Read the Charter
Reedmere must feed every hearth without taking common ground or disturbing the names of the dead.
LANTERN ARCADE · WORLD 04 · THREE-AGE BETA
The city writes down what you chose.
Palimpsest
The Living Charter
Found Reedmere beside a restless river. Carry its Charter through flood, low water, and the arrival of twelve upriver households. Three Councils inherit every promise you make.
30–45MINUTES3CIVIC AGES729HISTORIES0HIDDEN SCORES
Reedmere before the spring flood · watercolor and colored pencil
04
A CIVIC STRATEGY STORY
The difficult part is not choosing.
It is living inside the reason.
Palimpsest is a compact narrative strategy game about memory, power, and the stories institutions tell about themselves. There is no perfect route and no secret morality meter. Across three civic ages, the record shows who benefited, who carried the burden, and whether a later repair was real.
ONE PROMISE · THREE CIVIC AGES · A LIVING HISTORY
How the Charter remembers
You can finish a three-age history in one sitting. Every route reaches a Third Judgment, and replaying the last fork reveals exactly how a different winter order changes the record.
Place the first burden
Select where the town will plant. Every answer provides something—and places the cost somewhere specific.
Face the river
When spring flood arrives, the First Judgment weighs the whole history, not a hidden score.
Inherit the New Bank
Twelve years later, govern new river ground through low water. The exact First Age record changes every claim.
Receive twelve hearths
Eighteen winters later, twelve upriver households arrive. Decide whether they enter Reedmere as members, guests, or a new ward.
Survive the Long Freeze
Allocate food and work across old and new households. The Third Judgment cites the full record you made.
THREE VOICES · NO EASY MAJORITY
The Council does not tell you who is right.
Elian keeps the stores. Nera speaks for the river landings. Sabeth keeps the names. Each sees a truth the others can neglect, and each choice turns one truth into a public burden.
“Need may excuse a trespass. It cannot rename it. Record what we chose to do.”— Sabeth Vale, Keeper of Names
THE RIVER READS THE RECORD
Your first answer changes the next generation’s question.
The flood is not a detached finale. Safe terraces may become refuge. A claimed floodplain may become a dangerous precedent. The New Bank inherits those facts—and the Far Hearths inherit what the second Council chose to do with them.
PROMISE→FIRST JUDGMENT→PRECEDENT→SECOND JUDGMENT→THIRD JUDGMENT
BETA NOTE · COME IN WHILE THE PAINT IS STILL WET
Three complete civic ages inside a living world.
This beta now carries Reedmere from its Founding Memory through the New Bank and into The Far Hearths. Six three-way decisions produce 729 deterministic histories, and every Third Judgment cites the exact record you made—without hiding a morality score.
- Click or tap the pencil map markers and action buttons
- Open the Chronicle tab whenever you want to review the evidence
- Your current history resumes from this browser after a reload
- Chronicles from earlier beta builds migrate forward automatically
- Revisit the final fork without replaying the whole first age
- Optional restrained sound begins muted and remembers your setting
- No download, game account, leaderboard, or competitive score
- The game link may ask you to sign in with an invited account
There is no movement, combat, timer, or secret score. The play is in reading the record, weighing visible tradeoffs, and deciding whether precedent should be followed, repaired, or rejected. The Chronicle stays anonymous and is saved only on this device.
AGE III · NOW PLAYABLE
When twelve new hearths arrive, the Charter must answer who counts.
The Far Hearths completes the first three-age arc: 729 deterministic histories in which inherited evidence changes membership, winter provision, testimony, and the Third Judgment.
EIGHTEEN WINTERS LATERTwelve hearths ask to stay.
The Chronicle decides what welcome means.
The Chronicle decides what welcome means.
ONE CITY · ONE RIVER · ONE RECORD THAT WILL NOT STAY STILL