Guild Age

0–400 · Teo

How was this made?

The age when appraisal became an institution. The Grand Court judges real from fake with ranks and regulations, and a single sigil on a certificate can decide a craftsman's life. In the gaps of a system grown too orderly, an eye the regulations never wrote down is beginning to open.

Season 1 “The Washer's Afterimage”

With the provisional-sigil assessment ahead of him, the apprentice appraiser Teo notices an odd technical agreement between an unmarked candlestick his brother Lowe brings in and an appraisal his master Vallen got wrong thirty years ago. Understanding none of it, Teo writes a certificate of facts alone, and comes away with the recommendation.

  1. OpeningThe structural match between the candlestick Lowe brought in and the piece Vallen is said to have appraised wrongly.
  2. DevelopmentWhy the genuine piece on record and the features written on the certificate in his hands do not line up.
  3. TurnA correction on the thirty-year-old certificate, in a hand nobody can name.
  4. CrisisHow to write the official certificate for a candlestick of unknown provenance, in front of the assessment.
  5. ResolutionWhat the second necklace left on the windowsill says about Lowe's intent, and where the provisional-sigil assessment goes from here.

Season 2 “The Appraiser's Silence and the Lineage of Deceit”

A story of Teo confronting his own origins and the Grand Court's past through his provisional licensing exam. Caught between the objectivity demanded by his master and the technical truths shown by his brother, he writes an appraisal using only physical facts as his weapon.

  1. OpeningThe question of how the "reverse-stamping" recorded in the thirty-year-old ledger aligns technically with the actual object at hand.
  2. DevelopmentSuspicion regarding the Grand Court's management of seized items and historical ledgers that should be securely stored.
  3. TurnThe inaccuracy of the current appraiser's judgment and the repercussions of the technical features Teo pointed out.
  4. CrisisThe question of how Vallen came to possess the necklace, and the choice of logic Teo will use to complete the appraisal report.
  5. ResolutionThe mystery of which door, either within the Grand Court or the Vesper workshop, the old brass key handed over by Lowe is meant to unlock.