A Charter is the commission itself: the word count, the vessel, the cast, the score, the added services and the price they came to. It is sealed when payment is taken and a reference is issued. That reference and the email it was sealed under are the only key to it.

The price on a sealed Charter does not move. If the manuscript grows before work begins, we re-weigh it and issue a new Charter rather than quietly billing the difference.

A commission begins on half. The remaining half falls due when the build is finished and shown to you — not before, and never on a schedule of ours. A Charter may also be paid in full at the sealing, and nothing further is asked.

Payments are taken by Stripe. This house never sees or stores a card number. Sales tax, where it applies, is calculated and remitted at checkout.

Finished runtime runs 155 words to a finished minute — 9,300 words to a finished hour — for filmbooks and audio books alike. That is an estimate of length, not a promise of a date; a build's schedule is set at the Weighed stage and kept honest from your chamber.

Files are released from the Vault when the commission is settled in full. A filmbook is delivered as a full-resolution master with its audio stems; a filmbook also carries its matching audio book. Downloads are yours to take as often as you wish.

Every commission carries two full passes of notes at no cost — one on the performance, one on the cut. Notes given inside a pass are worked as one pass, not as a queue of separate ones.

A change of direction after a stage is approved — a recast, a rescore, a rewrite of picture — is new work and is quoted as new work before a hand is laid on it.

Your story stays yours. Always. Nothing you send this house grants us any right in the work itself.

You own the finished filmbook and audio book outright, to sell, license, syndicate or give away as you see fit. This house keeps only the right to show the work as an example of its craft — and will pull it from every showcase the day you ask.

Licensed score and stock elements are cleared for your finished work in perpetuity. They are not yours to lift out and license onward on their own.

House voices are performed and licensed for your work. The Voice Clone chamber mints a voice only from a recorded consent you give in your own words, and that voice is used in nothing but your own builds.

A cloned voice is destroyed on request, in full, and the request is honoured within seven days. No voice of any person is ever cloned without that person's recorded consent.

A sealed Charter may be withdrawn at any time. On withdrawal, this house retains fifty percent (50%) of all monies paid on that Charter, and fifty percent (50%) is returned. This holds whether or not any production work has yet been performed, and whether or not a stage of passage has been entered.

The retained half is not a penalty. It is the price of the commission itself: the moment a Charter is sealed, this house reserves cast, score, bench time and calendar for your work, refuses or defers other commissions to hold that room, and begins preparation that cannot be resold to anyone else. That reservation is the service you bought at the seal, and it is consumed the instant it is made.

Refunds are calculated on monies actually paid — the deposit, the sum paid in full, or the draws laid to date — less any transaction fee already taken by the payment processor. Nothing beyond the retained half is ever withheld.

A withdrawal is requested in writing to hearth@drakenscroll.com from the email the Charter was sealed under, and the return is issued to the original method of payment within ten business days. Anything built to that point is released to you as-is at no further cost.

By sealing a Charter and completing payment in the Forge, you agree to this rite. It is stated on the sealing floor before payment is taken, and again on the Charter itself.

An allied house earns commission on Charters its authors seal, at the rate locked on that Charter. Commission is earned when the author's coin clears and is paid out on the house's ordinary cycle.

No agency, at any tier, is ever granted exclusivity over this house or any part of its work. This is permanent.

This house warrants craftsmanship, not commercial outcome. Marketing services are bought as effort and reach, never as sales, ranking or reviews, and no such result is promised anywhere on this site.

Our liability on any commission is limited to what you paid for it. Manuscripts and assets you send are held in confidence and are never sold, shared or used to train anything.