Compiled for: Courts, Admiralties, Charter Offices, and Captains who intend to “make an offer.”
Status: Civilian (by his own insistence) / Strategic-grade asset (by everyone else’s panic)
Escort: The Harlet Sixty (publicly “guards,” privately “graduates”)
Primary Risk: Underestimation → irreversible casualties
“He refuses titles the way other men refuse chains.”
—Pearl Court clerk, after being corrected for the fifth time
Osmosis Harlet’s name travels in three versions:
The Public Version — “Genius civilian. Wealthy. Hires out.”
Safe to say in taverns. Intended to keep attention survivable.
The Professional Version — “Collegium-level builder. Pearl logic. Battlefield engineering.”
Used by captains, quartermasters, and anyone who has watched him solve a problem in minutes.
The Sealed Version — “Sword-God caliber with a battalion trained to move as one.”
Known by very few. Spoken aloud by almost none.
His most common nicknames (unofficial):
The Civilian King (ironic—meaning “he rules without banners”)
Gold-Root (because of the dread tips and the way he “roots” a situation in place)
Harlet’s Law (because once he refuses something, it stays refused)
Osmosis treats every interaction like a controlled experiment.
1) He does not negotiate status.
He negotiates scope. If someone calls him “Lord,” “Master,” “Admiral,” or “Prince,” he corrects them once—politely. The second time, the Sixty begin repositioning without being told.
2) He accepts payment in three categories:
Materials (rare metals, valves, pearl casings, timber, live sealants)
Access (drydock time, restricted charts, legal clearance, stasis rooms)
Silence (real, enforceable silence—signed, witnessed, and backed by consequences)
Gold is useful, but gold is not impressive.
3) He offers outcomes, not loyalty.
People who try to “recruit” him get the same answer:
“I am not joining. I am solving.”
4) His red line is civilians.
Threaten his protected people, or use them as leverage, and you won’t get “a fight.”
You’ll get a lesson, performed by sixty professionals who learned violence as grammar.
What they want: his notes, his methods, his hands.
What they fear: that he proves the Collegium is optional.
How Osmosis handles them:
He speaks their language, then refuses their leash.
He will trade results for equipment access.
He never stays long enough to be “assigned.”
He uses bureaucracy as a shield—ironically better than the bureaucrats do.
Collegium Doctrine Note:
If you attempt to detain him for “mandatory study,” you will not succeed.
You will simply be remembered as the lab that tried.
What they want: ownership-by-paper.
What they fear: that he cannot be owned.
How Osmosis handles them:
He treats Dynasty officials like weather: predictable, dangerous, navigable.
He answers only in documents, deadlines, and provable deliverables.
He will let an Auditor believe they “won,” as long as the outcome is the same outcome he intended.
His Dynasty rule:
“If you want control, show me the constraints. I’ll show you the loopholes.”
Most effective approach: hire him publicly, praise him loudly, then leave him alone.
The Dynasty hates this. That is why it works.
What they want: either obedience or removal.
What they fear: a civilian who is better trained than their champions.
How Osmosis handles them:
With respect—not because they deserve it, but because it prevents escalation.
He never insults the Shogunate; he simply refuses to kneel.
When pushed, he doesn’t argue. He provides a cost estimate in blood and ships.
Shogunate internal warning:
Attempting to “confiscate” Harlet assets is treated as an act of piracy by Harlet’s own security. He will not call it war. He will call it cleanup.
Osmosis’ relationship with Privateers is complicated: he likes competence, despises theater.
Osmosis’ approach: silence, punctuality, clean math.
He respects Tetsu’s doctrine and does not attempt to charm him.
What Tetsu thinks: Harlet is a destabilizer who behaves like a stabilizer.
Result: cautious tolerance—so long as Harlet does not create “legend drift” in the northern routes.
Osmosis’ approach: contract fencing.
He treats Shin like a mirror—beautiful, sharp, and dangerous to touch.
What Shin thinks: Harlet is a nightmare asset because he’s legally clean and socially unownable.
Result: Shin attempts soft capture via favors, titles, “advisory seats.”
Harlet sidesteps all of it and sells Shin solutions the way you sell medicine—measured doses.
Osmosis’ approach: blunt honesty.
He speaks to Rokuji like you speak to a storm—directly, without flattery.
What Rokuji thinks: Harlet is suspicious because he “smells like money” but talks like a soldier.
Result: mutual respect if Harlet proves he’s not hiding civilians behind law.
If Rokuji ever saw the sealed version of Harlet’s blade work, he would either recruit him or break him on principle.
What pirates want: to buy him, rob him, or force him.
What they fear: that he’s the kind of civilian who makes kings irrelevant.
How Osmosis handles pirates:
He treats reputation like a currency exchange.
He will do business with pirates who keep their word.
He will not do business with pirates who hurt civilians “because it’s easy.”
His pirate rule:
“If your crew can’t be controlled by your captain, I will not improve your ship.
I don’t upgrade disasters.”
What Crownhold wants: stability, profit, and stories.
What Crownhold fears: anything that brings Shogunate fire down the sinkhole.
How Osmosis handles Crownhold:
He pays fair, tips heavy, and never starts fights in the wrong rooms.
He respects Mufasa’s “neutral ground” because it’s functional.
If forced, he will fight like a surgeon, not a pirate.
Crownhold rumor: the Harlet Sixty have walked through riots like a ship through fog—quiet, inevitable, leaving order behind them.
What Epsilon wants: to measure him.
What they fear: finding out they’re smaller than they thought.
How Osmosis handles Epsilon:
He rarely enters their games, because games create obligations.
He will hire bounty hunters as tools, not allies.
He does not flinch at their violence; he simply prices it.
If Epsilon ever tried to “collect” Harlet the way they collect legends, they would learn why some legends choose not to be famous.
What they want: gold, leverage, spectacle.
What they fear: disciplined formation warfare that ignores intimidation.
How Osmosis handles them:
He avoids them unless they threaten his protected people.
If forced into conflict, he deploys the Mobile Cannon Wall as a moral statement:
“This is what your boarding looks like when met by adults.”
Public relationship: mutual respect, minimal entanglement.
Real dynamic: Mufasa understands what Harlet is and chooses not to poke it.
How Osmosis treats Mufasa: like a man who carries a city on his back.
Not fear—acknowledgment.
Mufasa’s take (rumored):
“Harlet isn’t loyal. Harlet is consistent.
That’s rarer.”
Mako is one of the few who speaks to Harlet without performance.
How Osmosis treats her: as a fellow professional—equal authority in her domain.
He does not argue with surgeons about surgery.
Mako’s private opinion: Harlet is dangerous because he will do the correct thing even if it offends everyone in the room.
Orren respects skill, hates mystery, and Harlet is both.
How Osmosis treats him: with leverage that looks like encouragement.
He gives Orren problems that make Orren better—then pays him enough to forgive it.
How Osmosis treats him: with controlled neutrality.
Kaigan is too competent to insult, too political to trust.
Harlet’s working method: never threaten, never kneel, never give Kaigan a “clean reason” to act.
Most think Mujin is dead. Harlet acts like he might not be.
How Osmosis carries the truth: as a private measurement of his own blade.
Not a boast. A reminder.
If Mujin ever returned and spoke the truth aloud, Harlet’s entire “civilian shield” would crack.
So Harlet keeps it buried.
Drake would like Harlet. That’s the problem.
How Osmosis handles Drake-type captains: with friendly distance.
Because men like Drake turn respect into invitations—and invitations become obligations.
Harlet does not moralize at Xandar. He catalogues him.
How Osmosis handles monsters under a charter: by ensuring they never have an excuse to point at him.
Xandar respects that. He hates it. He keeps his distance.
Harm sees talent as investment.
How Osmosis handles him: as a rising blade—useful, ambitious, easily overextended.
Harlet would hire Harm for one clean task, pay him fairly, then vanish before Harm builds a narrative around it.
Redbeard is a legend who enjoys being seen.
How Osmosis handles him: politely refuses the stage.
They are oil and fire in temperament—both old enough to recognize that a clash would create a war neither actually wants.
If you want Osmosis to work with you:
You bring:
a defined problem
a hard deadline
permission to operate without supervision
and you do not waste his time with intimidation
You do not bring:
titles
ownership language (“you’ll serve,” “you’ll join,” “you’ll be assigned”)
threats to civilians
or “tests” designed to make him perform
Because if you test Osmosis Harlet…
…you may get a result you can’t survive explaining.