Chromeria Office of Inductee Conduct

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New Student Rulebook

Expectations, Island Decorum, and Helpful Warnings for Those Who Prefer Surviving First Term

Welcome to the Chromeria. You are now part of the most powerful educational, religious, magical, political, and military institution in the Seven Satrapies. This is a great honor. It is also a condition requiring supervision.

This rulebook is issued to all new inductees, including drafters, luxiat candidates, Blackguard aspirants, scribal students, diplomatic wards, and young persons whose families insisted they were “spirited” rather than “a hazard.”

The Student Oath, Plainly Stated

I will honor Orholam, respect the Chromeria, obey lawful instruction, draft only under permitted conditions, report dangerous luxin, protect civilians, preserve institutional secrets, and refrain from turning light into objects for gambling, romance, revenge, or architectural comedy.

What the Chromeria Is

The Chromeria is a school, temple, fortress, archive, court, diplomatic center, and governing body. You are not merely attending classes. You are living inside a machine that regulates the most dangerous art in the world.

Little Jasper holds the towers, drafting halls, dormitories, libraries, chapels, administrative chambers, training yards, mirrorworks, and guarded ways. Big Jasper holds embassies, markets, tradesmen, slums, entertainments, and temptations. Students are expected to know which island they are on and why that matters.

Daily Expectations

Hour	Expectation
Dawn	Eye exercises, prayer or silent reflection, color-recognition drills.
Morning	Lectures: theory, history, faith, law, mathematics, language, and basic luxin safety.
Midday	Meal, supervised practice, tutor review, assigned labor, or correction.
Afternoon	Drafting hall, physical drill, tower-specific lesson, or observation of senior students.
Evening	Study, chapel, letters, dormitory duties, curfew preparation.
Night	Sleep. This is not a metaphor. Sleep.

Basic Student Conduct

Students are expected to arrive prepared, speak respectfully, keep assigned lenses clean, maintain robes and dormitories, attend chapel or approved equivalent, submit to halo inspection, and report symptoms of strain immediately.

No student is expected to be perfect. Every student is expected to be correctable.

The Thirty-Seven Useful Rules

1. Do not draft without permission, supervision, or emergency necessity.

2. “I wanted to see if I could” is not emergency necessity.

3. Luxin created in dormitories must be reported before breakfast.

4. Luxin created inside another student’s bedding is assault, not wit.

5. Do not conceal Halo symptoms.

6. Do not accuse another student of Halo Breaking as a joke.

7. Do not forge permissions from luxiats, tutors, Blackguards, tower secretaries, or the dead.

8. The dead do not issue valid corridor passes.

9. Students may not enter restricted libraries without written authority.

10. A locked cabinet is not a philosophical invitation.

11. Do not tamper with mirrors, lenses, shutters, tower prisms, or signal systems.

12. Do not redirect sunlight onto people, animals, boats, food carts, or rival dormitories.

13. Curfew is not a suggestion, metaphor, or negotiation.

14. Students found on rooftops after curfew will be assumed foolish until proven otherwise.

15. Students found in mirror shafts after curfew will be assumed criminal until proven otherwise.

16. Do not challenge Blackguards to wrestling, duels, footraces, drinking contests, theological debates, or “friendly tests.”

17. If a Blackguard says “move,” move.

18. If a luxiat says “kneel,” determine quickly whether this is liturgical or disciplinary.

19. Do not bring unsanctioned weapons to drafting hall.

20. Do not bring sanctioned weapons to theology class unless theology class has become unusually exciting.

21. Gambling with luxin constructs is prohibited.

22. Gambling with luxin constructs for theology notes is still gambling.

23. Students may not sell practice luxin.

24. Students may not eat practice luxin.

25. Students may not dare others to eat practice luxin.

26. All romantic correspondence carried by messenger light must be properly addressed.

27. Do not draft love poetry into public architecture.

28. Visiting Big Jasper requires permission, appropriate clothing, and a return time.

29. Students are representatives of the Chromeria even when purchasing fried fish.

30. Do not mock satrapal dress, accents, mourning colors, religious customs, or mathematics.

31. Do not speak forbidden color-theory in taverns.

32. Do not accept private instruction from strangers, masked tutors, cellar schools, alley philosophers, or anyone who says the Chromeria fears your potential.

33. Report anti-drafter symbols, threats, or recruitment attempts.

34. Report unexplained shadows, impossible lights, whispering luxin, or doors that were not present yesterday.

35. During luxin storms, follow tower wardens immediately.

36. During fire, do not assume the Sub-red students are helping.

37. When uncertain, stop drafting.

Island Decorum

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Little Jasper and Big Jasper

How Not to Embarrass Yourself, Your Tower, Your Satrapy, or the Concept of Education

Little Jasper Decorum

Little Jasper is the heart of the Chromeria. Walk with purpose, do not block corridors, do not shout beneath chapel windows, and do not run unless pursued, summoned, or on fire.

Students should treat tower staff with respect. The person sweeping luxin dust today may be the person who knows which stairwell is closed tomorrow. Many students fail upward. Staff remember downward.

In the Towers

Wear proper robes or approved training clothes.
Keep lenses, tablets, and tools labeled.
Do not enter another tower’s practice room without invitation.
Do not move colored shutters without instructor approval.
Do not sleep in libraries, even if the book started it.

In Chapel

Arrive clean, or as clean as the previous class permits.
Do not draft during prayer unless instructed.
Do not argue doctrine with visiting dignitaries.
Do not use religious gestures ironically where luxiats can see you.

In Drafting Halls

Inspect floor markings before practice.
Stand behind the indicated line.
Announce color and intended form before drafting.
Never cross another student’s active draft path.
Report unstable luxin, unusual smell, emotional disturbance, eye pain, or sudden certainty that rules are for lesser minds.

Big Jasper Decorum

Big Jasper is not a schoolyard. It is a city of embassies, merchants, criminals, sailors, pilgrims, servants, spies, and people who can identify a naïve student by posture alone.

Students visiting Big Jasper must remain mindful that every public mistake becomes a private report, a tavern story, a satrapal insult, or all three.

In Markets

Bargain respectfully.
Do not pay with practice luxin.
Do not display large sums of coin.
Do not purchase “ancient color manuals” from blanket merchants.
Do not eat anything glowing unless the vendor also eats it.

In Embassies

Use correct titles.
Dress conservatively unless invited otherwise.
Let diplomats insult each other first.
Never promise Chromeria action.
Never imply you speak for your tower, satrapy, or Orholam.

In Taverns

Students may not drink in uniform without permission.
Do not gamble away lenses, robes, tower seals, or classified notes.
Do not perform drafting tricks for coin.
Do not brag about restricted lessons.
Leave if someone asks too many questions about your color affinity.

The Lily’s Stem

The bridge between the Jaspers is beautiful, symbolic, wet, crowded, and watched. Cross promptly. Do not lean over the side to impress anyone. Do not draft into the sea. Do not shout confessions, dares, political slogans, or romantic ultimatums from the midpoint.

Safety, Discipline, and Correction

Consequences

Because “But I Was Curious” Has Never Rebuilt a Wall

Common Corrections

Infraction	Likely Correction
Late to class	Extra copying, meal duty, early eye drills.
Dirty lenses or tools	Tool inspection, replacement fee, supervised cleaning.
Minor unauthorized draft	Written reflection, Will-rest restriction, instructor conference.
Dormitory damage	Repair labor, payment, apology, possible tower discipline.
Curfew violation	Restricted movement, escort requirement, report to warden.
Big Jasper misconduct	Loss of city privileges, diplomatic apology, unpleasant lecture.
Concealing Halo symptoms	Medical review, suspended drafting, formal disciplinary inquiry.
Endangering civilians	Severe discipline, confinement, expulsion, legal consequences.

Halo Safety

Report eye pain, color afterimages, involuntary drafting, mood distortion, persistent scent of your color, dreams of colored architecture, or the belief that your instructor is “merely jealous of your genius.”

Halo strain is not moral failure. Concealing it is.

Emergency instruction: If you feel a draft continuing after you release it, stop moving, close your off-hand, look down, and call for an instructor. Do not “push through.” Pushing through is how memorial plaques happen.

Student Rights

Students may request medical inspection, spiritual counsel, academic tutoring, satrapal mediation, dormitory reassignment, or supervised communication with family. Students may also request clarification of punishments, though arguing vocabulary is not the same as innocence.

Student Duties

Protect the untrained from magical harm.
Report dangerous teaching, illegal drafting, and suspicious recruitment.
Respect cultural customs of other satrapies.
Preserve tower property.
Tell the truth during safety inquiries.
Learn enough history not to repeat it by accident.

Visitors, Patrons, and Strangers

New students are frequently approached by proud relatives, satrapal agents, curious nobles, merchants, recruiters, charming older students, and people who know too much about their childhood. Be polite. Be cautious. Report anything that feels like secret employment.

Restricted Topics for First Years

Some topics are not part of first-year instruction: advanced Halo intervention, forbidden drafting arts, sealed theological color theory, assassin techniques, unsanctioned will-work, and anything introduced by the phrase “the masters don’t want you to know.”

Questions may be asked in proper classrooms. Experiments may not be conducted in cellars.

How to Be Welcomed Back Tomorrow

Arrive on time.
Bring the right tools.
Admit confusion early.
Do not lie about light.
Respect the Blackguard.
Respect the servants.
Respect the sea.
Respect your halo.
Do not assume talent excuses stupidity.

The Chromeria can teach the gifted. It cannot resurrect the careless cheaply.