Bureau field guide · Article I
Permission is not ownership.
A transferred trait may be lawful, useful, even lifesaving. A license records the existing Claim: who offered what, who accepted it, and the terms reality is now obliged to remember.
Foundational reference · Article 00: The Claim →
The Bureau licenses traits that can be separated from their origin: a night-moth’s sight, a river spirit’s breath, a basilisk’s patience, a saint’s remembered courage. The record must name the source, the form of transfer, its conditions and duration, and any consideration promised. A true gift may be entered with no price at all.
A lawful transfer carries a bond-mark: a visible record of the Claim that changes when its terms are strained. The mark does not make an agreement true. It reveals what reality understood when the trait crossed—and warns when the filed version contradicts it.
The paperwork is deliberately exhausting. Desire makes people careless; forms make them specific. By the ninth page, most applicants finally admit whether they want a wolf’s hearing for patrol work—or because they are afraid of what their spouse whispers after dark.
FIELD NOTEField rule 4.2: Never approve a trait that answers questions the applicant refuses to ask aloud.