The Council Code

Excerpts in current force, compiled for auditor reference

Issued by the Office of Forms & Publications, under authority of the Office of the Registrar. The chapters reproduced here are those most frequently cited in present-day audit practice. Chapters not reproduced remain in force; their absence from this volume reflects the priorities of the compiler, not the priorities of the Code. Holders of this volume are reminded that the authoritative copy is the master register held by the Records Division, and that the master register is, on any given working day, between one and three revisions ahead of the printed extract in their hands.

Cite by chapter, section, and subsection. Cite by license number where signing. Cite a statute that has been superseded only with the courtesy of a parenthetical note.

Chapter 4 — Damsel Housing Code

§1. Definitions

§1.1 Damsel. A person held in registered captivity by a licensed dragon under an approved Form 27-B. A person held without an approved Form 27-B is, for purposes of this Code, not a damsel; the captivity is, for those same purposes, not a captivity. Status accrues only upon registration.

§1.2 Captor. The licensed dragon of record on an approved Form 27-B. The captor bears all filing, welfare, and reporting duties under this Chapter.

§1.3 Captivity. A registered residential arrangement falling within §4 (Housing & Welfare Standards) and §3 (Capture Procedures). Duration may be indefinite or fixed-term; the form shall reflect the captor’s anticipation, not the resident’s.

§1.4 Rescue. A licensed combat engagement initiated by a knight or knight-equivalent against the captor for the purpose of removing the damsel from the captivity. A rescue is not concluded until the choreographed sequence specified in §12 has been performed in full.

§1.5 Sanctioned Encounter. A scheduled engagement between a knight and a dragon, conducted per §12 of this Chapter and recorded jointly with the Joint Workers’ Compensation Authority. Encounters not so sanctioned are, for purposes of this Code, not encounters.

§2. Qualification & Licensing — The Damsel Exam

The Damsel Exam is administered by the Bureau of Damsel Affairs, ordinarily in cooperation with the Bureau of Professional Standards. It comprises four parts; each part must be passed independently.

§2.1 Captivity Protocol. The candidate shall demonstrate working familiarity with Form 27-B, the §4 welfare framework, and the quarterly status reporting cycle. Practical competencies include sub-chamber assignment, provisions planning per §4 standards, and the appropriate routing of correspondence per §3.5. The candidate is not required to compose the form from memory; the candidate is required to recognize a deficient one.

§2.2 Acceptable Menacing. The candidate shall demonstrate menacing behavior of sufficient gravity to satisfy the cultural expectations of the relevant human territory, while remaining within the welfare provisions of §4. Acceptable menacing is, by long Bureau guidance, the visible portion of the iceberg; the resident’s actual safety is the submerged remainder. Candidates whose menacing exceeds welfare bounds are remanded to remedial instruction.

§2.3 Damsel Welfare Compliance. The candidate shall demonstrate the operational knowledge required to maintain a registered resident at the Adequately Maintained tier (per §13) without external prompting. This includes the timely filing of Form 14-E (Captivity Enrichment Request) and the maintenance of records sufficient to satisfy a quarterly review. Failure on this part bars admission to the third part of the exam, regardless of performance on the first two.

§2.4 Combat Readiness. The candidate shall demonstrate the choreographic and physical competencies necessary to conduct a Sanctioned Encounter under §12 — including, at minimum, the standard feint, the wing display, and the controlled fall. The Bureau notes that this is a test of form, not of outcome. A candidate who passes Combat Readiness is competent to perform the sequence; whether the sequence will be performed, on a given day, in the open field, is not within the scope of the examination.

§3. Capture Procedures

§3.4 Priority Review. A captor anticipating an unusually compressed filing window for Form 27-B may request priority review at the time of filing. The request is not a substitute for timely filing; it expedites Bureau processing of an already-timely submission. A priority review fee of fifty (50) gold pieces applies per Statute 6.2(a). Priority review does not alter the substantive standards by which the form is reviewed; it alters only the order in which the Registrar reaches the form.

§3.7 Unlicensed Resident Inquiry. Where the Bureau has reason to believe a person is held in conditions resembling captivity, but no approved Form 27-B exists, the Bureau may open a §3.7 inquiry. The inquiry is not adversarial; it is a determination of status. It proceeds in the captor’s absence where the captor is unavailable, and it may proceed without notification to the resident. Outcomes include: (i) registration ordered (filing of a back-dated Form 27-B with attendant penalties); (ii) release ordered; or (iii) referral to the Office of Internal Affairs. The §3.7 inquiry is among the few Bureau proceedings that may issue findings without summoning the subject of those findings.

§4. Housing & Welfare Standards

§4.6 Permitted Enrichment. Enrichment items beyond the standard provisions plan (per §4.2) are permitted only on an approved Form 14-E. The captor files; the resident does not. Categories of enrichment include textiles, literature, correspondence, animals, and vegetation. Items requested outside these categories require a written rationale and may be referred for §3.4 priority review at the captor’s expense.

§4.6.1 Welfare-Based Request. Enrichment may be requested where the captor demonstrates that the absence of the item would, by reasonable Bureau guidance, fall below the Adequately Maintained tier (§13). The captor’s good-faith assessment is presumed adequate unless contradicted by the most recent quarterly status report.

§4.6.2 Behavioral-Compliance Request. Enrichment may be requested where the item is reasonably calculated to maintain or restore the resident’s compliance with the captivity’s documented protocols. Items requested under this basis are reviewed against the captor’s prior filings; a pattern of escalating behavioral-compliance requests may trigger Bureau follow-up.

§4.6.3 Cultural-Continuity Request. Enrichment may be requested where the item bears a documented connection to the resident’s pre-captivity cultural, religious, or familial practices, and where its presence is reasonably calculated to reduce institutional friction. The captor is not required to consult the resident in identifying such items, though the captor is not prohibited from doing so.

§4.6.4 Long-Tenure Request. Enrichment may be requested where the captivity has, on the date of filing, exceeded ten (10) years, and where the item is offered in recognition of that tenure. Long-Tenure requests carry no additional fee. They are, by long Bureau practice, the most consistently approved category, and the least frequently filed.

§4.11 Variable Confinement Sub-Form. Captivity arrangements specifying variable confinement intensity (per Form 27-B §3.7) require a §4.11 sub-form, filed concurrently with Form 27-B. The sub-form documents the schedule of variation, the conditions triggering each state, and the captor’s plan for preserving welfare across transitions. The sub-form is reviewed independently of Form 27-B; approval of the latter does not imply approval of the former.

§§5–11. Reserved

Reserved for future revision. See Office of Forms & Publications for status.

§12. Engagement with Rescue Parties

The §12 sequence governs the conduct of a captor during a Sanctioned Encounter. The sequence is choreographic by design; it ensures that knights, captors, and damsels each perform recognized actions in a recognized order, that injuries are recorded against the proper joint authority, and that the resulting filings can be processed without dispute. The sequence consists of, in order: (i) the approach challenge; (ii) the standard feints, performed in pairs; (iii) the wing display, of duration sufficient to be seen from the rescue party’s approach line; (iv) the engaged exchange, including such exchanges of fire, claw, and steel as the captor’s training and the knight’s skill permit; and (v) the controlled fall, in which the captor concedes the field in a manner consistent with the resident’s safety and the knight’s continued professional certification.

The sequence is not optional. A captor who omits any step renders the encounter unsanctioned; a knight who omits any step forfeits Joint Workers’ Compensation Authority coverage for the resulting injuries. The Bureau recognizes that combat is, by its nature, imperfect. The Bureau also recognizes that the sequence has been performed, in its current form, since the Seventh Revision; that the choreography exists for the protection of all parties present; and that the resident, who initiates none of the steps and concludes none of them, is, in practice, the party for whose safety the sequence was written.

§13. Quarterly Status Reporting

The captor shall file a status report on the resident’s welfare each calendar quarter. The report shall record the welfare tier observed during the reporting period.

§13.1 Adequately Maintained. The lowest passing tier. Indicates that the resident’s housing, provisions, and enrichment satisfy the §4 standards as written. Adequately Maintained is the default report; ninety-four percent (94%) of filings, by long Bureau record, check this box.

§13.2 Well-Maintained. Indicates welfare provisions exceeding the §4 standards in at least two enumerated categories. Filings at this tier are reviewed against the captor’s prior 14-E history.

§13.3 Exemplary. Indicates welfare provisions exceeding the §4 standards across all enumerated categories. Filings at this tier are rare and may be referred to the Bureau’s annual recognition program.

A tier below Adequately Maintained is not provided on the form. Conditions falling below the Adequately Maintained threshold are not, by the form’s design, reportable on the quarterly status report; they are reportable on Form 45-A (Security Concern Filing) or, where appropriate, by §3.7 inquiry. The form’s silence on this matter is consistent with §13. It is also consistent with—

§14. Voluntary Continued Captivity

A resident whose initial captivity term has elapsed, or whose conditions of release have been satisfied, may elect to continue residing in the captor’s lair under Form 31-A (Voluntary Continued Captivity). Form 31-A requires the captor’s signature and the resident’s signature, witnessed by an officer of the Bureau or by the Registrar.

Form 31-A includes, among its required disclosures, an Adequate Stockholm Acknowledgment — a statement by the resident affirming awareness of the conditions under which extended captivity may produce attachment to the captor. The acknowledgment is required. The form does not, however, require its absence. A resident who declines to sign the acknowledgment may not file Form 31-A; the resident may, however, remain in the lair through other instruments, and the Bureau is not authorized, by §14, to inquire further.

Chapter 6 — Audit & Compliance

Statute 6.2(a) — Processing Fees

A processing fee of fifty (50) gold pieces is assessed for emergency review of any filing eligible for priority handling under its governing Chapter. The fee is collected at the time of filing and is non-refundable upon acceptance by the Registrar; it is refundable if the filing is rejected for procedural defect prior to substantive review. Where the filing is later determined to have been past procedural deadline, the fee is retained, and the filing is stamped accordingly. The Bureau may waive the fee in cases of demonstrated indigence on the captor’s part, a determination not within memory of the Office.

Statute 6.2(b) — Late Filing Surcharges

Late filing surcharges accrue per the schedule established in each form’s governing Chapter, and not under this Statute.

Statute 6.2(c) — Refile Fee Schedule

Refilings to correct a previously accepted form are filed without additional charge; refilings to replace a rejected form are filed at the original filing fee.

Statute 6.2(d) — Fee Remittance

Fees are remitted to the Office of the Registrar at the time of filing, in gold pieces of the territory of registration.

Chapter 9 — Hoard Standards

§1. Hoard Categories

The licensed hoard categories, as administered by the Bureau of Hoard Integrity, are:

A sixth category, accommodating mixed or other compositions, exists in administrative practice but is not, at present, separately enumerated in this Chapter. Hoards falling outside the five enumerated categories are sub-licensed under Ch. 22 (Sub-Licensed Personnel — forthcoming). Until that Chapter is reproduced in this volume, the Bureau processes such filings by analogy to the nearest enumerated category, with the captor’s good-faith characterization controlling absent contradiction.

§2. Annual Assessment

Each license-holder shall file Form 9-A (Annual Hoard Assessment) once per calendar year. The filing window opens September 1 and closes December 2. Filings received after December 2 incur a late filing penalty of two hundred (200) gold pieces. The form is the foundational annual filing of the Bureau; it establishes the Council’s working record of every licensed hoard and provides the comparative basis for the next year’s assessment.

The reconciliation walkthrough on which the form is based is, by long Bureau guidance, conducted in March, when winter dormancy has ended and lighting in most lair geographies is sufficient for accurate valuation. Walkthroughs in other months are permitted; the resulting filing must, in any case, be complete.

§3. Inventory Standards

A complete inventory shall record each item by description, category, acquisition basis, acquisition date, and estimated value. Where exact valuation is impractical, reasonable estimation is permitted, provided the basis is stated in one to two sentences (per Form 9-A §5.4). Items whose valuation has shifted by more than ten percent (10%) since the prior filing shall be re-stated under §5 of Form 9-A. Items not capable of being individually inventoried may be aggregated by class, provided the class is disclosed and the aggregation method recorded.

§4. Sub-Specialization

See Ch. 22 (forthcoming).

Chapter 12 — Hoard Privacy Accord (Seventh Revision)

§1. Scope

This Chapter governs the disclosure of hoard data — including locations, contents, valuations, acquisition histories, and ancillary records — held by the Bureau of Hoard Integrity. Hoard data is, by default, confidential and accessible only to: (i) the captor of record; (ii) the Bureau; (iii) the Registrar in the ordinary course of intake; (iv) the Records Division; and (v) parties authorized by the captor in writing. Compulsion of disclosure is permitted only under §4 of this Chapter and only by the entities enumerated therein.

§2. [Stub]

Summary follows in revision eight (forthcoming).

§3. [Stub]

Summary follows in revision eight (forthcoming).

§4. Disclosure

§4(a). Captor-initiated disclosure is permitted at the captor’s election, in writing, on Form 14-C or such other instrument as the receiving entity requires.

§4(b). Compelled disclosure is permitted under the conditions enumerated in this subsection. Routine disclosure is governed by §12.4(b)(i)–(ii). Time-critical disclosure is governed by §12.4(b)(iii) (Emergency Provisions), invoked only where the requesting entity certifies, in writing, that delay would result in irrecoverable harm to a person or to a registered hoard. A filing made under §12.4(b)(iii) shall be supported by a statement of necessity; the identifying details of the requesting party may, where the certification so warrants, be redacted from the served copy of any resulting record. Such a redaction shall appear in the form: [REDACTED PER STATUTE 12.4(b)(iii)].

Chapter 25 — Pension & Retirement

§1. Mandatory Retirement

Mandatory retirement is administered by the Council Pension & Retirement Board on Form 60-N (Notice of Mandatory Retirement). Retirement is triggered by: (i) attainment of the tenure threshold for the relevant Bureau (ordinarily four hundred (400) years of continuous service for senior auditors, with adjustments for joint or cross-bureau tenure); (ii) Board determination, on medical or fitness grounds, that continued service is contraindicated; or (iii) the license-holder’s own filing, supported by a successor designation under §3 below. Form 60-N may be filed by the retiring license-holder, by the supervising Bureau, or, in cases of incapacity, by the Board on the license-holder’s behalf.

§2. Pension Schedule

Pension is calculated by tenure tier. The Board publishes the current schedule on request. Tiers, in present force, are: (i) under one hundred (100) years — limited pension, dependent on contributions; (ii) one hundred to three hundred (100–300) years — partial pension, calibrated to service; (iii) over three hundred (300) years — full pension, with cost-of-living adjustment; (iv) over five hundred (500) years — full pension with senior-tenure adjustment, with attendant honorific designation. Pension payments are remitted quarterly, in gold pieces of the retiree’s territory of registration.

§3. Succession

The retiring license-holder shall, where practicable, designate a successor on Form 60-N. The successor signature line is reserved on the form; an apprentice of record (per the relevant Bureau’s apprenticeship program) is the presumed successor in the absence of a contrary designation. Where no apprentice of record exists, the retiring license-holder may name a successor not previously affiliated with the Bureau, subject to the Board’s review. The successor signature line shall not be left blank; a designation written in by the retiree, even one without prior institutional standing, satisfies the requirement.

§4. Territorial Transfer

A license-holder approaching the conditions of mandatory retirement may, in lieu of filing Form 60-N, file Form 60-T (Territorial Transfer Designation). Form 60-T effects a sideways move to a less demanding territory — ordinarily one with a lower hoard count, fewer registered residents, or a quieter Sanctioned Encounter calendar. The transfer extends the license-holder’s service; it does not reset the tenure clock. Form 60-T is reviewed by the Board on the same schedule as Form 60-N and is, in present practice, granted in a minority of cases.

Cross-references (forthcoming)

The following Chapters are not reproduced in this volume. They remain in force; their omission reflects the present priorities of the compiler.