The book. A physical, cel-bound manuscript kept at the apex of the Catalytic Spire, written in Spire ink, and consulted whenever the colony needs to know what it owes itself. Membership in any house, debt, citizenship, and inheritance all run through it.
§ 01Overview▾
The Ledger is the book of names. Every colonist sworn to a house is in it. Every debt that runs through Kalyx scrip is in it. Every casualty filing from the Spire is in it. Every Vale who ever held the Iron Oath is in it. It is updated in Spire ink — a catalysis-rendered pigment that does not lift, fade, or reformat — and only by the keeper, who is always Vale.
"The Ledger Closes" is the Vale motto and the Vale habit. When a line item in the Ledger closes, it stays closed. Removing a name from the Ledger is the only act of state that will get a System Lord deposed. Adding a name is a ceremony; opening the book at all is a procedural event.
§ 02In Practice▾
Every official act on Chroma Colony — citizenship, marriage, inheritance, conscription, debt collection — is settled by reference to the Ledger. The book itself rarely leaves the Spire. Lower-tier scribes work from authenticated copies; a discrepancy between any copy and the original is resolved by the original, and the discrepancy itself is filed.