Historical canon pack: these claims and numbered evidence links document the 26 September 2026 text. The novel has since been revised. A “revised passage” link appears only when the cited wording survives in the revised chapter; other claims await editorial verification.
Established story material
A2-CHAR-NARA · Character
Nara Venn
A linen worker organising meals and representation at an eastern receiving court. She is chosen for a limited delegation, recognises her own attraction to office and applause, and distinguishes her wish that the Graham recording be false from evidence about it.
Use the existing Organiser image only as a character concept. Its banners and insignia are not established as this chapter's faction symbols; do not invent their significance.
A2-CHAR-AMEL · Character
Amel Ryn
The kitchen porter who challenged the compact at the end of Chapter 7 is named here. She returns with its papers, serves the court, is selected as a delegate and responds to the apparent Graham recording with hope rather than certainty.
New portrait not commissioned. Distinguish her from Nara: the insulated carrier, the work of serving and a tired, unguarded expression are the useful motifs.
A2-CHAR-DAVIT · Character
Davit Sorn
Bakehouse worker helping serve food. He collects a delayed load with volunteers, injures his hand and presses Nara about what political progress changes for the next meal.
No portrait commissioned. Hands dividing bread or hauling a cart; practical bakery clothes, not another coat-and-balcony portrait.
A2-CHAR-ILEN · Character
Ilen
A woman collecting food for herself, her father and a boy. She asks for evening reports so carers and shift workers can participate. Her father cannot come down the stairs. No surname is supplied.
Three different bowls and a brief visit between caring duties; do not portray her as permanently present at every meeting.
A2-CHAR-PERA · Character
Pera Sol
Keeper of the market booth's notices and public calls. She preserves the received recording package, wrapper and surrounding notice and sends a copy to the Council House archive. Delivery time does not establish filming time.
A working booth attendant beside a receiver, not the inventor of the recording or an omniscient authenticator.
A2-CHAR-HOLT · Character
Systems Clerk Holt
Finds the delayed handcart and an after-hours contact, hears both the ward repair and the receiving court's cost, and gives the court access to the next review without promising unlimited veto power.
Retain the existing character definition. No newly approved portrait in this release.
A2-CHAR-TERN · Character
Reva Tern
Offers Nara an office and consultation role. She keeps food access independent of accepting that role and agrees to propose an open receiving session, with private personal details protected. Approval by all custodians is not established.
Her cracked spectacle lens has been replaced by this third afternoon; the other remains cloudy. Avoid importing the earlier broken lens into this scene.
A2-PLACE-VIADUCT-COURT · Place
Eastern Viaduct Receiving Court
A food distribution and sheltering space beneath the viaduct. Assemblies grow into adjoining platforms while serving lanes remain necessary. It is one court among many, not the entire Lower City.
Future wide ensemble scene: low viaduct, food pots, reused vessels, rain and a lane kept clear. Do not replace it with a triumphant character portrait.
A2-PLACE-MARKET-BOOTH · Place / communications
The Old Market Booth
A local receiver and notice point becomes a place for court messages and public discussion. Its screen receives the apparent Graham address; custody of the transmitted copy does not prove the speech authentic.
Human-scale receiver, borrowed stool and lamp. Readable notices should be separately typeset.
A2-OBJ-COURT-MANDATE · Record / artifact
The Crate-Lid Mandate
A reused crate lid carries the representation question and the court's limited delegation. Amel and Nara must report back; neither gains general authority to surrender the court's food. Evening review permits replacement.
Object-led study of worn wood and chalk. Only established words may be typeset; do not invent signatures or a finished constitution.
A2-OBJ-DELIVERY-COST · Artifact / evidence
Davit's Shirt Strip
A strip wrapped around the handcart handle becomes bloodstained. Amel brings it to the supply meeting alongside the report of a successful ward repair; it makes the cost at the receiving end visible.
Restrained still life of cloth beside a dispatch sheet; no gore or invented wound close-up is needed.
A2-OBJ-OFFERED-OFFICE · Place / proposed appointment
The Offered Room
Two receivers, a desk and a cushioned chair offer practical capacity as well as the temptation of personal office. Nara does not accept the appointment. Food questions remain eligible for help.
Empty room and chair can convey the choice without repeating Nara's portrait.
A2-FACTION-COURT-DELEGATES · Emerging civic association
The Receiving-Court Delegates
Several courts choose limited messengers and discuss recall, reporting times and open hearings. Numerous places remain unreached. This is neither a citywide electorate nor a permanent settlement.
Varied people at work and in discussion; no new faction emblem or uniform has been approved.
A2-OBJ-SHORTENED-QUESTION · Record / public speech
The Question Without the Coat
Nara distinguishes essential public systems from personal possessions. A recorder repeats her inheritance question without that qualification. Marian has not authorised the admirer speaking about her.
Editorial typography can contrast the question and its qualification. Do not create a fabricated verbatim transcript of the entire speech.
A2-OBJ-GRAHAM-RECEIVED · Record
The Forty-Three-Second Received Address
An apparent Graham recording supports Marian's succession and asks obedience to custodians. Pera measures 43 seconds, preserves the received package and sends it to the archive. The source officer and recording time are unverified; no resurrection or completed proof of forgery is established here.
Use a documentary receiving card rather than creating a new canonical Graham likeness. Do not label the receipt time as the filming time.
A2-EVENT-INTERRUPTED-SPEAKER · Event
The Lamp-Oil Request
An ordinary court delegate's request is drowned out by the apparent return of Graham. Nara stands beside her and records the need; attention to the image does not supply the lamp oil.
A benefit is available only while a specific represented Place remains eligible; changing or losing that mandate removes the benefit rather than granting permanent control.
Open design question: Use an existing visible game state to represent the mandate. Do not create an unbounded collection of votes or counters.
Rewards building a local network while leaving room for an opponent to disrupt a connection; occupying a Place is not automatic authority over every Figure there.
Open design question: Keep network scoring bounded and distinct from any existing declaration-and-hold victory requirement.
Separates possession of a Record from verification of its authority. An unverified claim may invite a challenge; exact rewards and penalties remain open.
Open design question: Do not announce the Chapter 9 solution in a Chapter 8 card or make verification equivalent to omniscient knowledge.
Opens on the night of Chapter 7's compact and reaches the fourth evening after Graham's fall; later chapters must respect this elapsed time.
Amel Ryn is the previously unnamed kitchen porter, not Nara under a second name.
The ward lift is reported repaired overnight; the northern coupling and citywide normal service are not declared restored.
Nara has worked at the linen works. Ilen has no established surname; her boy's relationship beyond the reported meal request is not expanded.
Nara's selected mandate is local, conditional and replaceable. She cannot speak for all districts or unilaterally veto every urgent change.
Tern proposes an open receiving session; full acceptance or a permanent democratic council is not yet established.
Marian remains a succession candidate. The recording's claim is not reliable narration of her legal status.
The recording is received through an estate relay; its delivery timestamp is not its recording date. No named culprit, link to UNKNOWN, or resurrection is established.
Nara's political disagreement and the convenience of the message are reasons to ask questions, not proofs of forgery.
Industrial Spine is already used in the published Chapter 7 prose. Chapter 9 must not use that phrase alone as a supposedly new posthumous word proving the recording false.
The Organiser portrait is a reused concept, not proof of a parade, faction insignia or specific clothing in the kitchen scenes. Game ideas remain untested.