Office of the United House Tribunal · Cathedral of the Grey Saint, Vatira
♯ BY ORDER OF THE UNITED HOUSE TRIBUNAL · IN THE LIGHT OF THE ROOT · 395 A.F. ♯
A gift of the Root is a gift held in trust for all. The cathedral, in its mercy, keeps the account of every gifted soul, that their gift may be guided, blessed, and kept from harm.
It is the law of the five houses, set down by the United House Tribunal, that every soul in whom the Root’s gift has grown visible — whose attunement has marked the body, in eye or horn or hide or bearing — shall present themselves to the Tribunal to be entered in the Accounting of Gifts. This is for the good of the gifted and the safety of the faithful. An unaccounted gift is a danger to its bearer and to all around them.
Upon registering, the gifted soul shall be granted two things: an entry upon their provenance card, recording the nature and degree of their gift; and a license to practise their craft within the territories, that they may use the Root’s gift lawfully and without suspicion. The unlicensed may not practise, teach, or offer their gift, on pain of censure.
The visibly gifted are required to travel to the cathedral at Vatira to be accounted in person, that the Tribunal may witness the gift and weigh its degree. Travel is the duty of the gifted; the Light does not count distance a hardship for the faithful.
For those who cannot make the journey — the aged, the infirm, the deeply marked who can no longer move freely — an Office of the Tribunal is kept in every territory, in each house’s seat, where the gifted may present themselves before a licensed Reliquary of the cathedral and be entered into the Accounting without the long road to Vatira. None are excused; all are accommodated.
Let it be known: a gift left unaccounted is held to be a gift held in defiance. Those who do not present themselves within the appointed season may be denied license to practise; denied shelter, alms, and the sacraments; named before their house; and, should their refusal be judged obstinate, summoned before the Tribunal at the Hollow Crown. The cathedral would rather bless a gift than censure it. The choice belongs to the gifted.
[ here is what the Accounting is, under the gold. they cannot hide the marked — the antlered seer, the crow-eyed cleric, the wolf-eyed of the steppe cannot walk unseen, and so the cathedral makes them come and be written down. once you are in their book, you are theirs to find, theirs to license or un-license, theirs to call when they need you. it is not for your safety. it is a leash, and the marking is the collar you grew yourself. — A. ]
It is a joy in the houses when a child’s gift first shows. The cathedral shares in that joy. A child in whom the Root’s gift awakens may be brought to the cathedral to be blessed in person by the Saint of the present day — a great honour, and a comfort to the family, that the child’s gift is received into the Light from its very beginning. The blessed child is recorded, celebrated, and watched over by the cathedral all their days.
Schools and houses of learning, kept by former Saintsworn and by Reliquary released from their vows, stand ready in the territories to teach the young gifted the discipline of their craft. For the gift untrained is a danger, and the Root’s power, ungoverned, has undone many. Books endure; the learned endure; the cathedral asks only that the learning be done under its blessing and its account.
[ the children look forward to it. that is the part that breaks me. they are excited the day their eyes change or the first horn buds, and the house praises them, and the Saint lays a hand on them, and they feel chosen. and it is just the day they were entered into the book and fitted for the draft. the blessing is real. the love is real. and it is still a leash. teach the young ones, yes — the released Reliquary who teach in the small enclaves are some of the bravest people i know — but teach them what the account is FOR. — A. ]
The United House Tribunal is composed of those few whose families endured at the cathedral’s heart through the long dark — the keepers of the old order, privileged by survival to sit in judgement of gifts. It is their solemn charge to account the gifted, to license the worthy, and, in times of need, to call upon them.
For it is written into the Accounting that a registered gift may be called to the service of the houses in time of war, of uprising, or of unrest — that the gifted, having been blessed and licensed, shall lend their gift to the keeping of the peace when the Tribunal musters them. This is the price and the privilege of the gift. The accounted serve. It is the gifted who keep the houses safe.
[ now you see the whole shape of it. they register you "for your safety." they license you "so you may practise." they bless your children "in joy." and then, when a village will not pay its tithe, or a quarter of the lower city rises, the Tribunal opens the book and conscripts the gifted it has so carefully counted, and sends them to put their own people down. the draft is the point. it was always the point. Volkolak and Eikthyr understood this first — which is why, in the north and on the steppe, the marked simply will not come. they keep their gifted off the book entirely, and the cathedral calls it heresy, and they call it not handing the Tribunal a list of their own children. they are right. — A. ]
All visibly gifted souls are required to complete the Accounting. Enter your particulars below, or present yourself at the cathedral or your territory’s Office of the Tribunal.
Form T-1 · Office of the United House Tribunal
Submitted declarations are reviewed by the Office of the United House Tribunal. The cathedral thanks the gifted for their faith and their service.