Current companion to the revised novel. Claims and paragraph links below were reviewed against the 28 September 2026 text. The first canon study remains available for readers following the project’s development.
Marian Vale · Character conceptExisting approved art, not a depiction of an acceptance ceremony or the former schoolroom. The clean master remains separate from card text.
Established material
A2-CHAR-MARIAN · Character
Marian Vale
Thirty-four; brought up in the former school and supported by a remaining family settlement. She answers identity questions but does not accept the estate, appoint the return office or acquire a public office. Security for her home is a genuine temptation, not merely a burden.
Existing Heir portrait is a symbolic character study, not a literal depiction of this morning. Its costume, scroll and ruins are not new scene facts.
A2-CHAR-LEDA · Character
Leda Fenn
Marian’s housemate for six years. Her repairs business supports household upkeep. She wants security for the terrace, attends the inquiry with Marian’s consent and insists that the immediate needs of the displaced guests continue to matter. Their relationship is not further classified.
No new portrait approved. Show a practical repair worker in a domestic setting, not another courtly character on a balcony.
A2-CHAR-EDE · Character
Tomas Ede
Civil-register clerk accompanying the district guide. He checks the identity entries, explains the limits of his authority and witnesses Marian’s specific reply. He neither installs an heir nor brings an acceptance instrument with the initial inquiry.
No new portrait approved. Visitor seated at the old school table with a narrow case; no general’s costume.
A2-CHAR-KEST · Character / voice over receiver
Iona Kest
The examiner confirms the limited purpose of the identity questions and the unresolved scope of succession. She advises independent assistance and prevents a failure to answer being represented as consent.
Present through the wall receiver; no physical visit or new likeness established.
A2-PLACE-SCHOOLROOM · Place
The Former Schoolroom
A room in a leased house once owned by a banker and then used as a school. The table’s compass marks and the mother’s cupboard remain. Displaced guests use the house; it is not a palace acquired through the succession.
A future place illustration should show a working household, damaged window, reused table and bedding; no invented royal emblems.
A2-PLACE-TERRACE · Place
The Terrace Gate
The boundary between the domestic inquiry and public expectations. Neighbours gather without established organised affiliation. The guard remains outside and is still watching the gate after the visitors leave.
Ensemble or threshold composition. Do not depict a coronation, an armed siege or a vast rally.
A2-OBJ-FAMILY-TIN · Artifact / evidence
The Family Certificate Tin
Contains family certificates, the mother’s stopped watch and a blue ribbon from the school’s final morning. The certificates help answer local identity questions; the keepsakes do not themselves prove succession.
Object still life; keep inscriptions unreadable unless established. No complete invented genealogy.
A2-OBJ-IDENTITY-REQUEST · Record
Identity Inquiry Only
The initial written request and case ask for identity information. Participation is distinct from accepting property or public authority; no acceptance instrument is brought in the first case.
Controlled typography must preserve the distinction between inquiry and consent.
A2-OBJ-HOLDINGS-LIST · Record
The Principal Holdings List
Lists assets administered through the estate, including the company holding the terrace lease. It is not an adjudicated list of assets which Marian inherits; the public-use question remains open.
An editorial layout may list the named categories without invented values, corporate names or holdings.
A2-OBJ-CONTINUITY-PROPOSAL · Record
The Continuity Proposal
A separate return-office proposal to manage any interest later established for Marian. It would permit subordinate representatives and responses to claims. Marian leaves the appointment unsigned and asks about authorisation, payment and discretion.
A conceptual blank signature field, not a finished historical instrument; names and legal terms must come from the prose.
A2-OBJ-RENT-DEMAND · Record / artifact
The Neighbour’s Rent Demand
A neighbour brings a rent demand issued by the company on the holdings list. She has already asked the company herself. Ede follows up with the issue number and charge, and Marian promises to bring any answer that comes; no rent is waived.
Do not invent a price, an account number, a debt amount or a promise of cancellation.
A2-OBJ-MARIAN-REPLY · Record
Marian’s Limited Reply
Marian signs a limited reply asking about the proposed appointment and withholding authority for representatives to act in her name meanwhile. Ede witnesses its enclosures and unsigned appointment, then transmits it and records its receipt number. She has not renounced succession.
Typeset companion with separate fields for what was signed and what was not.
A2-OBJ-SCHEDULE9-COPY · Record
The Schedule Evidence Packet
Probate’s new evidence and qualifications reach the house. They constrain how the estate may be described, without settling ownership of each asset or solving supply failures.
Reuse the exact Chapter 4 clause only with its evidence status. No claim that the whole estate transfers immediately.
A2-EVENT-PUBLIC-NAMING · Event
Called Heir Before Acceptance
Neighbours call Marian heir during an identity inquiry. She states publicly that she has accepted neither ownership nor authority. A neighbour has already asked the leaseholder’s office for herself; Marian’s promised follow-up is not proof of preferential access or settled inheritance.
A domestic threshold encounter, not a triumphant acceptance ceremony.
TCG candidates, not finished cards
Untested candidates. No approved costs, power, rarity or rules text; V0.3 remains unchanged.
A2-C05-F01 · Figure · Infrastructure / Influence
Leda Fenn, Keeping the House
Helps maintain a friendly Place during disruption by committing a Figure or another limited resource. Domestic work has a cost, rather than producing unlimited shelter value.
Unresolved design question: Can the benefit use existing exhaustion and repair timing without creating a new permanent protection layer?
Marian answers an identity inquiry, not a summons, and does not accept inheritance or public office in this chapter.
The first visiting delegation carries no acceptance instrument. The continuity proposal arrives later from the return office, not as an order from Kest.
Marian signs her limited reply but leaves the proposed appointment unsigned. This is not her final renunciation or the later execution of Schedule Nine.
The house is leased with support from her existing family settlement and Leda’s repair income. Ownership is not established by the succession inquiry.
Leda and Marian share the house. Do not invent a kinship or romantic status from their closeness.
The preceding chapter’s evidence notice reaches Ede during the visit. Chapter 5 overlaps that morning; it does not relocate the discovery or claim that Schedule Nine settles every asset.
No numerical size or market valuation of the estate is established. No payments or rents are waived.
The gathering consists of neighbours and onlookers; no assassinations, organised movement or marriage proposals are established here.
Marian retains the family originals. The visitors depart with copies. The unnamed guard’s continued presence is not an instruction from Marian.
The existing Heir image is a symbolic character concept. Its ceremonial costume, scroll, ruins and emblem are not evidence of a coronation or the literal schoolroom scene.
Chapter 6 must establish its own time clearly; the earlier short outline is not binding chronology. The general supply and transport crises remain unresolved.
