatheorics: Equivalent to metaphysics on Earth. The part of human thought that addresses questions so fundamental that they must be settled before one can even begin to do productive work in theorics.

Metekoranes: A theor of ancient times who was buried under volcanic ash in the eruption that destroyed Orithena. According to some traditions, the founder (probably unwittingly) of the Old Lineage. See Lineage, Old.

Millenarian: An avout sworn not to emerge from the math or to have contact with the outside world until the next Millennial Apert. Informally, “Thousander.”

Mobe: A wheeled passenger vehicle used extramuros.

Muncoster, Saunt: (1) A theor of the late Praxic Age, responsible for crucial advances in what is called, on Earth, general relativity. (2) One of the Big Three concents.

Mynster: At many concents, the large centrally located building that houses the clock and that serves as the venue for auts and other gatherings of the entire population.

Mystagogue: One who is fond of mysterious thinking and obfuscatory cant. In the Old Mathic Age, an all too powerful faction during the centuries leading to the Rebirth. Since then, a pejorative term.

Newmatter: A form of matter whose atomic nuclei were artificially synthesized and which therefore has physical properties not found in naturally occurring elements or their compounds.

One Hundred and Sixty-four: A list of plants allowed to be cultivated within maths by the version of the Discipline current at the time in which Anathem is set. Expanded from shorter lists found in earlier versions of the Discipline dating all the way back to Saunt Cartas. The plants on the list are deemed adequate to supply all nutritional requirements of the avout as well as filling other needs including medicinal, shade, erosion control, etc. Compare Eleven.

One-off: Informal term for a Unarian (see).

Orithena: A temple founded in ancient times by Adrakhones on the Isle of Ecba, later populated by physiologers who migrated there from all over the ancient world. Destroyed by a volcanic eruption in-2621, excavated, beginning in 3000, by avout who founded a new math around the perimeter of the dig.

Orth: The classical language used by all classes of people in the Bazian Empire and, during the Old Mathic Age, used intramuros in both Cartasian maths and Bazian Orthodox monasteries. The language of science and learned discourse in the Praxic Age. In a revived and modernized form, the language used at almost all times by the avout. May also denote the alphabet used to write it.

Pa: An informal term of respect by which a fid might address a more senior fraa.

Panjandrum: Fraa Orolo’s pejorative term for a high-ranking official of the Sæcular Power.

Penance: Tedious or unpleasant chore assigned as punishment by the Warden Regulant to avout who have violated the Discipline.

Peregrin: (1) In ancient usage, the epoch beginning with the destruction of the Temple of Orithena in-2621 and ending several decades later with the flourishing of the Golden Age of Ethras. (2) A theor who survived Orithena and wandered about the ancient world, sometimes alone and sometimes in the company of other such. (3) A Dialog supposedly dating to this epoch. Many were later written down and incorporated into the literature of the mathic world. (4) In modern usage, an avout who, under certain exceptional circumstances, leaves the confines of the math and travels through the Sæcular world while trying to observe the spirit, if not the letter, of the Discipline.

Perelithian Liaison: See Liaison, Perelithian.

Periklyne: An open area in the ancient city-state of Ethras, home to the market, where Golden Age theors were wont to congregate and engage one another in Dialog.

Physiologer: In the span of time between Cnous and Diax, a thinker who followed the Hylaean Way, i.e., who favored Hylaea’s interpretation of her father’s vision. The forerunners of theors and the founders of the Temple of Orithena. Compare Deolater.

Plane: Used as a verb, utterly to destroy an opponent’s position in the course of a Dialog.

Plenary: In a Convox, an event in which all attendees come together in the same room at the same time for some purpose.

Polycosm: Two or more universes (cosmi), especially when considered as a system that includes the possibility of interactions between cosmi.

Pr?sidium: In Mathic architecture, the tallest structure in a concent, typically the clock tower.

Praxic Age: Period of Arbre’s history beginning in the century after the Rebirth (therefore, approximately-500) and ending with the Terrible Events and the Reconstitution (the year 0). So called because the inhabitants of the old mathic system, who had dispersed into the Sæcular world after the Rebirth, put their theorics to work exploring the globe and creating technology.

Praxic: An applied scientist, an engineer.

Praxis: Technology.

Primate: The highest-ranking hierarch in a math or concent.

Proc: A late Praxic Age metatheorician, the standard-bearer in his age of the theorical lineage traceable to the Sphenics, and the progenitor of all orders that trace their descent to the Syntactic (as opposed to Semantic) Faculties of the early post-Reconstitution maths. Contrast with Halikaarn.

Procian: Of, or relating to, Saunt Proc or any of the Orders that claim descent from the Syntactic Faculties. Frequently seen as natural opponents of Halikaarnians.

Protan: Of or relating to the ancient Ethran philosopher Protas.

Protas: A student of Thelenes during the Golden Age of Ethras, later the most important theor in Arbran history. Building on the foundation laid by Hylaea and later strengthened by the Orithenans, developed the notion that the objects and ideas that humans perceive and think about are imperfect manifestations of pure, ideal forms that exist in another plane of existence.

Protism, Complex: A relatively recent (Fourteenth Century A.R.) interpretation of traditional (“Simple”) Protism, positing more than two (possibly infinitely many) causal domains linked in a Directed Acyclic Graph or DAG, known, in the most general case, as the Wick. Information about cnoons is assumed to flow through the DAG from “more Hylaean” to “less Hylaean” cosmi.

Protism, Simple: A retroactive coinage used by Uthentine and Erasmas to contrast the traditional conception of Protism, which consisted of one Hylaean Theoric World having a causal relationship to the cosmos in which Arbre is embedded, to their new scheme, which they dubbed Complex Protism. See Protism, Complex.

Protism: The philosophy of Protas. More specifically, the notion that theors perceive pure ideas from another realm of existence known as the Hylaean Theoric World.

Provener: The most commonly observed aut of the mathic world, typically celebrated every day at noon, and linked to the winding of a clock.

Rake: See Diax’s Rake.

Rambalf: A concent. One of the Three Inviolates.

Rebirth: The historical event dividing the Old Mathic Age from the Praxic Age, usually dated at around-500, during which the gates of the maths were thrown open and the avout dispersed into the Sæcular world. Characterized by a sudden flowering of culture, theorical advancement, and exploration.

Reconstitution: The state of affairs that came into being following the Terrible Events, whereby almost all learned and literate persons were concentrated together in maths and concents.

Regred: The aut by which a senior avout withdraws from active service and goes into retirement.

Regulant: See Warden Regulant.

Requiem: The aut celebrated to mark the death of an avout.

Ret: See Reticulum.

Reticule: A network; two or more syntactic devices that are able to communicate with one another.

Reticulum: The largest reticulum, joining together the preponderance of all reticules in the world.

Rhetor: A legendary figure, associated in folklore with Procian orders, said to have the power of altering the past by manipulating memories and other physical records.

Ringing Vale: A mountain valley that gave its name to a math founded there in 17 A.R., specializing in study and developments of martial arts and related topics. See Vale-Lore.

Rod: Military slang. To bombard a target, typically on the surface of a planet, by dropping a rod of some dense material on it from orbit. The rod has no moving parts or explosives; its destructiveness is a consequence of its extremely high velocity.

Sæcular: Of or pertaining to the non-mathic world.

Sæcular Power: Whatever entity currently wields power in the non-mathic world.

S?culum: The Sæcular world.

Sack: A breach of the terms of the Reconstitution in which maths or concents are forcibly violated and despoiled by Sæcular interlopers. Normally used only to refer to Sacks-General, in which most or all of the maths and concents are sacked at the same time.

Samblites: A religious sect tracing its origin back to Saunt Bly, and centered on Bly’s Butte, not far from the Concent of Saunt Edhar.

Sarthian: Steppe-dwelling horse archers of ancient times, held responsible for the Fall and Sack of Baz, which ended the Bazian Empire and inaugurated the Old Mathic Age.

Saunt: A title bestowed on great thinkers.

Sconic: One of a group of Praxic Age theors who gathered at the house of Lady Baritoe. They addressed the ramifications of the apparent fact that we do not perceive the physical universe directly, but only through the intermediation of our sensory organs.

Sea of Seas: A relatively small but complex body of salt water, connected to Arbre’s great oceans in three places by straits, generally viewed as the cradle of classical civilization.

Semantic Faculties: Factions within the mathic world, in the years following the Reconstitution, generally claiming descent from Halikaarn. So named because they believed that symbols could bear actual semantic content. The idea is traceable to Protas and to Hylaea before him. Compare Syntactic Faculties.

Sequence: The genetic code of a living organism. In various usages, equivalent to gene, genetic, or DNA on Earth.

Servitor: At Concents that observe the mealtime tradition of the Messal, a junior avout who is assigned to wait on a doyn.

Sline: An extramuros person with no special education, skills, aspirations, or hope of acquiring same, generally construed as belonging to the lowest social class.

Sphenics: A school of theors well represented in ancient Ethras, where they were hired by well-to-do families as tutors for their children. In many classic Dialogs, seen in opposition to Thelenes, Protas, or others of their school. Their most prominent champion was Uraloabus, who in the Dialog of the same name was planed so badly by Thelenes that he committed suicide on the spot. They disputed the views of Protas and, broadly speaking, preferred to believe that theorics took place entirely between the ears, with no recourse to external realities such as the Protan forms. The forerunners of Saunt Proc, the Syntactic Faculties, and the Procians.

Starhenge: In Earth terms, an observatory, esp. one with multiple telescopes.

Steelyard: See Gardan’s Steelyard.

Suur: A female avout.

Suvin: A school.

Syndev: Contraction of Syntactic Device. A computer.

Syntactic Device: In Earth terms, a computer.

Syntactic Faculties: Factions within the mathic world, in the years following the Reconstitution, generally claiming descent from Proc. So named because they believed that language, theorics, etc., were essentially games played with symbols devoid of semantic content. The idea is traceable to the ancient Sphenics, who were frequent opponents of Thelenes and Protas on the Periklyne.

Tangle: A cultivated plot, roughly hexagonal in plan, supporting a particular set of more or less genetically engineered food-bearing plant species that, taken together, supply all of the nutritional requirements for a single avout. A web of symbiotic relationships among the species bolsters the health and productivity of the plants while preventing exhaustion of the soil. In concents that employ the tangle system, each avout is responsible for maintenance of one tangle; the produce of all of the tangles is pooled to supply food for the concent. Since a math cannot observe the Discipline when it is dependent on Sæcular trade for foodstuffs, the tangle is a fundamental enabling technology for the Reconstitution.

Teglon: An extremely challenging geometry problem worked on at Orithena and later, all over Arbre, by subsequent generations of theors. The objective is to tile a regular decagon with a set of seven different shapes of tiles, while observing certain rules.

Tenner: Informal term for Decenarian (see).

Tenth Night: The traditional conclusion of an Apert, held on its tenth and final night. A feast served by the math to any and all extramuros visitors who wish to attend. Also used to transact certain necessary items of business with the Sæcular Power, such as formal transfer of new Collects from Sæcular to mathic jurisdiction.

Terrible Events: A poorly documented worldwide catastrophe thought to have begun in the year-5. Whatever it was, it terminated the Praxic Age and led immediately to the Reconstitution.

Thelenes: A great theor of the Golden Age of Ethras, protagonist of many Dialogs, mentor to Protas. Executed by the Ethran authorities for irreligious, or at least disrespectful, teachings.

Theor: Any practitioner of theorics, which see.

Theorician: Nearly equivalent to theor, but with slightly different connotations. “theorician” tends to be used of one who is devoted to highly specific, detailed, technical work, e.g., carrying out elaborate computations.

Theorics: Roughly equivalent to mathematics, logic, science, and philosophy on Earth. The term can fairly be applied to any intellectual work that is pursued in a rigorous and disciplined manner; it was coined by Diax to distinguish those who observed the Rake from those who engaged in wishful or magical thinking.

Thousander: Informal term for a Millenarian (see).

Throw Back: An informal term meaning to subject an avout to the aut of Anathem.

Throwback: An ex-avout who was Anathematized.

Tredegarh: One of the Big Three concents, named after Lord Tredegarh, a mid-to-late Praxic Age theor responsible for fundamental advances in thermodynamics.

Triangle Ark: Alternate term for the Kelx faith or one of its arks.

Unarian: An avout sworn not to emerge from the math or to have contact with the outside world until the next Annual Apert. Informally, “One-off.”

Upsight: A sudden, usually unlooked-for moment of clear understanding.

Uraloabus: Prominent Sphenic theor of the Golden Age of Ethras who, if the account of Protas is to be credited, committed suicide after being planed by Thelenes.

Uthentine: A suur at Saunt Baritoe’s in the Fourteenth Century A.R. who, along with Erasmas, founded the branch of metatheorics called Complex Protism.

Vale-lore: Martial arts. Associated with the Ringing Vale (see).

Valer: An avout of the Ringing Vale; one who has, therefore, devoted his or her entire life to the martial arts.

Vlor: An informal contraction of Vale-lore (see).

Voco: A rarely celebrated aut by which the Sæcular Power Evokes (calls forth from the math) an avout whose talents are needed in the Sæcular world. Except in very unusual cases, the one Evoked never returns to the mathic world.

Vout: An avout. Derogatory term used extramuros. Associated with S?culars who subscribe to iconographies that paint the avout in an extremely negative way.

Warden Fendant: A hierarch charged with defending the math or concent from Sæcular interlopers, by all means up to and including physical violence, and typically overseeing a staff of more junior hierarchs trained to carry out such functions.

Warden of Heaven: During the years leading up to the time in which Anathem is set, a popular religious leader who obtained Sæcular power by claiming to embody the wisdom of the mathic world.

Warden Regulant: A hierarch charged with maintaining the Discipline intramuros, empowered to conduct investigations and to mete out penance. Technically subordinate to the Primate but ultimately answerable to the Inquisition, and empowered to depose the Primate in certain exceptional circumstances.

Wick: In Complex Protism, a fully generalized Directed Acyclic Graph in which a large (possibly infinite) number of cosmi are linked by a more or less complicated web of cause-and-effect relationships. Information flows from cosmi that are more “up-Wick” to those that are more “down-Wick” but not vice versa.