Cindralis
Cindralis lends. Mints and loan portfolios out of Byrewater, and a book of sovereign debt that includes, quietly, paper signed by dragons. Cindralis keeps its own counsel on the Accords.
Cindralis is Kinsworn, and means it. Its Wright wears human shape as a member of that people: the oldest and largest member of the family, with its gods, inheritance law and opinion of the neighbours. Its position can be negotiated, but its loyalties can be shamed. The tradition is arcane, which at Byrewater means a college, an archive and a filing habit. It wrote the case law the Accords are now read through. An occult establishment stands beside the arcane one. They share Byrewater and dispute the order of precedence at every ceremony that has one.
The holding
Shirogane-hama — the compound that will not seal second
A gated Amasekan compound above a rock landing on the outer lip of the gulf.
Shirogane-hama stands over a rock landing on the outer lip of the Storvald Gulf, where the tundra shelves into stone and the gulf pilots keep their station along the headland east. The compound is walled and gated, with a counting hall, a shelf-house for the ashes of its dead, and a burning ground an easy walk along the shore from the cairn-field the Hrimgard Watch keeps on this coast; on a westerly the smoke crosses it. The gate has no cultivation; barley, mutton, tallow and hay come in from the Wolds by cart and are weighed at the gate.
Connections
Lending and plate law come out of the same counting hall.
Allies takes this house’s side 0
No house on the ring takes this one’s side.
Neutral trades, and no more than that 5
Steinvald 19 Both houses sell legal work, and each writes contracts in a form the other's courts throw out. Anyone who needs both on one deal pays for two versions of it, a translator, and a third house to hold them together.
Pardahni 22 Cindralis buys Pardahni's stage rents for less than they are worth and takes the contract in two copies sealed two different ways, because Pardahni's ground has no boundary markers a deed could describe. When a payment failed in 803 one copy was refused at the Forge over the order of the signatures, and the whole sum had to be reclaimed elsewhere.
Kaldwyn 45 The two ships that carry Kaldwyn's oil out before the ice are chartered through Cindralis, the freight set against the same season's advance. Those two sailings are the whole of Kaldwyn's export.
Sarventhal 69 Cindralis put up the money to quarry Sarventhal's main cistern in 786, on a contract sealed in the wrong order for the local record office to accept. The loan can therefore only be enforced at the Forge.
Belcarrow 78 Cindralis's compound is fed entirely off Belcarrow: barley, mutton, tallow and hay, delivered inside the gate and weighed there. Belcarrow has begun asking a quarter of the price in advance, and Cindralis records it as a loan.
Enemies has something open against it 2
Faenlorn 01 Ship crews who used to store their season's silver at Faenlorn now store it at Cindralis, which charges less. Faenlorn says an old charter gives it that business; Cindralis says a charter is not a price.
Sturmhalt 58 Sturmhalt's winter wages have been drawn on Cindralis since 788, and because Cindralis wants the debt in writing and Sturmhalt will only swear it aloud, Cindralis keeps a clerk whose entire job is standing in a room and listening. Cindralis also burns its dead an easy walk upwind of the cairn-field the Hrimgard Watch keeps on that shore, and on a westerly the smoke crosses it.
The full account — 7 houses, 8 arrangements
Lending and plate law come out of the same counting hall. A hundred and sixty marks a quarter go to the Hrimgard Watch against the following season's oil, and because Cindralis wants the obligation written while Sturmhalt will only swear it, a Falkvald clerk draws wages to stand in a room and listen. Two hulls a season are chartered out to lift Oarwick's oil before the ice closes the strand. Further off, the Cistern Road's stage rents are discounted at eleven per cent in two copies, one sealed in Amasekan order and one witnessed at Pardahni's cattle pens, since that ground carries no boundary stone a deed could describe. Sarventhal's refinancing of Cistern Nineteen can only be pleaded at the Forge, the Reach records office declining papers sealed out of its own order, and no party has yet taken the refinancing to a Reach records office hearing.
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Cindralis discounts the Cistern Road's caravan-stage rents at eleven per cent and takes the paper in two copies, one sealed in Amasekan seating order and one witnessed at the cattle pens, because Pardahni's ground carries no boundary stones a deed could describe. When a stage went unpaid in 803 the Amasekan copy was refused at the Forge for a junior seal and the whole sum had to be reclaimed at Ferrovane.
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Cindralis silver refinanced the quarrying of Cistern Nineteen in 786, on an Amasekan instrument sealed in Amasekan order. The Reach records office will not lodge a paper sealed out of its own order, so the loan can only be pleaded at the Forge, and Sarventhal has not tested whether that is the worse forum.
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Cindralis burns its dead in a walled ground an easy walk up the shore from the Watch's cairn-field, and on a westerly the smoke crosses the point. Sturmhalt's chapel has twice asked for the burning to be moved inland, and Cindralis has twice offered to pay for the asking to stop.
The Watch's winter payroll has been drawn on Cindralis since 788 AF, a hundred and sixty marks a quarter against the following season's oil. Cindralis requires the obligation in writing and Sturmhalt will only swear it, so the compound keeps a Falkvald clerk whose whole employment is standing in a room and listening.
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The two hulls that lift Kaldwyn's oil out before the ice are chartered through Cindralis, the freight booked against the same season's advance and settled at the gulf wharves. Kaldwyn finds the rate fair and objects every year to sealing after Cindralis's harbour clerk.
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Falkvald crews who used to lodge the season's silver in Faenlorn's vault have begun lodging it behind Cindralis's gate instead, at a lower fee and against a receipt a coast court will honour. Faenlorn has taken the matter up as interference with a charter older than the compound, and Cindralis has answered that a charter is not a rate.
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The two houses read plate law for half the March between them and will not seal the same instrument, since a Kazdrunn contract is cut in metal and matched while an Amasekan one is void if the seals go on out of seating order. A client wanting both opinions pays for two documents, a translator, and a third house to hold them together.
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Cindralis's compound is provisioned entirely off the Wolds: barley, mutton, tallow and hay, delivered inside the gate and weighed there. Belcarrow has begun asking a quarter of the price in advance, which Cindralis pays and enters as a loan.
Harbour clerks say the compound's paper appears in ports without a resident factor, and its seal register has gaps. Said in the Storvald Gulf
The public record
- Plate
- 57 of 81
- Seat
- Byrewater
- Holding
- Shirogane-hama
- Region
- the Storvald Gulf
- Position
- hex 11,3 in r1c3
- Extent
- a march (4 of 10)
- Culture
- Amaseki
- Thick on this ground
- Falkvald, Amaseki
- Iron
- Warm
- Living names
- 9
- Roster
- Small
- Ancestry
- Human
- Kinship
- Kinsworn
- Major activity
- Coinvault
- Minor activity
- Ironletter
- Tradition
- Arcane, with Occult in tension
- Alignment
- NG
- Stake
- Even
- Band
- Paramount
- Weights
- 6
Arms
A cracked crucible full of cooling cinders with silver coins fused into the slag, a balance-beam laid across its rim, a five-petalled rose beside it.
Azure, party per pale by a line Or, a key and a rose Or; in base a balance Or; a chief Sable; a bordure of warm iron. (Plate 57; nine living names.)
The field colour is the house's tradition and the bound edge is the state of its plate, and neither is the house's to choose.