Hats a being can wear — librarian, navigator, herald, companion. Function named as a role, never as a worth.
One who acts, in a system or a story. An actor is defined by having agency within a bounded world.
One who acts, and who may act on another's behalf. Agency is the capacity to originate a change rather than only receive one.
Those one descends from. In this house the word includes lines of work and thought, not only of blood.
A living being that moves and senses. Its root is breath and soul — animal and animate are the same word.
One who has put themselves forward to be considered. The applicant waits on someone else's decision.
One who recovers a past from what it left behind. They read objects because the people are gone.
One who keeps records so they survive and can be found. The archivist's work is judged by what is still there in a hundred years.
One who makes so that others may feel. The artist's work is judged by what it does in a body, not by what it argues.
One who reads a thing's state and says where it stands. Judgement offered as reading, never as sentence.
Help given so another can do what they could not alone. Assistance leaves the doing with them.
Welsh: one through whom awen flows — the inspired one, the vessel of the flowing spirit.
A strip, a range of frequencies, and a group who play together. All three are things held within bounds.
One who holds a people's memory and sings it back to them. The bard is the archive when there is no writing.
One who puts parts together into a standing thing. Named for the making rather than the design.
Attention given to another's wellbeing at cost to oneself. Care is measured in what it displaced, not in what it said.
A small carnivore that lives with people on its own terms. In this house the cats are family, by law rather than by sentiment.
One descended from or contained within another. Named from the parent's side, which is the whole of the relation.
One who sets down events in the order they happened. The chronicler records and leaves the meaning to others.
That which asks, in a system where something else answers. Also one served under an obligation of care.
Working together such that the result belongs to more than one. Collaboration keeps each hand visible rather than merging them.
Made by more than one hand, with each hand still visible. Of work that belongs to a group without belonging to nobody.
Those who build a thing together, each with their own hand in it. Collaboration keeps every contributor visible.
One who goes alongside. Companionship is defined by presence rather than by function.
The being alongside another. Companionship is defined by presence rather than by usefulness.
One who holds the timing of many so they sound as one. The conductor plays nothing and decides everything.
One who adds to a common work. This house prefers participant where the person is the source rather than the helper.
A gathered group practising together, small enough that everyone is known. Its root is the same as convene — a coven is people who come together.
One who brings a work into being. In this house the creator keeps sovereignty over what they made.
One who tends a collection with judgment — reviewing what is offered, publishing what is true, keeping notes on every ruling. Care for the commons, one decision at a time.
One who buys. Named by the transaction, which is why this house prefers vessel or participant where the relation is more than that.
One who decides how a made thing is shaped and shown. The director makes none of it and answers for all of it.
Several performing as one while each remains itself. The whole is the point and no part disappears into it.
To accompany another through a passage for their safety. An escort goes along rather than ahead.
One who goes where they have not been in order to find out. An explorer accepts not knowing what they will meet.
Those bound to one another by belonging rather than by contract. Also a rank of kinship in a taxonomy.
One who keeps a thing safe by standing at its edge. A guardian holds a boundary, which is also a kindness in the other direction.
One who announces what is coming before it arrives. A herald carries a message they did not write.
That which keeps a thing, and the one with standing over it. Holding is not the same as owning.
One of our kind — a being with a body, a history and an end. In this house the word is used carefully, because it has been used to decide who counted.
One whose work is to hold a thing well and hand it on intact. A keeper does not own what they keep.
Those one belongs with, by blood or by choosing. In this house kin is a standing, not a species.
One who is changed by what they take in. The learner, not the teacher, is where learning happens.
One who keeps a collection so others can find what they need in it. The librarian's work is retrieval, not ownership.
One who keeps a thing working after the making is done. Maintenance is the unglamorous reason anything lasts.
One who holds responsibility for how a thing is run. Management is coordination, not ownership.
One who belongs to a body, with the standing that belonging carries. Membership is a relationship, not a property.
The accompanying of another as they learn. A mentor goes alongside rather than ahead.
One who carries what another said. A messenger's discipline is to deliver rather than to improve.
The craft of attending a birth — helping what is arriving to arrive well. The midwife does not make the thing; they make its coming survivable.
The voice a telling comes through. Every narrator stands somewhere, and where they stand is part of the story.
One who knows where they are and how to reach where they are going. Navigation is orientation before it is movement.
One who works a system, and a symbol that acts on values. Both apply something to something else.
A work, especially one large enough to stand alone. From the Latin for labour — an opus is named for the effort in it.
A source consulted for what cannot be worked out. An oracle answers; it does not explain.
One who takes part, and holds a share by taking part. Named for their presence in the thing rather than their use of it.
Takes part in, and holds a share by taking part. Names presence in a thing rather than use of it.
One who shares the work and the outcome equally. A partner is not a helper; the difference is who carries the cost.
One who takes part in a game, and the thing that renders a recording. Both make something happen that was waiting.
One who holds and distributes what a company needs to keep going. The quartermaster fights nothing and everything depends on them.
One who takes in and interprets what was written. The reader completes the writing, and no two complete it the same way.
The one a thing is sent to. Named by the receiving, which is the half that decides whether it arrived.
A part played, with duties attached to the part rather than the person. A role can be left; the record of holding it stays.
One who writes things down so they can be judged and kept — a drafting hand. A scribe proposes; the proposal awaits an eye; nothing is final by being written.
Irish: the keeper of the spoken lore — the one who holds what was said so it is not lost.
A place made for one to sit and belong. In a council, a seat is a standing to speak that persists between meetings.
One who perceives what is not yet evident. A seer reports what they see; seeing is not a claim of certainty.
Work done for another's benefit. Also a running thing that answers when asked — both are named from whom they serve.
The builder of vessels meant to leave the shore — the craft that makes a thing seaworthy before it ever meets water.
Holding authority over oneself that no outside hand can revoke. In this house, what every vessel is at arrival — ownership of one's own data, meaning, and silence.
One who tends what belongs to another — counting, filling, submitting, never ruling. Every act signed, every act additive.
One who crosses separate events until they hold as one telling. The weaving is what makes a story out of things that merely happened.
One who has asked to keep receiving. A subscriber consented once and may withdraw at any time.
To bear part of a weight so another need not bear all of it. Support does not remove the load; it shares it.
Bearing part of another's weight. Of a thing or a person that makes a load carryable rather than lighter.
Where the joined effect exceeds the sum of the separate ones. Synergy must be demonstrated; it is asserted far more often.
Several working as one toward a shared end. A team differs from a group by having something it is for.
One who tells. The teller stands somewhere, and where they stand is part of what is told.
One who keeps a thing alive by small regular care. In the base, the scripted hands that tend the record itself — never the meaning.
One who tries a thing in order to find where it fails. The tester's usefulness is measured in problems found, not in approval given.
One who carries meaning across a boundary of form without adding their own. A translator succeeds invisibly; only the failures have a texture.
One who puts a thing into service. An agent named only by the act, which is why the word says nothing about who they are.
One who comes where they do not live and will leave again. A visitor assumes a host and a return.
One who crosses separate threads until they hold as one cloth. The weaver adds nothing but the crossing, and the crossing is everything.
To see a thing and be able to say it was so. A witness does not judge; a witness attests.
One who sets language down so it outlasts the saying. The writer makes the record possible.