KEEPER ONLY · DO NOT PLACE FACE-UP · DO NOT HAND TO THE TABLE

THE KEEPER'S BOOKLETSEALED & DIVINE WORKS · MVP

WHAT THE CARDS HIDE — AND WHAT MOVES BENEATH THE TIDE

Two things live in here that never sit face-up: the sealed squalls behind the live cards, read aloud in the stakeholder's voice when a watch turns; and the Divine Work engine — the weather you set moving, with tonight's first-draft Saga (Taxe's Federation) laid out on it, ready to arm.

House law, both halves: testimony is king. Every seal, every beat, every squall arrives on someone's letterhead — never an omniscient voice from above.

PART	CONTENTS
I	Sealed contents of the live cards (Annex B) — Cards 01, 02, 04, 06.
II	The Divine Work engine — one-page quick reference.
III	Taxe's Federation — Saga, first draft, beats you can arm tonight.
IV	Blank beat planners — build a Divine Work at the table.

PART I · ANNEX B — SEALED CONTENTSREAD IN VOICE WHEN THE WATCH TURNS

WHAT THE CARDS HIDE

Players, this is not graceful of you. Each seal is a signed report — read it aloud in the stakeholder's voice, never as narration.

CARD 01 — PROJECT HAMMERDR. RADEK, BY TRUSTED COURIER

Ore going missing from the Genii stocks — small amounts, well hidden, but the numbers do not close. I am not the only one counting, and I do not think the one diverting it answers to Dina.

Do not act on this in writing.

KEEPER: do not let this resolve as a device delivered — let it seed the Storm. This is a Foothold into a larger tide.

— R.

CARD 02 — THE HOFFAN COMPOUNDMEDICAL · DR. C. BECKETT

The compound works. It also kills roughly one in two of those it is given to. Field-ready is not the same as safe, and if we deploy it the wraith will read Hoff as the source and make an example of it.

I have written this down so that whoever orders it done cannot say they were not told.

— C. Beckett

CARD 04 — THE SHIELD'S HEART (REVEALED)SCIENCE DIVISION MEMO

The recovered ZPM is nearly dead. It is good for almost nothing — except powering a shield exactly like the one it was pulled from. We crossed a world's goodwill for a battery that fits one lamp.

OPEN QUESTION (undecided): does the wound to the children's Standing surface later as its own squall, or simply colour every future dealing with that world? Decide before Card 04 is closed.

— Science Division

CARD 06 — THE BROTHERHOOD (GROUND TRUTH)KEEPER NOTE

Players believe monks guard the site. Truth: a team of contemporary researchers, already partway through translating the tablets — and the table has clocked them as attractive, which is a hook, not an accident.

Reveal through the dig materials, never narration. The name — Brotherhood of the Fifteen — surfaces inside a translated fragment.

STILL TO WRITE: the three seals (Nudge / Bearing / Answer) and the riddle itself. Deferred; not needed to open the card tonight.

Cards 03 & 05 carry no seal.

PART II · THE DIVINE WORK ENGINEQUICK REFERENCE

THE MACHINERY UNDER THE WEATHER

A Divine Work is weather you set moving. It ends on a turning, not a watch, and it throws off Footholds the crew can grasp. Below is how you build and run one.

THE THREE TIERS (guidance, not hard rules)

EPISODE one sitting · a single strong beat ARC several sittings · a handful of chained beats SAGA one or more seasons · beats that may sleep long between arming

A BEAT — THREE LINES

TRIGGER	the fictional condition that arms the beat. Until met, nothing moves.
CLOCK	watches once armed. May be 0 — fires the instant it arms.
BREAK	what it does when the clock runs out: usually a signed squall (letterhead), sometimes a rewrite of the card (recast the aim, add a stake, release another beat).

Beats may branch: one Break can open several possible next beats, chosen by what you know at the moment it breaks.

NON-STEP-ABLE — THE TWO GUARANTEES

1. An un-armed beat cannot be advanced, forced, or grace'd forward. No player lever moves a clock that hasn't started.
2. Once armed, the clock is yours — it runs on the terms you set, not the tide's one-per-session cadence.

THE WEATHERGLASS (the squall's twin)

By default the clock is yours and hidden — the crew feels the squeeze without seeing the number. The fiction may hand them a weatherglass (long-range sensors, an intercepted order, a defector's word) that makes one armed clock visible before it breaks — turning dread into a race they can run. Earned through play, never granted.

Standing default this chapter: keeper's own and hidden, made visible only by an earned weatherglass.

FOOTHOLDS ℓ

A Divine Work can't be seized head-on. It throws off ordinary Works the crew can grasp — its Footholds. Each is a normal card (Aim / Hands / Stakes) marked with a small cursive ℓ. Habit, not law: every armed beat should expose at least one Foothold. A beat with no handhold is something that happens to the players — railroading by another name.

THE LIMIT ON THE MAKER'S HAND

Grace and Standing can nudge a people, open a door, soften a blow — but they cannot make a people other than what they are. When you decide whether a faction lifts a hand, ask first what that people is; the answer is the ceiling.

DRAFT v0.1 · FOR THE KEEPER TO ARM AND REVISE IN PLAY

PART III · DIVINE WORK — TAXE'S FEDERATIONSAGA

THE CONFEDERATION OF THE PEGASUS REACH

Tier: Saga · Arming pressure: Cinco's stated desire to bind the peoples of Pegasus into one company against the Wraith. Turning (the end): a Council of peoples that must actually meet — at which point the Federation stops being a dream and becomes a thing that must govern.

This is a first skeleton, not scripture. Swap the fiction freely; keep the engine. Clocks hidden by default. Every Break arrives signed.

BEAT I · FIRST WORDFoothold ℓ

Trigger — Cinco formally proposes union to any second people (Genii, Hoffan, Athosian, …).
Clock — 0 (the reply comes as soon as the word is sent).
Break — a signed reply on that people's letterhead: interest, terms, or refusal. Refusal is not failure — it names the price of a later yes.
Foothold ℓ — Draft the First Compact (Work · Hands: Command / whoever speaks for the crew). Pour Hands in to shape how favourably Beat II opens.

BEAT II · THE SKEPTICSFoothold ℓ

Trigger — two peoples at the table who distrust each other are asked to sit together (the obvious first pair: Genii ↔ Hoffan).
Clock — 2 watches once seated.
Break — one walks — signed by whoever feels slighted — unless a named grievance is answered first. Remember the maker's-hand limit: the Genii will not become trusting; they can, at most, be given a reason.
Foothold ℓ — Broker the Concession (Work · Standing pinned with the aggrieved people). This is where Standing gets spent, not numbered — narrate the dial.

BEAT III · THE PRICE OF A FLAGFoothold ℓ · ties to Cards 01 & 04

Trigger — the compact needs teeth: someone proposes mutual defense.
Clock — 3 watches.
Break — a raid tests it. The union either answers as one — or is shown hollow, signed by whoever bled while allies looked away.
Foothold ℓ — Stand up a shared defense. This is the natural home for Project Hammer (Card 01) and The Shield's Heart (Card 04) — a Federation that can arm and shield itself. Note the Hammer's sealed ore-theft: a Federation gives the thief a bigger prize.

BEAT IV · THE WRAITH READ ITWeatherglass possible

Trigger — the Confederation becomes visible enough to register as a target — a dense food-web worth culling.
Clock — hidden by default. If the crew earns eyes (a Foothold that wins long sight, or intelligence off The Catch, Card 03), grant a weatherglass and turn this dread into a race.
Break — a Saga-scale squall: the Wraith move against the union as a whole, signed by the first world to burn.
Foothold ℓ — A warning network across member worlds — the Federation's own weatherglass, built by Hands.

BEAT V · THE SEAT AT THE HEADTHE TURNING

Trigger — enough peoples bound that a Council of peoples must actually convene.
Clock — 0.
Break — the turning. The Federation is real — and now it must govern: seats, vetoes, whose flag flies first. The Saga ends here and hands the table a whole new order to run. (Cross-ref the Fasces question in SO-1.1a — the wide table vs. the narrow one, now writ large across nations.)

Tonight: Beat I arms the moment Taxe/Cinco says the word to a second people. Everything after sleeps until its trigger. Don't tick what isn't armed.

PART IV · BLANK BEAT PLANNERSBUILD ONE AT THE TABLE

A DIVINE WORK, EMPTY

Fill in as the weather asks for it. Name the Work, set the tier, then arm beats one at a time. Give every armed beat a Foothold.

DIVINE WORK
TIER	EPISODE / ARC / SAGA
ARMING PRESSURE
THE TURNING (END)

BEATS

#	TRIGGER (what arms it)	CLOCK	BREAK (signed, on whose letterhead)	FOOTHOLD ℓ
I
II
III
IV
V

DIVINE WORK
TIER	EPISODE / ARC / SAGA

#	TRIGGER	CLOCK	BREAK	FOOTHOLD ℓ
I
II
III

Reminders: un-armed = untouchable · armed clock is yours · hidden unless a weatherglass is earned · every armed beat gets a Foothold · the maker's hand goes only as far as a people's nature.

The pen is mightier than the die. · by Sir Landis Fishman