The Standard and the Weavegrid

A service hall connects everyday business to the wider House economy.

The Mana Standard is the shared framework behind many House services: identity certification, customer access, device certification, and contract authorization. It began around 1032 YK and spread gradually. By 1250, the same enrollment credential is familiar at transit hubs, clinics, banks, and other registered services.

The Houses retain separate accounts, prices, interests, and competing businesses. The Twelve is their longstanding cooperative forum; the Twelve Concord is its modern agreement for common business.

Enrollment and everyday access

Registration is deliberately simple. At a service desk, a witness medallion receives a small blood trace or another appropriate personal trace. People without blood can enroll too. Sivis certifies the identity, and the individual provider opens its account.

The shared identifier means a customer does not begin from nothing at every participating counter. A transit desk can recognize a credential also used for another House service. Plans, prices, and obligations remain with the relevant providers, so enrollment can lead to several distinct accounts.

Closing an account ends that service. Paperwork varies, and some providers require the credential to be returned. Price changes come with notice and a cancellation right. Basic services are usually easier to leave than a long agreement that requires repeated visits and letters.

When verification fails

Changelings frequently encounter refusals after an ordinary change of appearance. A Sivis review can resolve the mismatch, but the delay still matters. The person who regains access tomorrow may have missed today's shift or journey.

Warforged enroll using an appropriate personal trace rather than a blood sample. Their legal personhood includes people whose bodies differ from the assumptions of an ordinary registration desk.

The Weavegrid

People call the linked stations, registered hubs, wards, certified devices, and workers the Weavegrid. Coverage has gaps, and clerks still carry out much of the work.

A household device may run locally. Keeping it useful can depend on supplies, replacement parts, authentication, or the next contracted maintenance visit. An independent maker may be able to help, while licensing and certification complicate commercial repairs. Personal cantrips remain legal; selling spellwork or altering certified devices faces uneven permits, inspection, and fees.

Sending a message

Sivis communication passes through stations and couriers. Speaking stones and shared scroll rooms provide a fast postal or telegraph-like service. Access is organized around those facilities and the people who operate them.

A lower-ward resident checks a building's message slots for a scroll slip. One room has locks and careful management; another relies on neighbors leaving the right slip alone. Wealthier clients pay for faster, private delivery. A message's arrival and the time its recipient actually reads it can be very different things.

Records and service

Clerks and visitors work among the galleries of an arcane archive.