Sentinel Collegium

Definition and standing

The Sentinel Collegium is one of the four collegiate bodies recognised under the Third Concordance, charged with the designation, demarcation and periodic re-measurement of Sentinel Voids across the Tower's catalogued floors. It shares with the Scriptorial Collegium the unusual distinction of holding jurisdiction over a phenomenon it does not author, and with the Somatics Collegium the more ordinary distinction of an unresolved boundary dispute dating to the Year of Two Winters. The Collegium's instrument of office is the line of Void-Gall, which it alone is empowered to lay. A Sentinel Void that lacks a continuous line is, by the Collegium's own standing instruction, "neither sentinel nor void, but an unfinished intention," and is entered in the register as such until such time as the line is completed.

Composition

The Collegium comprises eleven seats, of which seven are filled at any given time and four are held vacant by rotation. The rotation period is not fixed; the Chronicity Commission has twice attempted to fix it and twice withdrawn the attempt after the resulting schedules proved to describe weeks that did not occur. Membership is drawn by lot from the Clerks of the Balanced Void, with the exception of the Seat of the Level, which is held for life by whichever clerk last successfully calibrated the Somatic Pluviometer against a dry floor. Deliberations are recorded on the second recension of the Collegium's own roll, as the first recension was lost to the Void Incursion of Year 43 and the third recension has never been agreed to exist.

Relation to the Scriptorial Collegium

The division of labour between the Sentinel Collegium and the Scriptorial Collegium is set out in Concordance Seven, which states that the former determines where a Sentinel Void is and the latter determines what a Sentinel Void is. In practice both bodies draft, and the drafting has twice produced contradictory demarcations of the same shelf-line on the 4,112th floor. The matter was referred to the Review Collegium, which ruled in favour of neither party and instead commissioned a joint survey. The survey's findings are catalogued under Void Annex 12 and are notable for concluding that the shelf in question is continuous on odd floors and discontinuous on even ones.

Disputed authority

A standing disagreement exists between the Sentinel Collegium and the Somatics Collegium over the attenuation of emissions. The Sentinel Collegium holds that a Sentinel Void is defined prior to any acoustic or thaumic activity, and that Void-Cushioning is therefore an amenity rather than an essential; the Somatics Collegium, which holds jurisdiction over Sighing Vaults and other emitting fixtures, holds the opposite. Under Ordinance 707 the question was briefly settled in favour of the Somatics Collegium before an erratum re-opened it. The dispute matters operationally. A Sentinel Void whose cushioning has been removed by one office while the other is still measuring it produces readings that neither office will sign.

Instruments and measurement

The Collegium's metrological practice rests on three instruments: the line of Void-Gall, the Somatic Pluviometer, and the plumb of the Seat of the Level. The first is dispensed by the Guild of Onomic Scribes under licence, the second is maintained by the Somatics Collegium under a joint custody arrangement, and the third is a length of gut cord whose provenance is recorded only as "pre-existing." Measurements are entered in the roll to three decimal places. The Collegium has never explained the third decimal place, and the Review Collegium has twice declined to ask. Visitors to a floor under active demarcation are asked to step over the line rather than on it, and not to lean on the shelf being measured.

See also

• Sentinel Void
• Void-Gall
• Void-Cushioning
• Clerks of the Balanced Void
• Concordance Seven