Current R5 chapter text. Archived R4 canon.
Changes and open questions
Revision notes
- Fifteen of 112 story paragraphs differ from the 26 September edition. Eliza's first replay hesitation and parts of the evidence sequence were line edited.
- Current links attach the specific six-second comparison, the separately retained views and Eliza's visible correction to this edition.
Unresolved in this chapter
- The demonstrated alteration rejects one received address as an unaltered record; it does not identify its maker, establish Graham never named Marian elsewhere or decide succession.
- Twelve Schedule Nine packages are an observed local sample with duplicate sources; neither copies nor the intruders reveal an executed original.
Established story material
A2-CHAR-ELIZA · Character
Eliza Marr
Eliza recognises the recording's emotional appeal before examining it. She publishes a limited, reproducible comparison, visits the receiving court, preserves intrusion evidence and publicly corrects an overstatement in her own release.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 1, ¶ 20, ¶ 41, ¶ 54, ¶ 81, ¶ 92, ¶ 108, ¶ 112
Illustration continuity
Retain her established likeness. No new portrait is approved by this chapter; hands or distant views can show the work without redesigning her.
A2-CHAR-PELL · Character
Daran Pell
Daran compares received copies, helps locate the channel test, records the findings and witnesses part of the archive intrusion. His sleeve is torn but he reports that he is not hurt. He challenges unclear public instructions.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 4, ¶ 16, ¶ 22, ¶ 42, ¶ 77, ¶ 87, ¶ 101, ¶ 107
Illustration continuity
Junior archive worker, not a senior registrar. Preserve the distinction between his direct observations and the porter's account.
A2-CHAR-PERA · Character
Pera Sol
The market-booth keeper brings a local capture after arranging relief. She preserves separate versions, plays the comparison and asks how other booths can check the archive's own package.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 11, ¶ 12, ¶ 55, ¶ 60, ¶ 65, ¶ 100
Illustration continuity
A receiver cartridge, dry cloth and a working booth establish her actions. No invented official badge or faction emblem.
A2-CHAR-AMEL · Character
Amel Ryn
Amel accompanies Pera with cups and bread. She hopes the apparent Graham speech is genuine, then takes copies of the finding to people she has already told he returned. Her initial belief is not equated with creating the alteration.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 13, ¶ 17, ¶ 21, ¶ 35, ¶ 70, ¶ 72
Illustration continuity
The insulated carrier and ordinary cups matter more than a heroic pose. No new face or costume has been established.
A2-CHAR-TRESS · Character
Lio Tress
An archive replay technician. He compares mundane visual events, obtains a separately retained camera view and makes the source comparison available for others to examine. He does not identify the forger or authenticate every received frame.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 27, ¶ 30, ¶ 34, ¶ 40, ¶ 41, ¶ 90, ¶ 101
Illustration continuity
New character. Design separately from Daran: a working replay technician at a bench, not another figure in a long coat against a city.
A2-CHAR-KEST · Character
Iona Kest
Kest witnesses the release, distinguishes the finding from a succession decision and requires sources, rather than the number of copies, to be compared. The recording does not install or disqualify Marian by itself.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 45, ¶ 47, ¶ 82, ¶ 89
Illustration continuity
Use the existing examiner's role. No dramatic coronation, warrant of guilt or new faction identity.
A2-CHAR-NARA · Character
Nara Venn
Nara hears the comparison without celebrating the destruction of her neighbours' hope. She asks about source trust and recirculation; she has not herself solved the recording or identified its maker.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 66, ¶ 67, ¶ 71
Illustration continuity
A person listening in the working receiving court. Avoid the triumphant podium and invented slogans.
A2-PLACE-VIADUCT-COURT · Place
Eastern Viaduct Receiving Court
In daylight, the comparison plays above a lamp-oil queue. Work and daily needs continue while listeners disagree about the evidence. This is not a citywide acceptance of the archive's finding.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 49, ¶ 50, ¶ 56, ¶ 68
Illustration continuity
Wide scene brief: soot-stained arch, small public screen, oil cans, serving lane and modest market booth. Any picture is illustrative, not evidence of the fictional comparison.
A2-PLACE-REPLAY-BENCH · Place / apparatus
The Replay Bench
Work plates allow retained channel tests and the received address to be compared. By evening three plates support a public, self-directed demonstration with explanatory instructions.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 23, ¶ 40, ¶ 41, ¶ 101
Illustration continuity
Overhead object-and-work composition. Do not invent measured waveforms, real forensic readouts or contradictory faces as though they were source evidence.
A2-OBJ-GRAHAM-RECEIVED · Record / copied package
The Forty-Three-Second Received Address
The local capture matches the transmitted package. A six-second passage reuses preserved test imagery with changed speech and mouth movement. The package cannot serve as an unaltered recording of the claimed address. Its maker and the provenance of every other second remain unknown.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 16, ¶ 41, ¶ 43
Illustration continuity
Grey receiver cartridge in dry cloth with separate routing wrapper and receiving papers. Delivery time must not be labelled filming time. No invented wax seal is canonical.
A2-OBJ-CHANNEL-TESTS · Records
The Two Retained Channel Tests
The archive and engineering control retain different views of the same test. Shared incidental motion connects them to six seconds of the received address, while the retained sound asks whether the channel is carrying. Their custody entries support the comparison without claiming that every custodian witnessed filming.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 22, ¶ 28, ¶ 31, ¶ 34, ¶ 40, ¶ 41
Illustration continuity
Two source views and one disputed passage. Future explanatory labels must be typeset separately; the artwork itself is not proof.
A2-OBJ-LIMITED-FINDING · Record
The Limited Comparison Finding
The finding rejects the first received version as an unaltered record of that speech. It does not prove Graham never named Marian elsewhere, determine succession, establish survival or identify a culprit. Source attachments and version identity travel with it.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 41, ¶ 43, ¶ 45, ¶ 58
Illustration continuity
A documentary plate may state the six-second comparison and its limits; avoid a universal TRUE or FALSE seal.
A2-OBJ-RESTORATION-CLAIM · Record / claim
The Revised Address
A later-received version omits the compared passage and claims restoration from damaged originals. Its production time is not established. The change does not undo the finding about the earlier version.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 60, ¶ 62, ¶ 64, ¶ 65
Illustration continuity
Distinct version labels, not a claim that the sender has been caught altering it live.
A2-EVENT-VIEWING-ROOM · Event / evidence
The Viewing-Room Intrusion
One man presents a transfer slip while another forces the inner access and photographs displayed Schedule Nine copies. Source material is not reported stolen. Accounts, damage and a new reflected lamp angle are retained. A seal does not establish the visitor's identity or the later editor's identity.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 75, ¶ 77, ¶ 80, ¶ 81
Illustration continuity
Forced lock, disturbed paper order and viewing glass. No identifiable culprit, weapon, attack on Rusk's original film or invented faction mark.
A2-OBJ-TWELVE-PACKAGES · Records
Twelve Claimed Schedule Copies
Twelve packages reach this archive: six retain the clause, four omit it, and two give different Heir-emergency wording. Several are recirculations of the same source. This is a local count, not twelve independent witnesses or a census of all London copies. The retained photographed duplicate remains distinct from the unrecovered executed instrument.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 85, ¶ 86, ¶ 88, ¶ 89
Illustration continuity
Document grouping with editable labels. Do not draw the disputed clauses as established legal text.
A2-SYS-PUBLIC-COMPARISON · System / records practice
The Public Comparison Register
The register binds findings to exact received versions and accessible sources, retains corrections and excludes unrelated private files. Its first correction changes Eliza's description of a storage receipt mislabelled as a camera certificate. A matching reference value proves copy identity, not the truth of a statement.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 92, ¶ 99, ¶ 100, ¶ 107, ¶ 109
Illustration continuity
Keep public finding, source and correction visibly distinct. Do not invent an infallible authentication machine or imply that personal files are opened.
Companion records
A2-017 · companion record
Two independently retained views expose a reused six-second passage with altered speech. The finding applies to a particular received address; it does not identify its maker or decide the succession.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 16, ¶ 28, ¶ 40, ¶ 41, ¶ 43, ¶ 60, ¶ 65
A2-018 · companion record
Public access means making the sources, the limits and the corrections available. The register begins by preserving a correction to Eliza’s own account, rather than asking readers to trust a new seal.
Revised chapter evidence: ¶ 88, ¶ 89, ¶ 92, ¶ 99, ¶ 100, ¶ 107, ¶ 109, ¶ 112
Continuity locks
- The chapter follows the fourth evening address and runs into the next day.
- Two separately retained channel tests support a six-second alteration of one received version; visual match alone does not identify an editor.
- A later address carries a restoration claim but has its own receiving entry. Its arrival time does not establish when it was made.
- Intruders photograph displayed Schedule Nine copies; they do not remove the executed original in this scene.
- Six of twelve received Schedule Nine packages retain the clause, four omit it and two vary emergency powers. Forwarded copies do not create independent sources.
- The public register identifies versions, supporting material and corrections while withholding unrelated personnel and witness private files.
- Eliza's misdescribed storage receipt is corrected visibly, without treating a package reference value as proof that its claims are true.
Game concept notes
Untested story-based design candidates. Costs, statistics and rarity are not approved game rules.
A2-C09-F01 · Figure · Knowledge
Lio Tress, Replay Technician
Helps compare one declared Record with a distinct preserved source. Commit the Figure so the comparison competes with other uses of the turn.
Design question: What existing state represents a distinct source without requiring every player to remember an unlimited history of copies?
Source entries: Lio Tress, The Two Retained Channel Tests
A2-C09-F02 · Figure · Knowledge / Influence
Pera Sol, Keeper of the Received Copy
Retains one named version when another Record replaces a public effect. Retention preserves the possibility of a challenge, not automatic victory in that challenge.
Design question: Define the replacement timing and where the retained card sits without creating an extra hidden zone.
Source entries: Pera Sol, The Forty-Three-Second Received Address
A2-C09-R01 · Record · Knowledge
Six Seconds in Common
Supports a bounded challenge to one specific authority claim. A successful comparison does not cancel every effect controlled by the opponent.
Design question: Use the existing Verify vocabulary only after checking its current timing and target rules; no new verified status is silently approved here.
Source entries: The Two Retained Channel Tests, The Limited Comparison Finding
A2-C09-P01 · Place · Knowledge
The Replay Bench
Provides comparison access while a Figure is committed, with a visible opportunity cost and a limited number of source slots.
Design question: Prevent two benches repeatedly returning the same Record for free draw or verification triggers.
Source entries: The Replay Bench
A2-C09-E01 · Event · Authority / Knowledge
The Corrected Reading
Models a claim changing after a challenge without erasing the previous version. Leave a visible response window before the replacement authority takes effect.
Design question: How can the replacement use an existing public card state without putting arbitrary text on a copied card?
Source entries: The Revised Address, Twelve Claimed Schedule Copies
A2-C09-R02 · Record · Knowledge / Influence
A Correction Beside the Finding
Rewards correcting a bounded claim at a real cost rather than erasing a failed verification. It should not reward repeatedly declaring deliberate errors.
Design question: Require an opponent challenge or another non-repeatable condition; self-generated correction loops must not be profitable.
Source entries: The Public Comparison Register, Eliza Marr
A2-C09-S01 · System · Knowledge
Public Comparison Register
Makes the source of a declared Record effect visible and lets a limited challenge remain possible. It does not reveal every hidden card or grant omniscience.
Design question: Keep disclosure narrow and compare the effect with existing information-control cards before assigning any cost.
Source entries: The Public Comparison Register, The Limited Comparison Finding