The Process of Charter

In Midmere—the ring of canal cities that binds the continent together—life depends on trust. Barges cross beneath arching bridges, carrying goods, news, and debts alike. One lie, one broken promise, can stop the water’s flow as surely as a collapsed gate. From that delicate interdependence rose the Charter Process: the law that meaning itself requires agreement. When people speak the same truth, the world holds its shape. When they do not, it starts to leak.

The Charter sanctifies cooperation—the invisible structure built whenever two minds align. It is the Process that gives words their weight, contracts their power, and civilizations their spine. To speak honestly, to promise, to honor a bond—these acts are more than moral; they are architectural. Midmere’s people understood that without shared accord, no bridge stands, no trade endures, no law can outlast its keeper.

Those who serve the Charter—clerks, oath-singers, diplomats—speak of binding the unseen. They believe every promise is a kind of masonry, every shared vow a keystone in reality’s arch. A city’s stability is not found in its walls but in the trust between its citizens. When the Charter is strong, speech flows as cleanly as the canals, and the world seems to move in rhythm with itself.

When it falters, corrosion begins quietly. Documents fade, agreements warp, and words lose their edges. The air thickens with misunderstanding, and even the seasons seem to slip their schedule. Commerce slows, alliances fray, and the very sense of cause and consequence begins to smear. The Process-keepers of Midmere warn that when the Charter fails, the world forgets how to listen, and meaning itself becomes a rumor.

At its heart, the Charter is the Process of coherence—the quiet pact that reality is a shared effort. It teaches that truth is not discovered but maintained, that the space between two voices can be the strongest bridge ever built. To honor the Charter is to remember that civilization itself is a promise—one that must be renewed every time a word is spoken and believed.