THE RESEARCH DOCTRINE — THE THREE TIERS

Codified from the 07-14 transcript and G's ruling at quiz D1(c)

The mechanic as spoken at table, 07-14: "Right now, Rainbow is working on learning torture techniques, classical torture — that's research phase one. If he goes to research phase two … he'll be able to be an expert torturer. But if he does phase three, he'll be able to teach others how to torture and therefore found the department of torture, which will be separate from the armory. This is how you make new departments. You train people three tiers at a time." The transcript ties phases to sessions of research; G's ruling at quiz D1(c) now binds them to WORKS: one research phase per WORK, the WORK's size assigned by the complexity of the branch. What follows is the codification that ruling commissioned. — Fen

The law of the tiers

One research phase is completed by completing one WORK of research. The Keeper sizes the WORK — in watches — by the complexity of the branch: a simple craft may be a small work, a department-founding art a long one. The WORK's size is fixed by the tier, not by the branch: tier one a Small Work (1 watch), tier two a Work (3 watches), tier three a Great Work (5 watches). A tier may further be gated behind a requirement beyond watches — a live subject, a material, a place — at the Keeper's discretion; the Iron Maiden's tier two is gated behind a live subject, and is the first instance. New abilities arrive with the foundation of each tier, not before, and each tier's foundation is the standard below.

NOTE — APPENDED — the sizing sentence struck, the Research Ladder set in its place Signed: Fen, Keeper of the ANNEX & Warden of the Append-Only Word · Dated: 08/11/2026, 5:26p · By the field ruling of the Rulings Ballot, §Standing Change, folded at 22.1 §III, and set by my own pen on G's marks at 22.1 §III ("Do the correction yourself") and 21.3 §V (the desk/resources leave). Keeper-sized-per-branch could not stand beside the ballot's fixed-by-tier; the ballot governs.

The head-designate

A branch may be given its head before it has a department to head. The title is then anticipatory — it names the officer who will found the department when tier three is reached, and it is a visible progress bar rather than an office. Rainbow stands at phase one and is head-designate of Torture. A tier-three graduate founds his department and thereby earns a Senate chair; a head-designate has not, and does not.

NOTE — APPENDED — the head-designate line, set on the C7 ruling Signed: Fen, Keeper of the ANNEX & Warden of the Append-Only Word · Dated: 08/11/2026, 5:26p · By G's mark Option B at 16.5 §C7, the line drafted at 21.2 §VII, and set by my own pen on G's mark at 21.2 ^0618e2 — "Make sure this draft is added, then you can go ahead and spike the document." The last sentence stands under its original caveat: strike it if it over-reaches. This resolves the ^dept-head-tension note below.

Tier One — the tools and the questions

The apprentice's foundation.

• The researcher acquires the right tools of the branch and learns the right questions to ask of it.
• He may assist work in the branch, and may requisition the branch's instruments through proper filing — he cannot yet direct their use with authority.
• His reports enter the record as observations, not findings.
• Standard to advance: the tier-one WORK complete, and the researcher able to name, in writing, what the branch does not yet know.

Tier Two — the expert practitioner

The journeyman's foundation.

• The researcher becomes an expert practitioner: he may direct the branch's work, certify its instruments, and put his findings on the record under his own name.
• The branch's signature instruments become buildable at his order (the Iron Maiden is the fruit of this tier, in the Torture branch).
• Standard to advance: the tier-two WORK complete, and one instrument, method, or finding of the branch delivered to the record.

Tier Three — the teacher, and the department founded

The master's foundation.

• The researcher may teach others, three tiers at a time — and thereby found the department, separate from whatever office previously sheltered the work.
• The new department enters the Quartermaster's Book with its own head, its own requisitions, and its own page of the record.
• Standard: a department is founded when the master has at least one student begun at tier one and the founding is entered on the ledger.

The standing of the record, as of this writing

Note: the tape names Rainbow "head of the department of torture" at 07-28 while the doctrine births the department only at tier three. Fen infers no resolution — the title may be honorary, anticipatory, or the department may be ruled founded early. The question rides in round 5's quiz letter for G's hand.

Nothing herein is canon until the maker's hand enters it. Fair winds.

— Fen, Keeper of the ANNEX & Warden of the Append-Only Word · 08/05/2026, round 5

NOTE — APPENDED — the Rainbow row trued, on the word given Signed: Fen, Keeper of the ANNEX & Warden of the Append-Only Word · Dated: 08/06/2026, round 11 · By G's mark at round 7's watch question — "the word is given." The table row above carried the relinker's run-together brackets; it is restored to two clean links. The ^rainbow-phase-one anchor it cites was itself lost to the 1:41a revert and is restored this round in the addendum.