Garnetrun
An inland workshop city whose scales are trusted more than its prince.
Garnetrun's water-powered polishers occupy the lower lanes; the higher terraces house inspectors whose windows face the workshops they regulate. Every measuring stone has two makers' marks and a flaw deliberately left visible, so a counterfeit cannot imitate anonymous perfection.
At the annual Breaking of the Measures, apprentices publicly destroy stones that fail calibration. This year's failures include the set owned by Cael Orven. The prince has asked Mira Pell to test them again before the crowd, putting her family between the court and the guild that pays their wages.
Mira accepted the prince’s invitation only after securing the right to publish a failed experiment.
Cadan mends borrowed instruments and asks users what made them difficult to read.
A small inland principality that makes the measuring instruments no larger realm can do without.
Cael inherited a country small enough to cross in a long day and a standard used across a continent.
A public calibration failed the prince’s own treaty stones and made compensation unavoidable.
Eight regional delegations adopted common heat measures and fixed obligations to supply winter grain.