One sword, one place, one history
Physical possession should be unusually important. An object that thousands of people own simultaneously is loot. An object exactly one person is carrying is a story.
Five properties of a named object
- One instance. If it exists, it exists in exactly one place.
- Physical possession is real. Someone is carrying it right now.
- It can be hidden, stolen, buried, sold, gifted, ransomed or displayed.
- Every hand it passed through stays attached to it, permanently.
- A museum is a legitimate ending. So is being lost in Depth IV for twelve years.
What the world knows about a single object
Invented, for illustration. The format is not: this is exactly what a provenance record looks like when a real one is finally written.
Sword of Ash
- Aster
- 3
- Killed Emperor Rathos
- Siege of Elysium
- Labyrinth, Depth IV
- Twelve years later
Provenance is what turns an item into a cultural object. It is also the only honest reason for a property layer to exist — you own the artifact, and you never have to think about how ownership is recorded.