Archivist-Notary — The Tower

The Archivist-Notary is a sworn officer of the Tower combining the functions of archival attestation and notarial record, empowered to certify the occurrence of phenomena that no instrument in the Tower can measure. This power derives from the Kael Precedent, a ruling of the Bureau of Literal Reckoning holding that a phenomenon attested by an Archivist-Notary in good standing is a valid holding of the archive irrespective of its physical verifiability. An Archivist-Notary's signature therefore constitutes evidence in itself; the office is the only one in the Tower whose product is simultaneously a record and a proof of that record's subject.

The Seal and the Warrant

The office is conferred by warrant of the Office of the Archivist-General and confirmed by the affixing of the Notarial Seal, a plain octagonal stamp of soft brass kept in the Vault of Unsaid Precedents until the moment of swearing. The Seal is re-cast every eleven years because it wears smooth; the ceremony of its replacement, the Recension of the Seal, is attended by no fewer than four Librarians, one of whom must hold the old stamp in a cloth for the duration and may not set it down, including to eat.

Warrants are recorded in the Notarial Register, which has been kept continuously since the Concordance of First Attestation and now occupies nineteen shelves on the Register Floor. Entries after the year 600 are considered reliable. Entries before it are considered decorative.