Catalogue
Everything the story has put on the bench so far, and nothing it hasn’t.
Showing what the story has revealed through Chapter 1.
Newly shown
Items
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Boar spear
ItemCommonRawMain hand
A nineteenth-century reproduction from the Arsenal's end rack, consisting of two metres of sound ash tipped by a leaf-shaped head. Taken by Owen in place of an original halberd, its riveted crossbar tore loose during a Rook-Hound's charge and now rests in his pocket. The spear itself leans against the wall beside the door, sharp, raw, and un-attuned. Ch. 1 -
Gorget of Duke Albrekt's garniture
ItemCommonRawNeck
Two overlapping throat plates with a roped edge, once blued and now the colour of a pond in February, struck twice on the lower plate with an overlapping crowned hammer mark. Laid on the grey felt of Vic Doyle's bench among the seven surviving pieces of Duke Albrekt of Vendal's garniture, it read under the beam as a dormant neck piece of an unattuned Regalia. Vic touched its edge bare-fingered after the Assay confirmed the set's count. Ch. 1 -
Longsword, Vendal pattern
ItemCommonRawMain hand
Vic's own modern reproduction of a blade in the Arsenal's collection, a hundred and twenty centimetres long, kept in a wool bag after six years of practice on straw mats and water bottles. It took first blood against a Rook-Hound, rolling the edge into a bright wave a third of the way down from the point where it struck skull. Ch. 1
Regalia
Creatures
Classes
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Collector of Arms
ClassCommonRaw
A Common Raw Vocation concerned with maintaining and completing martial equipment. It is one of three offers presented to Vic, and the one he wants, recalling the word he entered on forms when lending pieces from his small collection at home. Its fixed allocations grant no increases to Strength or Agility. Ch. 1 -
Watchman
ClassCommonRaw
One of the three Vocations offered to Owen by the Assay after its first hour of watching. He reads its name among the writing in the middle distance beside the sword point resting on the tiles. Ch. 1
Arsenal Custodian
ClassCommonRaw
A Common Raw Vocation concerned with keeping a store of arms fit for use, and the middle of the three offers presented to Vic. It reflects his past work photographing armour and arranging expensive items in fitted drawers, though it grants no fixed Strength or Agility. Vic reviewed the offer before setting it aside to compare with the others. Ch. 2
Muster Swordsman
ClassCommonRaw
A Common Raw Vocation suited to fighting with a blade alongside others, offered to Vic on the shore road. Its allocations favour physical force and swiftness with a balance of unassigned points, but provide no fixed increases to senses or resolve. Its first skill offer lies several levels ahead. Ch. 2Attributes
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Affinity
AttributeSoul
The first of the three Soul attributes, grouped alongside Presence and Luck. It sits at Vic's second-lowest baseline across his nine attributes, though nothing has yet revealed what function it governs or what it affects. Ch. 1 -
Agility
AttributeBody
The second of the Body attributes, grouped with Strength and Vitality. A Rook-Hound possesses a higher rating in the measure than Vic. The common vocation offered to him, Collector of Arms, grants no fixed increase to Agility as levels advance. Ch. 1 -
Health
AttributeResources
The first of three resource pools printed together beneath the attributes, alongside Stamina and Mana. It is governed by Vitality rather than taking direct point investment, and forms one of the baseline pools recorded after the lights failed. Ch. 1 -
Intellect
AttributeMind
The first Mind attribute. Vic holds a baseline score in it alongside Perception and Will, and nothing has moved it from where it began. Ch. 1 -
Luck
AttributeSoul
The third Soul attribute, grouped alongside Affinity and Presence, and Vic's lowest standing score. Nothing has yet revealed what function it serves. Ch. 1 -
Mana
AttributeResources
The third resource pool, recorded alongside Health and Stamina beneath the attributes. Vic carries a baseline supply of it, which remains untouched after the arming. Ch. 1 -
Perception
AttributeMind
The second Mind attribute, and the highest score on Vic's baseline sheet. His offered vocation as a Collector of Arms promises three points in it for every level gained, which made him consider the photographs of rivets he sent south that never showed them clearly enough. Ch. 1 -
Presence
AttributeSoul
The second of the three Soul attributes, grouped alongside Affinity and Luck. Nothing has yet shown what function it serves or what it governs. Ch. 1 -
Stamina
AttributeResources
The second resource pool. Vic's baseline is 125. Ch. 1 -
Strength
AttributeBody
The first Body attribute. Vic's baseline is 14; he spends two free points here after choosing his Vocation. Ch. 1 -
Vitality
AttributeBody
The third Body attribute: it governs Health, regeneration and resistance to poison and disease. Ch. 1 -
Will
AttributeMind
The third Mind attribute. Vic's baseline is 15; Collector of Arms adds two a level. Ch. 1
People
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Dan Marsh
Person
Owen's adult son, who lives with Ruth in the flats above the bakery behind the ferry terminal. Ch. 1 -
Owen Marsh
Person
The Arsenal's night guard, fifty-four, whose rounds go through the workshop because it has the good kettle; his son and daughter-in-law live behind the ferry terminal. Ch. 1 -
Ruth
Person
Owen's daughter-in-law, a baker with flour on one shoulder and a pencil holding up her hair, who lives with Dan behind the ferry terminal. Ch. 1 -
Vic Doyle
Person
An armour conservator at the Vendal Arsenal, twenty-eight, six years a longsword practitioner, who stayed late to photograph the inside of a gorget on the night the lights went out. Ch. 1
Len
Person
A fishmarket night-shift worker with a crowbar and a glove held in his teeth, clearing the gravel from a sticking gate track. Ch. 2
Colin
Person
An older neighbour from the floor above Dan and Ruth's flat, who brought down half a loaf, a biscuit tin and a kettle of water that was hot when it arrived. Ch. 3
Helen
Person
Tess's helper since the start of the night, taking notes beside the patients behind the terminal café counter. Ch. 3
June
Person
The ferry worker running the terminal refuge with a clipboard, six staff and two doors she cannot keep holding. Ch. 3
Mrs Bell
Person
A neighbour in a rain bonnet who has lived above the bakery for thirty-one years and can find the tap. Ch. 3
Perry
Person
A narrow ferry worker who came in wet to the knee from checking on the fishmarket, and agrees to go and look at the Arsenal, not to move everyone there. Ch. 3
Tess Ward
Person
A paramedic of twenty years treating everyone who can find her at the ferry terminal. Ch. 3Places
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Ferry terminal
Place
The east-side ferry terminal behind which Dan and Ruth live; on the night of the Assaying its staff turn it into a refuge. Ch. 1 -
Shore road
Place
The road between the Arsenal's steps and the harbour, lit only by the headlights of stopped cars on the night the grid fails. Ch. 1 -
Vendal
Place
A small northern port city, the Arsenal on its plaza above the roofs and the harbour below, on the night every electric light in it goes out. Ch. 1 -
Vendal Arsenal
Place
A seventeenth-century arsenal turned armour museum on a plaza above the roofs and harbour of Vendal, where Vic works and Owen keeps the night watch. Ch. 1
Fishmarket
Place
The long cold-store shed where the shore road bends inland, with a yard gate on a sticking track and four night-shift workers waiting upstairs. Ch. 2System
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Attunement
System term
Something an item can be to a person. Every card so far says Not attuned, and the sheet counts Attuned none of five. Ch. 1 -
Baseline
System term
What the Assay applies from a life lived before it arrived: Vic's first sheet is his baseline from twenty-eight years unassayed. Ch. 1 -
Beast
System term
The Assay's category for the creatures it seeds. It reads them in the same vocabulary as people: kind, tier, level, and how their body compares with yours. Ch. 1 -
Callings
System term
The third line of classes on the sheet. Nobody in the story has one yet; every sheet so far reads No Callings. Ch. 1 -
Common
System term
The rarity the Assay gives ordinary things: a museum reproduction sword, a boar spear, a four-hundred-year-old gorget, and all three of Vic's Vocation offers. Ch. 1 -
Free points
System term
Attribute points a level grants for you to place yourself; the sheet says how many you are holding. Ch. 1 -
Human
System term
What the sheet says everyone is, before the tier: Vic Doyle. Human, Raw. Ch. 1 -
Level
System term
The Assay's count of what you have done. It starts at one and announces each step as a sentence, with free points to spend. Ch. 1 -
Marks
System term
The currency of the Exchange, of which Vic and Owen hold none. A Common spear and a shield are priced at forty Marks each on the Exchange's list. For the seven surviving pieces of Duke Albrekt's garniture, the Exchange offers one thousand four hundred Marks, an amount Vic calculates as thirty-five spears. Ch. 1 -
Profession
System term
The second track on the sheet, beside Vocation and Callings. Vic's reads No Profession. Ch. 1 -
Raw
System term
The tier everyone and everything starts at: people, beasts, swords and armour alike. The Exchange sells at Raw. Ch. 1 -
Record
System term
The Assay keeps records of deeds. Vic's first: Record, first kill. Rook-Hound, Raw, level four. Ch. 1 -
Regalia
System term
Crown jewels, said Owen. The Assay uses the word for the Duke's garniture: a set of pieces made to be worn with the others, counted seven of eleven. Ch. 1 -
Seeding
System term
The Assay's word for putting beasts into a place. The Arsenal district receives forty beasts of Raw tier for its first grading. Ch. 1 -
Skills
System term
Named abilities a class will offer. None yet: every Vocation offer promises its first skill offer at level five. Ch. 1 -
The Assay
System term
The writing that appears where your eyes are looking, on the night the lights go out: it measures people and things and reports what it finds in short, dry sentences. Ch. 1 -
The Exchange
System term
A slab like slate, waist-high and a little longer than a man lying down, standing where the Arsenal's ticket desk used to be. Put a hand on it and it names prices. Ch. 1 -
Titles
System term
A line on the sheet that so far reads No Titles. Ch. 1 -
Vocation
System term
The Assay's main class. After watching for an hour it offers three, built from what you were and what you have just done. Ch. 1
Follows your place in the story, so it never runs ahead of what you’ve read. Names in the chapters link here.