THE LORE · THE VALE

The Moot's Charter

aka a chartered house, charter law

The Highbridge Trade-Moot's answer to every power that wants a door in the free city without a claim on its stones: license them. A charter buys a foreign house a bench voice, a fixed tithe-rate, and standing to recruit and trade under the Moot's law inside the walls, nothing more, and it can be closed by the same two-thirds vote that unseats a High Reeve.

Highbridge governs the way it does business: competence before blood, a bench for whoever can hold one, and a fee, charter, or vote standing in for whatever a crown would otherwise decide by force. The Moot's Charter is that same civic instinct turned outward. When the High Moot, the Stonewright Moot, or any other power beyond the Vale wanted a standing presence in the city that runs the lower world's roads, the Trade-Moot did not offer them a stone of the city, and it did not refuse them the door either. It wrote them a charter, the same instrument it already uses to seat its own guild delegates. Not every power took the offer. A charter is short and specific. It licenses one house, in one place, for one chartering power, and it is renewed or revoked at the same Reeve-Day session where the benches settle the toll books. In exchange for the license, the chartered house pays a fixed tithe (set by trade volume, not by the power's reach: a galleries factor and a road-clan elder pay the same rate for the same size of room), keeps its recruiting, banking, and dispute-settling inside Moot law while inside the walls, and gets one seated voice on the appropriate bench when the matter touches its people. What it does not get is land, a garrison, or any claim that outlasts the paper. A chartered house is a tenant of the city's law, not a colony of its homeland's. Most chartered houses keep to Charterhouse Row, the newest quarter in Highbridge, stepped in below the Guildrows where the terrace starts to level toward the market square (place.hb-charterhouse-row). A few powers never needed the Row at all. The Far College already held ground in the Guildrows generations before any charter existed, because its Vale-settled founders were never strangers here to begin with (faction.the-hanging-choir, faction.the-listening-college), and the Wheelmoot and House Ashwake keep looser rooms nearer their existing trade, because Reshi caravans and Asheni factors were doing business in Highbridge long before the paper caught up to the practice. One power was offered a charter outright and turned it down: the Keepers of the Deep hold the free-port of Sresh-Dar against every crown that has ever tried to license its salvage-rights, and signing a Highbridge parchment would have been the same surrender by another name. Their Highbridge clerk works out of the Tideward in the Underbridge instead, on the old terms, no charter at all. The charter, in the end, is bureaucracy doing what the Vale's older powers did with a keep and a banner: making a claim legible, revocable, and survivable for everyone at the table, for everyone willing to sign.

KIND

law

ISSUING POWER

The Highbridge Trade-Moot

REVOCATION

a two-thirds closing of the toll books, the same vote that can unseat a High Reeve

DOES NOT GRANT

no land, no garrison, no claim that survives the paper; a chartered house is a tenant of the city's law, not a colony of its homeland

Connected

The Highbridge Trade-MootFACTION · The Moot's Charter is the Trade-Moot's own instrumen…Charterhouse RowPLACE · The charter system is expressed physically as Charte…The GuildrowsPLACE · The charter system extends the same civic instinct b…

Type Fields

kindlaw

issuing_powerfaction.highbridge-trade-moot

grantsa licensed house in the city for one named foreign power, a seated bench voice on matters touching that power's people, standing to recruit, trade, and settle disputes under Moot law inside the walls

obligationsa fixed tithe, set by trade volume rather than the chartering power's reach, submission to Moot law and the Reeve's court while inside the walls, renewal at the same Reeve-Day session that settles the toll books

revocationa two-thirds closing of the toll books, the same vote that can unseat a High Reeve

does_not_grantno land, no garrison, no claim that survives the paper; a chartered house is a tenant of the city's law, not a colony of its homeland

current_chartersfaction.the-high-moot: the Windcut House, faction.the-stonewright-moot: the Stonebench

uncharted_but_presentfaction.the-wheelmoot: kept looser rooms near their existing trade, never needing the formal paper, faction.house-ashwake: a guest-hall kept by long custom rather than charter, faction.the-hanging-choir: present through faction.the-listening-college, its Vale-settled kin, generations before the charter system existed

refused_the_charterfaction.deep-keepers: offered a berth on Charterhouse Row and refused it outright; their Highbridge clerk keeps the Tideward in the Underbridge on the old terms, no charter at all, consistent with their principled refusal to let any crown license Sresh-Dar's salvage-rights

All Relationships (4)

references

→The Highbridge Trade-Moot — The Moot's Charter is the Trade-Moot's own instrument, extending the same civic logic it already uses to seat guild delegates and elect a Reeve to licensing foreign powers.
→The Guildrows — The charter system extends the same civic instinct behind the Guildrows' own hard-won rule (rival halls kept apart, given a licensed door instead of a fight) to powers from beyond the Vale.
→quest.the-post-at-the-span (unresolved) — House Farroad's chartered post at the Span and the Keepers of the Deep's refusal at the Tideward are the concept's two clearest cases in play: one power that signed, one that would not.

expressed_through

→Charterhouse Row — The charter system is expressed physically as Charterhouse Row, though not every power chose to build there.

This world ships in Valenfeld. Play the game →