Summoning Smoke is an olfactory method for alerting a large group of people across a wide area. Conceptually, it's like a tornado siren, church bells, and the odorant added to natural gas. Its roots go way back, even before the Theophany, when the shaman of a shire would add more wood to her bonfire, producing a large amount of fragrant smoke. After the Theophany, hearthkeepers developed incense that would be added to the fire to call the shire to liturgy.

Its liturgical use is much less prevalent at the time of First Contact, though it is used during the proclamation of the Gospel of First Meeting when the Dewfall makes contact with humans on Earth.

Different formulations of summoning smoke have been developed to serve secular purposes as well, with different odors and occasionally colors signifying different things, usually to warn of impending natural disaster or industrial accident.