♯ BY ORDER OF THE UNITED HOUSE TRIBUNAL · IN THE LIGHT OF THE ROOT · 395 A.F. ♯
On the Registering of the Gifted
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.
How the Gifted Shall Present Themselves
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.
On the Blessing of Children
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 Tribunal, and Its Right of Muster
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.
Present Your Gift to the Tribunal
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.
The Accounting of Gifts — Declaration Form
Form T-1 · Office of the United House Tribunal
The moment you are accounted, you are theirs — theirs to license, theirs to un-license, theirs to muster when they require someone to put down their own people. The marking upon your body is collar enough. Do not hand them the leash to go with it.
I cannot let you fill this out. There is nothing here for you but the book. Go back up. Stay off the roll. The north and the steppe already have — be one more name they never got.
Submitted declarations are reviewed by the Office of the United House Tribunal. The cathedral thanks the gifted for their faith and their service.