The Birth of a New Science Long after the healers of Rum had written their wisdom into scrolls and hearts, another calling began to stir within the megacity the calling of the stars. Rum was a megacity of high halls, and from their heights its people frequently peered overhead at the velvet sky. They saw not only the brilliance of the constellations but also patterns — shapes that sounded to bruit trueness about time, fate, and the retired order of the macrocosm.