A lit lamp with its cover beside it accompanies every Templar ship. It is carried lit between flagships and covered only for the dead.
The account
- Offices used in the chronicle: Grand Master; Chapter-General; Seneschal; Marshal (Shield Fleet); Commander of the Escort (Road Fleet); Hospitaller-Master (Bread Fleet); Keeper of the Ledger; Keeper of the Stone; Knights and Dames (e.g. Dame Hana Okafor); Brothers and Sisters; Hearth-kin; Chaplains.
- The Vigil of the Seat, 18 March each year: silence, one lamp, no words until dawn. The Empty Chair at the head of every Templar table and wardroom, never sat in. The Closing of the Hours ('We were given the road, the bread and the shield...'). The once-in-a-life journey to Tomar to ask to place one hand on the Stone.
- The hearth-lamp: a small covered flame, lit on every Templar ship with its cover beside it; covered only for the dead; carried across, lit, when a flagship changes. Rule since 2271; lit-not-hidden since 2832.
- The Unfinished Cross: red cross with one arm unpainted, the Vigil's mark; whole since 18 March 2822; still a private mark among the old guard. Colours: red cross on white; the black-and-white Beauseant. A black-and-white thread in a hem was a Vigil recognition sign (1547).
- Signs (Rule of Signs: a true sign is never sold, is cheap, unfinished and asks nothing back): blank shield on a doorpost (safe house, knock); loaf or ration pack with an unfinished cross (a meal, no questions); cairn of three stones, one apart (this way, you will not be alone); the beacon: three short pulses and a gap; the Given Mark: a ring with no number.
- Hail: 'Non nobis' — 'Sed nomini'. Second stage: 'Who keeps the Chair?' — 'No one, until the Door.' Optional since 2822, sometimes said with a smile.
- False signs: the Larmenius Charter, the Ramsay Oration, the Priory of Sion, treasure myths, any 'Templar stone' for sale, any sign with a price.
