This canon pack cites the revised novel. Read the 26 September 2026 canon pack to see the earlier edition and its original citations.
Established story material
A2-CHAR-MARIAN · Character
Marian Vale
Attends the custodians' session as an observer on the ninth morning after Graham's fall. She secures a narrower lodging instruction, corrects the description OWNER and leaves the financial assent unsigned. She does not accept or finally renounce the estate, and acknowledges that her objection does not finance the missing supplies.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶008, ¶092, ¶097, ¶124
Illustration continuity: Retain the established Heir likeness. A future chamber scene should show an ordinary observer's chair, not a coronation, gown or acceptance ceremony.
A2-CHAR-ANSEL · Character
Ruth Ansel
Marian's independently retained advocate, paid from the family settlement rather than the estate. Her earlier work included tenants disputing the schoolhouse lease. She checks both clauses and public presentation; she does not supply a magical legal solution to the city's funding problem.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶005, ¶058, ¶071, ¶086
Illustration continuity: No new portrait is established. A working advocate with a case, handwritten notes and an uncomfortable shoe; keep her silhouette and age distinct from Marian without inventing fixed traits.
A2-CHAR-VOSS · Character
Halden Voss
Chairs the custodians' session and formerly directed freight contracts. He tries to secure credit and limit public confusion, while managing which qualifications reach the public account. After Marian refuses the assent, he orders a smaller consignment rather than ending the work.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶014, ¶027, ¶094, ¶102
Illustration continuity: Future ensemble composition at the cleared chair's position: other people pass documents to him. Avoid another ornate coat-and-balcony portrait.
A2-CHAR-TERN · Character
Reva Tern
Obtains a deadline for reporting retained boiler access and supports separating food registration from housing claims. She nevertheless presses Marian for a doubtful financial assurance under immediate supply pressure. Her concern for the wards does not settle the ownership question.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶046, ¶071, ¶083, ¶101
Illustration continuity: Use the established character continuity; the earlier repaired spectacles must not revert to an unexplained broken lens.
A2-CHAR-LORN · Character
Etta Lorn
A ward representative describes fuel, clean coverings and missing attendants. She reports that a patient died while a covering dried and explicitly does not claim that another blanket would have prevented the death. Her evidence complicates Marian's demand for consistency without ending it.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶040, ¶047
Illustration continuity: Future scene brief: a tired ward worker at the chamber table, papers under her hands. No graphic patient imagery or invented medical credentials.
A2-CHAR-LEDA · Character
Leda Fenn
Maintains the sheltering household, asks what registration would cost displaced residents and reports that an increased allowance has arrived. She helps read the amendment and asks for the public bulletin's question address. Domestic work continues after the chamber's decisions.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶068, ¶070, ¶114, ¶125
Illustration continuity: Keep the repairs-business and household continuity from Chapters 5 and 7. A laundry line and a schoolroom pencil offer a different composition from a formal portrait.
A2-PLACE-CUSTODIAN-CHAMBER · Place
The Custodians' Chamber
The former Council chamber is damaged, partly repaired and still used to conduct food, security, finance and appointments. The empty ceremonial chair and the ordinary observer's seat make the question of Marian's status visible.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶001, ¶002, ¶005, ¶024
Illustration continuity: Wide chamber scene with scarred table, temporary window and an empty new-carpet position. No crowned heir or invented council insignia.
A2-OBJ-OBSERVER-CARD · Record / artifact
The Observer Card
Marks Marian and her advocate as observers, countering the inference that attendance endorses the custodians. It does not prevent officials or audiences from attempting to use her presence as agreement.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶005, ¶007, ¶014, ¶097
Illustration continuity: Typeset study: OBSERVERS. Keep the caption about its limits outside the artwork; no fabricated seal or signature.
A2-OBJ-PENDING-SETTLEMENT · Administrative heading
Pending Final Settlement
The same provisional heading covers allocations, registration and review of public bulletins. The work increasingly resembles government without a final constitutional settlement or a single explicit declaration creating one.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶024, ¶103
Illustration continuity: Typeset the exact heading on separate documentary panels. It is not a newly approved TCG keyword or proof that every act is lawful.
A2-OBJ-CONTINUED-BOILER-ACCESS · Record
The Local Continuation Certificate
Records a specific local decision to continue inspected supply access first obtained through a retained preservation authority. New commands under the suspended old authority remain disallowed. The certificate follows the initial delivery and is not evidence that all black-seal directions are legitimate.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶034, ¶037, ¶125
Illustration continuity: Documentary study should distinguish the initial machine acceptance, later local decision and continuing suspension. Do not invent credential codes.
A2-OBJ-REVENUE-SCHEDULE · Record
The Emergency Revenue Schedule
Lists proposed income from land, water and transit as support for emergency expenditure. Separate accounting would preserve the disputed claim while allowing proposed spending. The chapter does not establish the custodians' final title to these receipts or the merchants' general agreement to extend credit.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶048, ¶051, ¶076
Illustration continuity: A fold-out schedule with the category names typeset separately; no invented totals or investment returns.
A2-OBJ-UNSIGNED-TREASURY-ASSENT · Record
The Treasury Assent
A proposed assurance would acknowledge listed revenues and obligations as available on Marian's behalf. She strikes through OWNER, writes capacity not established and initials that correction, but leaves the distinct execution space blank. The assent is not signed merely because the correction has initials.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶052, ¶055, ¶092, ¶124
Illustration continuity: Controlled typography must clearly separate the corrected description from the untouched assent signature line. Do not invent Marian's signature.
A2-OBJ-LODGING-AMENDMENT · Record
The Interim Lodging Instruction
Allows an interim food-collection location while expressly reserving earlier housing claims. Duplicate claims can still be investigated; proxy collection and other implementation questions remain open. A separate police-access proposal is not silently incorporated.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶071, ¶089, ¶108, ¶114
Illustration continuity: Typeset contrast between present food collection and retained housing claim. Avoid personal resident names or invented identity numbers.
A2-PLACE-REGISTRATION-BOOTH · Place
The Forecourt Registration Booth
Exchanges meal slips for district chits and initially creates a circular gate-and-registration requirement for a displaced man. A corrected instruction reaches it, but new practical questions still arise. An appeal address is provided without making the queues disappear.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶008, ¶009, ¶108, ¶111
Illustration continuity: Human-scale scene at a booth with worn slips and an ordinary stamp; more than one person waiting, not an empty triumphant office.
A2-EVENT-REDUCED-CONSIGNMENT · Event
The Smaller Dispatch
After the assent remains unsigned, the custodians offer payment from collections received and reduce the proposed dispatch. One supplier later accepts the smaller order; two have not answered. Neither total starvation nor a fully funded recovery is established.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶098, ¶102, ¶118
Illustration continuity: Two dispatch sheets or waiting loads convey the reduction. No unsupported number of sacks, deaths or shipments.
A2-OBJ-PAIRED-ASSURANCE · Evidence packet
The Assurance and the Form
Marian and Ansel send Kest the revenue question and send the archive the full proposal, covering assurance and returned form. The packet keeps the claim that nothing is settled beside the request to spend disputed receipts. It does not settle Schedule Nine's current legal force.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶052, ¶124
Illustration continuity: A pair of documents with their relationship shown through layout, not a forged facsimile. Reserve Chapter 12 findings for later prose.
TCG candidates
Untested design candidates linked to the revised story. These are proposals only; the live game rules and printed card statistics are unaffected.
A2-C11-F01 · Figure · Knowledge / Influence
Ruth Ansel, Independent Advocate
Offers one bounded response when an effect would infer control from a Figure's presence at a Place. The response protects a stated limit, not every action at that Place.
Open design question: Identify an existing control-changing effect and response window; avoid adding negotiation to every placement.
Story sources: Ruth Ansel, The Observer Card
A2-C11-F02 · Figure · Authority / Infrastructure
Halden Voss, Pending Settlement
Can redirect an existing resource towards a declared short-term undertaking, exposing a visible opportunity cost at the source. No additional resource is created by the redirection.
Open design question: Use a current resource or commitment rule and test once-per-turn limits against circular transfers.
Story sources: Halden Voss, The Smaller Dispatch
A2-C11-F03 · Figure · Infrastructure / Influence
Etta Lorn, The Next Page
Rewards meeting a Place's stated service need while retaining the ability to challenge the authority used. Service and endorsement remain separate conditions.
Open design question: Define the service condition using visible existing cards; do not turn fictional illness or death into a scoring currency.
Story sources: Etta Lorn, The Local Continuation Certificate
A2-C11-R01 · Record · Knowledge / Influence
Observers Only
Names a Figure and a limited protection against a control claim at one Place. It expires rather than establishing permanent immunity.
Open design question: Specify what happens if either named card leaves play and avoid conflicts with existing allegiance rules.
Story sources: The Observer Card, Marian Vale
A2-C11-R02 · Record · Knowledge / Authority
Capacity Not Established
Challenges one asserted authority without destroying the underlying Record. A successful challenge should narrow a benefit rather than automatically cancel the entire opposing turn.
Open design question: What existing verification state can represent the challenge without giving players omniscient knowledge of the fiction?
Story sources: The Treasury Assent, The Emergency Revenue Schedule
A2-C11-E01 · Event · Infrastructure / Influence
Eat Where You Are
Allows one temporary resource benefit at a receiving Place without permanently transferring control of the benefiting Figure or its original Place.
Open design question: Bound eligibility and duration; prevent collecting the same benefit repeatedly by moving between Places.
Story sources: The Interim Lodging Instruction, The Forecourt Registration Booth
A2-C11-P01 · Place · Authority
The Custodians' Chamber
Supports a declared temporary order but gives an opponent a clear, limited window to contest its scope. Occupation of the chamber does not itself confer all-city ownership.
Open design question: Keep the challenge to one readable interaction using existing timing; do not add a separate parliamentary minigame.
Story sources: The Custodians' Chamber, Pending Final Settlement
Continuity locks
- Ninth morning after Graham's fall; later events reach that dusk. Do not reset to the first night.
- The Chapter 10 knock is resolved as a meter contractor brought out alive. His account and its source are still being checked; not all twelve rooms are established open.
- No new evidence identifies Ostrog or connects all altered media and black-seal commands to one culprit.
- Marian remains a possible successor and an observer. She corrects a capacity label and initials only that correction; the financial assent remains unsigned.
- The retained boiler access is a specific later local continuation after inspection, not reinstatement of the abolished office or permission for all new commands.
- A patient's death during laundry difficulties is reported without asserting that a missing blanket caused it.
- Food registration is separated from surrender of an old housing claim; the amendment leaves implementation questions and scrutiny of duplicates unresolved.
- The custodians continue operating after refusal. The smaller accepted consignment is not a comprehensive replacement for lost credit.
- Ruth Ansel is independent of estate funding. Her advice is fictional, not a statement of real-world law.
- The new packet asks the archive and Kest to examine revenue uses. It does not pre-empt Chapter 12's investigation or authenticate new originals.
Companion records
A2-021 · Companion record
Provisional notices now organise food, registration, security and finance. Necessary work gives the custodians practical authority without deciding its permanent limits.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶024, ¶089, ¶102, ¶103
A2-022 · Companion record
Marian corrects the description OWNER and initials only that correction. The separate financial assent remains unsigned; her objection is not a final renunciation or a substitute for missing credit.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶055, ¶092, ¶097, ¶124
What changed in this edition
- New citations point to the 28 September revised chapter rather than the first-edition paragraph numbers.
- The observer card, lodging amendment and unsigned treasury assent remain distinct records with distinct limits.
What remains uncertain
- Treasury receipts, succession title and the present force of Schedule Nine remain unresolved.
- The accepted smaller dispatch does not show that suppliers have generally restored credit.