Chalcenterite Order

The Chalcenterite Order is an ascetic sect of the scholiast tradition consecrated to pure theoretical work. Its members are forbidden from using technology more sophisticated than an electric lamp, in keeping with the Chantry's historical injunctions against the broader scholiast order; this prohibition condemns Chalcenterites to physical toil. The sect is further distinguished by its rejection of navel-gazing contemplation in favor of active engagement with the living world.

Members wear viridian (green) robes. Novices wear simple green pullovers tied with white cord; senior members wear a sash and bronze competency badges. Members take new names upon joining the order as a sign of renouncing their prior identities and family connections; most are of palatine birth, making this renunciation socially significant.

No member of the order may touch a machine without special dispensation from their lord. This rule exists to prevent a repetition of the Mericanii catastrophe, in which scholiasts' predecessors created the Mericanii daimons. Athenaea -- the order's monastic compounds -- are designed to isolate brothers and sisters from the secular world and prevent contamination with praxis and experiment. Royse fields are forbidden inside athenaea walls. The order does not keep records or biographies of individual members. Scholiasts are cremated upon death and their ashes scattered to the winds; this is prescribed by the Stricture. Individual members who die away from the athenaeum may not receive the proper cremation rite.

The order is governed by a hierarchy in which senior brothers hold seniority over novices under the rules of Stricture. Within an athenaeum, a Primate holds overall authority. Curators oversee specific collections and archives. Engineers are distinguished from philosophers within the order's internal self-classification. Novices occupy the lowest rank and are subject to command by senior members.

The order administers several institutes across the Empire. Nov Belgaer Athenaeum on Colchis is described as not the largest of the order's institutes but one of the most important due to the Imperial archives housed there. Nov Belgaer contains a drum tower library, lecture halls, refectories, gardens, a scriptorium annex, and the Archivists' Grotto. The athenaeum opens to the public once a year at the new year.

The order was founded not to replace machines but to limit science. Every member is required to know the story of Julian Felsenburgh under penalty of Inquisition; Felsenburgh's history serves as a cautionary example of the dangers of unrestrained scientific advancement. Gabriel's Archive, a sealed vault of Mericanii artifacts housed beneath Nov Belgaer, is accessible only by three massive iron keys held by the Curator of the Archive. The Chantry has planted atomics beneath the Archive's reservoir, retaining the capability to destroy the Archive's contents.

Primate Arrian has described the order as functioning in practice as a repository for the noble houses' inconvenient heirs: sons and daughters unfit to rule, to serve in the Legions, or to enter the priesthood. Appointment to the position of Primate can be a politically motivated act, with the Emperor preferring a candidate bound by blood as well as duty. Members of lesser Imperial blood lines may be prohibited from bearing children under the order's rules and the terms of the Great Charters.

The Chalcenterite Order is first identified during peace negotiations at Vorgossos, when Tor Varro serves as the Imperial Cielcin-language translator. Sir William Crossflane identifies Varro's order as Chalcenterite and places its origin somewhere in Sagittarius, possibly at Nov Angren.

Decades later, Hadrian Marlowe and Valka visit Nov Belgaer Athenaeum on Colchis while investigating Mericanii artifacts. Tor Arrian, Primate of Nov Belgaer, initially refuses access to Gabriel's Archive, the sealed vault of Mericanii materials beneath the compound, insisting that only a direct command from the Emperor himself can authorize entry. Under direct Imperial authority, Arrian subsequently grants access to Gabriel's Archive. He posts Curator scholiasts at the gates and warns that sharing the Archive's contents is a capital offense under Chantry law.

Within Gabriel's Archive, the research team spends years studying the Mericanii materials. Tor Imlarros, Curator of the Archive and keeper of its three keys, insists per the Stricture that scholiasts rather than outside agents operate the archive locks. Following the discovery of the entity known as Horizon within the Archive, Arrian orders the great gearwork doors sealed. The Primate acts to contain this knowledge, refusing to allow information about the discovery to reach the wider galaxy.

In the aftermath of the events at Eue, Tor Gibson dies on the island of Thessa on Colchis. His body is not cremated per the Scholiast Stricture, as circumstances do not permit the proper rite. It is subsequently revealed that Gibson's true identity was Prince Philippe Bourbon, who led the Septembrine Revolt in the early sixteenth millennium before being exiled to Belusha and eventually appealing into athenaeum on Syracuse, where he joined the order under the name Tor Gibson. Siran of Emesh, one of Hadrian's former soldiers who settled on Colchis, visited Nov Belgaer annually at the public new year opening and maintained a personal connection with Gibson over many years; it was her letter to the athenaeum seeking a scholar to chronicle island history that brought Gibson to Thessa for his final years.

Tor Varro is a Chalcenterite scholiast who serves as the official Cielcin-language translator for the Imperial delegation at the Vorgossos peace negotiations and subsequently as a scholiast advisor aboard the Tamerlane. He wears green attire with bronze competency badges and has a physique shaped by physical labor consistent with the Chalcenterite emphasis on embodied toil.

Tor Arrian serves as Primate of Nov Belgaer Athenaeum and of the Imperial Library on Colchis. His once-red hair has turned the yellow of aged ivory. His appointment as Primate was explicitly a political one, the Emperor having preferred a candidate bound by blood as well as duty; Arrian is a cousin of the Blood Imperial via a cadet line and is forbidden to bear children under the terms of the Great Charters. He holds authority over the athenaeum's collections and access to Gabriel's Archive.

Tor Gibson served as Archivist at Nov Belgaer for over six hundred years, tutoring among others Prince Alexander, and assists with the study of Gabriel's Archive. He is subsequently revealed to be Prince Philippe Bourbon, who joined the order under the name Tor Gibson after his exile following the Septembrine Revolt. Gibson dies on the island of Thessa on Colchis; per the order's Stricture he should have been cremated and his ashes scattered, but the proper rite is not performed.

Tor Imlarros is the Curator of Gabriel's Archive at Nov Belgaer, holder of three massive iron keys to the Archive. He identifies himself internally as an engineer rather than a philosopher.

Sister Carina is a young novice at Nov Belgaer of patrician birth. She wears a simple green pullover tied with white cord and works for the curators.

Sister Ekaterin serves as a scribe in Primate Arrian's office at Nov Belgaer. She wears novice green robes and has ink-stained hands.