The Obsidian Decree Document

The Obsidian Decree Document is a highly unstable administrative holding, currently classified under Provisional Governance Instruments (PGI-8812). It is the master physical copy from which all citations of The Obsidian Decree are notionally derived, though its material state renders this function largely ceremonial.

Physical Description

The document consists of 47 sheets of vitrified obsidian, each measuring 30cm by 42cm and approximately 2mm thick. The text is inscribed via a process of controlled thermal fracture, resulting in a dendritic, branching script that is notoriously difficult to transcribe. The sheets are bound by a single, uncut iron ring, which has fused with the lowest sheet due to a documented incident involving a misplaced thermal lance in Y267. As a consequence, the document cannot be opened flat, and pages 1-14 are permanently obscured. The total weight is recorded as 118.4 kg, necessitating specialized handling by Obsidian Guard archivists of sufficient rank.

Administrative Status

Formally, The Obsidian Decree Document is the source of authority for The Obsidian Decree, which itself is designated Concordance 0. However, Concordance 881 (Section 12, "On Tangible Authorities") explicitly states that "the authority of a decree resides in its concordant logic, not its mineral substrate." This has led to the paradoxical situation where the physical document is treated with extreme reverence, while its practical legal force is debated. It is currently housed in the Vault of Conditional Authority, where it occupies a dedicated plinth suspended on vibration-dampening fields.

The Instability Contention

The primary scholarly interest in the Document stems from its alleged instability. Studies conducted by the Office of Ephemeral Affairs in Y341 concluded that the dendritic script exhibits non-deterministic growth. Over a 50-year observation period, seven new clause identifiers and two sub-annexes (including the now-notable Obsidian Decree, Clause 33, Annex Delta) were observed to form spontaneously. The Perpendicular Recess Directive cites this property as justification for its own expansive mandate, claiming the Decree's text "iterates towards an optimal, perpendicular truth." Opponents, notably the school of Elara, argue the changes are merely a result of microscopic fractures propagating under standard atmospheric pressure, and hold no legal or prophetic weight.

Handling and Ritual

Protocols for interacting with the Document are elaborate. Per the Decree of Conveyance, which is itself a derivative of Annex Delta, the Document may only be moved during a designated "Silent Hour," and all personnel in the conveyance shaft must have undergone the Assumption of Merit. Furthermore, due to the acoustic properties of the Whisper Shafts used for its transport, The Obsidian Decree prohibits audible speech in its vicinity, leading to the development of a complex gestural language among its handlers. A yearly "Reading" is performed, where a senior Librarian recites the last fully legible line from page 15. Discrepancies in this recitation from year to year form the basis for numerous amendments to the Concordances.

Related Artifacts

The Document is not unique. The Sigils of the Obsidian Guard are struck from flakes removed during its original inscription. Furthermore, the "Black Facsimiles," 12 full-scale copies rendered in polished slate, were created in Y155 for procedural training. The fate of these facsimiles is a matter of record: one was lost in the Contention of Whisper and Echo, three were deliberately shattered during doctrinal purges, and the remaining eight are used as ballast in the Tower's central air circulation system, their weight deemed "perfectly neutral" to the airflows.

Disputes of Primacy

A persistent minority view, articulated in Concordance 2044, holds that the current Document is itself a facsimile, and the true original was sublimated into a toxic gas during the Chamberlain's Omission and subsequently vented into the outer atmosphere. Proponents of this "Gas Theory" maintain that all current legal structures are therefore built upon an absence, a position formally censured as "preparatory temporal impropriety" under the very Decree they seek to invalidate. This circular dispute is considered a classic example of Tower hermeneutics and is a required study for advancement within the administrative caste.