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-ARUN · Character
Arun Vey
Traces identity resolution as infrastructure rather than magic, separates role classes from legal status, builds the temporary freeze, and discovers that the new UNKNOWN record entered as a delegated principal rather than a new MASTER classification.
Service-room boards, registry terminals and role-translation diagrams; avoid hacker imagery or a single glowing master console.
A2-CHAR-ELIZA · Character
Eliza Marr
Insists on source preservation, forensic copies and bounded claims. She refuses to destroy the identity registry or UNKNOWN because deletion could erase evidence and leave replicated copies unexplained.
Forensic registry copies, checksum notes and evidence labels rather than a visionary portrait.
A2-CHAR-NARA · Character
Nara Venn
Keeps public witnesses and service consequences inside the identity investigation. She reframes the mechanism from 'systems trust names' to the more precise insight that systems may trust whoever an accepted principal names.
Public witness scene, notice boards and the authority wall; no throne or central-command pose.
A2-CHAR-MARIAN · Character
Marian Vale
Discovers that her own registry status remains SUCCESSION SUBJECT — UNRESOLVED, with only narrow access and notice permissions. She insists machine classification cannot establish succession or ownership by itself.
Marian reading the unresolved succession field; avoid an inheritance-crown motif.
A2-CHAR-ROOK · Character
Commander Rook
Initially wants the MASTER record disabled or destroyed, then accepts a more limited freeze and local isolation once the registry's ordinary service dependencies become visible. He immediately supports disabling UNKNOWN while preserving the evidence trail.
Doorway or registry-board scene, not aircraft combat.
A2-CHAR-PERA · Character
Pera Sol
Records the investigation, maintains public witness evidence, spots the registry checksum divergence and publishes the UNKNOWN record with its unresolved fields and local disabled status.
A layered identity service beneath the old Council House translates historical principal and role records into permissions used by modern systems. It is not one timeless machine; generations of readers, translation layers and service links have accumulated around it.
Rows of mismatched cabinets and reader generations beneath the Council House; no science-fiction vault door.
A2-OBJ-ROLE-HIERARCHY · Identity framework
The Role Hierarchy
Includes classes such as MASTER, TRUSTEE, CUSTODIAN, CONTRACTOR, WORKER and PUBLIC, plus system-specific classes. Translation tables map those historical roles into modern permissions differently across services.
Role list beside several translation tables; avoid presenting it as a universal legal hierarchy.
A2-OBJ-GRAHAM-MASTER · Principal record
Graham, the Sleeper — MASTER
The accepted principal associated with the Second Graham resolves to ROLE CLASS MASTER and links to estate, council, trustee, voice, signature and historical identity references. The record is an intersection of references, not a single biometric proof.
Registry record with references visible; no portrait used as authentication.
A2-OBJ-SUCCESSION-SUBJECT · Principal status
Succession Subject — Unresolved
Marian's family-line record places her under SUCCESSION SUBJECT — UNRESOLVED rather than MASTER. It grants narrow document and verification functions but no owner override or emergency command.
Different systems translate the same principal role into different permissions: service override, continuity authority, priority communication or preserved-service access. This explains why one accepted identity can affect many systems without one universal command protocol.
One principal feeding several service-specific permission mappings.
A2-OBJ-IDENTITY-FREEZE · Temporary control record
The Temporary Identity Freeze
Temporarily blocks new high-level classifications and unsourced reclassification while allowing essential worker and contractor updates. It is implemented through several authorities rather than one citywide constitutional act.
A temporary rule sheet with separate implementing authorities and explicit expiry/review notes.
A2-OBJ-SERVICES-BREAK · Engineering exception list
Services That Break If We Are Too Pure
An engineering list records essential services harmed by overly broad identity freezes, including hospital maintenance, water-chemical access and lift rescue. It forces the investigation to account for ordinary workers as well as high-level authority.
Handwritten exception list beside service diagrams; retain the informal title.
A2-OBJ-DELEGATED-PRINCIPAL · Identity mechanism
Delegated Principal
The registry allows a recognised high-level principal to create a child principal whose permitted functions are inherited through service translation. This mechanism bypasses the first freeze because it is delegation, not role reclassification.
Parent-principal and child-delegation diagram; no family-tree symbolism suggesting biological descent.
A2-OBJ-UNKNOWN · Delegated principal record
UNKNOWN
A new delegated principal appears beneath the recognised MASTER principal with no birth record, photograph, legal instrument, biometric source, signature package or civil origin. It is disabled locally but has already replicated to three systems.
Sparse registry card with blank provenance fields and status DISABLED LOCALLY · COPIES UNDER REVIEW.
A2-OBJ-PUBLIC-WITNESS · Evidence procedure
The Public Witness Procedure
Two assembly-selected witnesses observe entry, copies, isolation steps and later checksum divergence. Their presence does not make technical findings true by vote; it makes key investigative actions independently observable.
Cannot receive broad ownership benefits from identity classification alone, but gains a bounded response when another effect attempts to treat status as title.
Open design question: Keep this tied to identity-sourced claims rather than all ownership mechanics.
Enters play with inherited but bounded authority and no established identity source. It can be disabled without being discarded, preserving later evidence interactions.
Open design question: Do not let the mystery identity become a wildcard that copies arbitrary powers.
Chapter 17 follows the Chapter 16 finding PRINCIPAL RECOGNISED and the old Council identity service path beneath the Council House.
The black seal is not itself the machine-control mechanism. Presentation, credential chain, identity resolution and service permission must remain distinct.
The Council identity service is layered infrastructure assembled over generations, not one pristine ancient computer.
GRAHAM, THE SLEEPER resolves to ROLE CLASS MASTER, but that registry classification is not narrator-confirmed legal ownership or biological identity.
Marian remains SUCCESSION SUBJECT — UNRESOLVED and gains no owner override, emergency command or MASTER status in this chapter.
The Graham MASTER classification was retained pending succession for continuity reasons and repeatedly migrated into newer systems.
The translation layer maps historical roles into different modern permissions; not every system grants the same powers.
The temporary freeze blocks new high-level roles and unsourced reclassification but initially misses delegation from an already recognised MASTER principal.
Identity controls affect ordinary workers, payroll, maintenance and access. The investigation cannot safely solve the problem by simply deleting the registry.
UNKNOWN is a delegated principal, not a new MASTER classification. It has no recorded legal or biographical origin.
The write creating UNKNOWN is accepted through a recognised principal session. This does not identify the human or system actor behind that session.
UNKNOWN is locally disabled but has already appeared in a freight registry, municipal relay directory and estate notice service. No defence system is confirmed to have accepted it yet.
Eliza preserves UNKNOWN rather than deleting it so replication and provenance can be investigated.
Chapter 18 must inherit a city whose identity machinery is partially frozen and fragmented; no single authority now controls every accepted command path.
Existing Chapter 9 artwork, Chapter 5 notes, Archive 001 content and live game rules remain unchanged.