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How to Read a Writ
A field guide to every mark on a BLACK ARCHIVE card, from the code in the corner to the omen at the bottom.
Every card in BLACK ARCHIVE is a Writ: a record the Cantor printed for a death the city failed to file. Each mark on it means something. Here is how to read one.
**The code.** Top left, a code such as GP-M04. GP is the Archive's prefix, M marks a major Writ, and the number is its place in the deck. Minor Writs carry a suit letter instead.
**The number.** Major Writs are numbered in Roman numerals, from 0 (The Night Clerk) upward, like the major arcana of a tarot deck. The number is the order in which the Archive indexes them, not a ranking of power.
**The rarity.** A Writ's rarity is how deeply the Archive buried the record. From most to least common: Filed, Indexed, Sealed, Redacted, Unfiled. Unfiled Writs are the rarest; some exist in only a few dozen copies.
**The art.** Writs do not share one style. The Cantor prints each in whatever style the record demands: woodcut, cyanotype, photocopy, stained glass, phosphor glow. What ties them together is the frame — the black border, the corner marks and the name band.
**The name band.** Along the bottom, the Writ's name and its epithet, a short line that tells you how the Archive thinks of it.
**DREAD and WARD.** DREAD (shown as ATK) is how strongly the Writ acts on the world. WARD (shown as DEF) is how stubbornly it resists being filed away. Some Writs, like The Girl with the Brass Key, are almost all WARD.
**The omen.** A single line at the foot of the card. Clerks treat it as advice. It is usually also a warning.
**The serial.** Each copy of a Writ is numbered — No. 7 of 333, for example — and carries a chain of custody: who received it, when and how. That history is permanent. In the Archive, what is filed cannot be unfiled.
**How you receive one.** Read the Writ's story to the end. The Archive notices who finishes reading, and a copy will be waiting in your collection. Each Clerk receives one copy of each Writ, while copies remain.