Braid-Law & the Quiet Economy

The Braid-Law (civil charter)

Right-of-Way: Triple-braid mains take priority over double-braid streets; single-lines are private.
Tether Clause: Any traveller found Unmoored must be offered a clip to the nearest public line. Refusal is legal; cutting a line is a felony.
Stewardship: Every settlement keeps a Line Ledger (bead-rod) naming stewards for each span; neglect fines are paid in rope fibre (“strands”).
Seal & Witness: Contracts are bound with a knot-seal (maker’s twist) and a palm-print wax. Two living witnesses hold duplicate bead-receipts.
Sanctuary Lines: Ropes that pass shrines, clinics, or archives are dyed with cold wax; combat and tolls are forbidden on these spans.

Braids (high value): measured rope lengths stamped with a guild’s twist & maker beads.
Beads (day-to-day): carved tokens with textures (grain = 1, faceted = 5, fluted = 10).
Pins (small change): felt-sleeved metal pins used for fares and ferries.
Barter is common, but toll-tables on mains set prices in Beads. Contraband: bells, mirrors, lamp-oils, unsleeved steel.

Sample Toll-Table (public main)

Cartographers by Touch: map, string, and tax the mains; keep bead-ledgers.
Weavers & Ropemakers: spin Aura Thread, maintain knot-seals.
Moss-Farmers: cultivate Muffle Moss in stepped beds; sell paste permits.
Blackglassers: fire hush-ceramic for wards, ovens, and lantern hoods.
Bafflemakers: craft breath-baffles and step-abaci; sworn to test in silence.
Threadcasters: mages who replace speech with traced cords; hire out as ritual notaries.
Each guild imposes a Quiet Ordeal (blindfold task under steward audit) for mastery.

Fungus Columns: pressure-vented towers grown on bone-ash; harvest by touch calendar.
Bulb Terraces: root crops in felted soil trays; watered through wick-lines.
Ink Sea Fisheries: scoop-nets pulled with anti-splash rigs; oar strokes use irregular cadence to dodge Echo Wraith patterns.
Cold Cellars: stacked brine jars muffled in moss; lids keyed by tactile seals.

Palmhouses: schools where letters are cords, numbers are bead-runs.
Games train step counts, rope dancing, and pulse-listening.
Cordfast (coming-of-age): youth must navigate a civic loop alone and return with a steward’s seal; success grants public-line rights.

Binding: marriage is a two-strand braid knotted by kin; yearly unbraiding & rebraiding renews vows.
House Signs: families mark thresholds with unique knot-glyphs readable by touch.
Adoption: adding a third strand to the house braid; recorded in the Line Ledger.

Hand-Vigil: the living keep one palm on the deceased for a full Length (time unit) in silence.
Knotstones: memory cords sealed into stone sockets; histories are read by patterned strokes.
Quiet Processions: routed via sanctuary lines at night-tide; Pin offerings fund steward care.

Treaties are crossed braids kept in neutral archives; cutting a treaty-braid is declaration of war.
Tactics: decoy Pings at range, line-stealing, and supply strangulation. Bell-weapons and fire are outlawed under Braid-Law.
Wardens: masked arbiters who enforce the charter; punishments are Shunning, Service on Lines, or Strand Fines.

Practical units used by guilds:

Beat = one resting heartbeat.
Span = 120 Beats (about 2 minutes).
Length = 12 Spans (about 24 minutes).
Weave = 12 Lengths (about 5 hours).
Turn = 3 Weaves (day-cycle used in ledgers).
Festivals are marked by Rebraidings (civic maintenance days) rather than seasons.

Rebraiding Day: whole town services lines; tolls waived.
Quenching: blackglassers extinguish test lamps with Quencher Powder; donations fund wards.
Threadnight: Threadcasters notarise public vows and disputes by tracing shared cords.
Vigil of Hands: names of the unreturned are read by touch along the archive wall.

Use this page when play shifts from survival to civics: markets, politics, oaths, and the weight of the lines that hold the Null together.