Iconography: An oversimplified and, in most cases, wildly inaccurate schema used by Saeculars 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 Saeculum.
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 Saeculars, 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 Saeculars 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 Saecular world.
Liaison, Perelithian: A liaison equivalent to marriage in the Saecular 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 Saeculars 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 Saecular 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 Saecular 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 Cnoüs 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.
Praesidium: 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 Saecular 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 cnoöns 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 Saecular 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.
Saecular: Of or pertaining to the non-mathic world.
Saecular Power: Whatever entity currently wields power in the non-mathic world.
Saeculum: The Saecular world.
Sack: A breach of the terms of the Reconstitution in which maths or concents are forcibly violated and despoiled by Saecular 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 extern
al 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 Saecular 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 Saecular Power, such as formal transfer of new Collects from Saecular to mathic jurisdiction.
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