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-ELIZA · Character
Eliza Marr
Leads the evidence testing of the responsive Graham feed. She distinguishes responsiveness from identity, constructs source-comparison tests, publishes both the Isbister cross-source finding and the later bell-tower catalogue-error finding, and ultimately catalogues the event as a responsive/constructed Graham presentation rather than a verified person.
Use comparison tables, timing notes and archive displays. Avoid a revelatory portrait in which Eliza simply 'knows' the answer.
A2-CHAR-PERA · Character
Pera Sol
Preserves market-booth timing, local copies and live-feed variations without treating successful recording as authentication. Her receiver work is crucial to distinguishing multiple presentations and preserving the event for later comparison.
Market receiver booth, chalk timings and local recorders; no omniscient network console.
A2-CHAR-DARAN · Character
Daran Pell
Helps design traceable source tests, argues for stronger wording when the evidence permits it, and works through the archival comparisons that reveal constructed autobiography.
Working archivist with source piles and marked comparison sheets; avoid senior-official styling.
A2-CHAR-ARUN · Character
Arun Vey
Traces how the feed persists through multiple ordinary legacy routes, isolates only routes that can be safely removed, and observes reactivation requests from old authority services. He does not discover one master broadcast switch.
Service-room displays, legacy routes and raw acceptance logs; no hacker imagery.
A2-CHAR-NARA · Character
Nara Venn
Brings the identity question back to public authority: even a convincing or authentic Graham would still need a defensible basis for command. Her question—why the systems need his name—points directly toward Chapter 17.
Public microphone facing a screen and mandate hooks; keep the scene civic rather than devotional.
A2-CHAR-MARIAN · Character
Marian Vale
Refuses to recognise the feed's authority over her, the succession inquiry or disputed public-use property, even while declining to declare the figure false. Her position separates identity from entitlement to command.
Audience-side view of Marian facing the screen, not a confrontation staged as ruler versus ruler.
A2-CHAR-ROOK · Character
Commander Rook
Tests aerial relay isolation and pushes for broader shutdowns, but accepts that legacy routes cannot all be severed without service consequences. His operational suspicion does not become identity proof.
Weather-room relay board or route map, not combat aircraft.
A2-EVENT-RESPONSIVE-FEED · Broadcast event
The Responsive Graham Feed
A Graham likeness answers current questions across multiple screens and routes. The chapter establishes responsiveness and distributed presentation; responsiveness alone does not authenticate identity or reveal the mechanism.
Different receivers showing related but non-identical presentations; avoid one canonical 'true Graham' portrait.
A2-OBJ-PRESENTATION-TIMINGS · Evidence record
The Unequal Feed Timings
Market, Council House, transport and private receivers receive related presentations with different delays and some wording variation. The evidence supports multiple presentations or relay variation rather than literal simultaneity.
Four timestamp rows and response fragments; no invented network topology.
A2-OBJ-ISBISTER-TEST · Evidence comparison
The Isbister Source Test
The feed presents yellow-lichen and slipping details found in Isbister's separate sketchbook as Graham's first-person recollection. This strongly supports composition from archival sources but does not alone identify the system or prove every possible source available to a living operator.
Three-column comparison: Graham account, Isbister sketchbook, feed answer.
A2-OBJ-BELL-TOWER-ERROR · Evidence comparison
The Bell-Tower Catalogue Error
A later catalogue incorrectly described a ship's mast in Isbister's sketch as a bell tower. The feed later presents that posthumous catalogue error as Graham's first-person memory, demonstrating constructed autobiography from later archival material.
The archive's bounded classification for a feed that constructs autobiographical claims from archival records. It does not decide whether the system is autonomous, human-operated or built by another mechanism, and it does not grant personhood or authority.
Archive heading with findings and explicit unresolved mechanism field.
A2-OBJ-LEGACY-ROUTES · Infrastructure pathways
The Legacy Authority Routes
The feed persists by appearing through different pre-existing service, public and estate channels. Some routes can be isolated; others also carry essential functions. There is no single citywide off switch.
Route diagram with several ordinary channels and selected isolation marks; avoid cyberattack aesthetics.
A2-EVENT-REACTIVATION · System event
The Reactivation Requests
After the feed says 'Restore the black-seal protocols,' connected legacy systems begin presenting local reactivation requests. Some are rejected, some held and some accepted; the city does not wake as one machine.
Multiple local status panels with reject/hold/accepted outcomes, not one giant activation lever.
A2-OBJ-PRINCIPAL-RECOGNISED · Machine acceptance record
Principal Recognised
A raw machine record reports PRINCIPAL RECOGNISED and points onward to an old Council identity service. The record establishes machine acceptance of an identity reference, not that the accepted principal is biologically Graham or lawfully entitled to command.
Raw log excerpt and unresolved registry reference; preserve the exact uncertainty.
A2-PLACE-COUNCIL-IDENTITY-SERVICE · System / registry
The Old Council Identity Service
The principal reference resolves toward an old identity service beneath the Council House. Chapter 16 does not open or explain the registry; it establishes the next investigative target for Chapter 17.
Prompts several existing legacy authority cards to request reactivation; each must resolve under its own local state rather than all activating automatically.
Open design question: Cap the number of affected objects and use existing ready/disabled states.
Records machine acceptance of a principal reference while leaving identity truth and lawful entitlement unresolved; it seeds the next chapter's identity-system mechanics.
Open design question: Do not let recognition equal ownership or authentication of the represented person.
Chapter 16 begins directly from Chapter 15's apparently responsive Graham feed.
The feed answers current questions, but responsiveness is not treated as identity authentication.
The Isbister lichen test shows cross-source archival composition; it does not alone exclude every possible living operator who has read the archive.
The bell-tower test is stronger because the detail derives from a known later catalogue error. It establishes constructed first-person autobiography from later archival material.
The archive uses bounded terms such as Constructed Graham Presentation or Responsive Graham Presentation, not a final claim about autonomous AI, personhood or a surviving Graham.
Marian does not recognise the feed's authority, even without declaring the figure false.
Legacy broadcast routes are ordinary inherited service/public/estate pathways. The feed does not require one magical citywide transmitter.
Some legacy routes cannot be isolated immediately because they also carry essential services.
The command 'Restore the black-seal protocols' causes local reactivation requests, not one instantaneous total takeover.
Some local systems reject or hold reactivation; others accept. This uneven response must carry into Chapter 17.
The raw machine phrase PRINCIPAL RECOGNISED establishes acceptance of an identity reference, not the identity's truth or lawful authority.
The old Council identity service beneath the Council House is identified as the next investigative target but is not yet opened or explained.
Chapter 17 must discover how names and identity hierarchy mediate system permissions; Chapter 16 must not pre-empt that mechanism.
No Chapter 16 evidence identifies who created the feed, who operates it, or whether the same actor caused the bombing, first false record or black-seal depot orders.
Existing Chapter 9 artwork, Chapter 5 notes, Archive 001 content and live game rules remain unchanged.