Twenty countries, twenty promises
The twenty countries
Every country on the map was founded after a harm, on one law meant to prevent it. These are the laws, in the words of the people who believe them. What each one costs is in the books.
Book One
The Logic of Strangers
Tares
The Republic of Measure
No one should be treated arbitrarily.
Selm
The Kindly Census
No one should be forgotten, and no one should be the sole judge of what they are.
Velle
The City of Open Doors
No one should suffer alone.
The Province
The Province of Licensed Questions
No one should be destroyed by doubt.
Book Two
The Company of Others
Gemel
The Republic of Pairs
No one should face consequences alone.
Holm
The Choir State
No one should have to speak into silence.
Rondel
The Country of Borrowed Families
No child should be unwanted, and no one should be owned by their luck.
Vale
The Country Without Farewells
No one should be made to grieve in advance.
Book Three
The Weight of Witness
Morrow
The Court of Possible Selves
No one should be lost to a preventable self.
Candor
The City of Pure Intentions
No one should be punished for an honest mistake.
Sessa
The Country of Expired Grievances
The dead quarrel should not govern the living.
Lenis
The Bureau of Harmlessness
No one should be a casualty of someone else's temperament.
Book Four
The Mercy of Systems
Salve
The Country Without Bad News
No one should be broken by the manner of knowing.
Plur
The Country of Shared Sorrow
No one should be destroyed by a grief that others could have carried.
The Sanctuary
The Country of Unrefused Company
No one should ever again ask for company and be told no.
Palun
The Country of No Regret
No one should be sentenced for life by their own worst decision.
Book Five
The Unfinished Country
The Federation
The Country of Declared Laws
No one should have a law chosen for them.
Hosten
The Country Governed by Visitors
No one should be judged by someone with something to gain.
Venir
The Republic of the Unborn
No one should inherit a ruined world.
The Unfinished Country
The Country That Will Not Finish
No morning should be allowed to tell you what you are.