Order of Saint Cosmas

The Order of St. Cosmas is the closest that Topwarp has to an ecclesiastical organization, dedicated to the proper maintenance of Compass Tower. Members of the Order are sworn to silence, though some have darkly muttered in forgotten quarters of the Warp that the truly devoted among the Order can't speak, rather than won't. What those who say it mean by that, however, has never been fully explored.

itself is tended by the Abbey of St. Cosmas, whose members are forbidden from speaking, or perhaps can't. It's hard to say, and they don't. Becoming a member of the Abbey involves climbing the tower to the top and lighting the lighthouse at the top of the tower, which for a short time seems to create an artificial star in the sky, just on the horizon. When the light goes out, the newest devotee comes back down the steps and sets to work, keeping the universe on its schedule.

Occasionally the Abbey will send emissaries, low-ranking attendants whose mouths have not yet been taken from them and whose faces are still mostly flesh, out among the Houses, both to recruit new members and to issue "requests" for changes to policy or research.