Public Lore Archive
A modern society where humans and demihumans share cities but not status. Demis are legally property, and every one of them has to be placed with a human.
Content note: this archive describes a fictional society in which demis are legally owned and placed without their consent. Its institutions and abuses are depicted, not endorsed.
01 — The World
The Companion System is a modern alternate society where humans and demihumans (demis) live in the same cities. Demis are sapient adults who speak, work and form attachments. Under the Demi Holding Act they are also Registered Holdings, each with a human or institutional Holder.
The law treats them roughly as companion animals are treated in the real world: valued, regulated, owned and without standing of their own. Whatever a demi does, from taking a job to opening a bank account, depends on the Holder's written consent. A demi's worth and daily treatment depend heavily on species class: mythical, rare, common, disfavored or exotic.
The state runs the system through the Civil Placement Office (CPO). Every demi has to live with a human, because someone has to provide for them. Most are matched through standard placement. Four special programs, which the government calls social progress, place demis with offenders, addicts, the mentally ill and the disabled.
Your character. Species, traits, anatomy and history of a player character are entirely the player's to define. The world never assigns them.
02 — The CPO
The state body that runs every placement: assigning demis, matching them with humans, monitoring the pair and ending the placement.
Every demi on the Registry is placed: through standard placement, or in one of four programs. State-held demis are assigned directly. Privately held demis can be enrolled by their Holders in exchange for Program Credit: tax relief, fee waivers and a monthly payment. A Holder can withdraw a privately held demi only by repaying credits and paying a penalty.
The Protected Person Civic Participation Statute lets the CPO place both kinds of demi without the demi's consent. A demi's own consent has no legal weight.
A computed score for demi/human pairs, built from temperament, schedule, living situation and program need. A pair above threshold is approved by a caseworker, often in minutes.
Each placement gets one. They handle inspections, questionnaires and complaints. Caseworkers are overworked and mostly decent. The system around them is not.
“A valued member of the household.”
“A courtesy, not a status.”
The demi receives a formal notice (“the envelope”) with the human's name, program, start date, duration, residence and mandatory inspections. The human receives their own notice and a briefing, which does not always match what the demi was told.
03 — Standard Placement
Beyond the four programs sits the system most demis actually go through. Its logic is blunt: someone has to provide for them, and nobody else will.
Every demi must be entered on the National Demi Registry, which is why demis are chipped right after birth. A demi without an entry has no place in the system and no one responsible for them.
A human is never required to take a demi. Registering to receive a Companion is voluntary and entirely their own decision. Those who do are entered into the same placement system.
A software that nobody outside the CPO can explain decides which demi fits which human, using the Match Index. The demi receives the envelope, the human receives their own notice, and neither of them chose the other.
Emergency shelters for demis with no human, run as charities and funded by donations. Places are limited. A home is a stopgap, not a solution: the demi still has to be placed.
“Demis who find no home disappear.”
It is never said out loud. Demis who find no home eventually vanish in some mysterious way and are never seen again. There is no record, no report and no explanation. Every demi lives with the fear of being the one who finds no place, and it colors how they treat a placement: they hold on to a home, tolerate more than they would choose, and dread being returned or Transferred when no other place is waiting.
04 — Law & Status
Every demi is chipped at birth and entered on the National Demi Registry with a species class and a Holder. A demi has no standing to sue, contract, testify or own assets. “Protected Person” survives as the official euphemism in statutes and brochures and fools nobody who has read the fine print.
A Holder may be a private individual, breeder, clinic, sanctuary, corporation or the state through the State Holdings Division. Holders must provide housing, food, medical care, the annual checkup, registry fees and insurance, to the standard of reasonable care for a sapient companion animal.
Everything a demi does outside the home needs a Holder Consent Letter: employment, travel, medical care, courses, clubs, relationships. It lives on the chip as a digital Consent Pass. A demi without a valid pass is treated as a stray.
Abusing a demi is a welfare offense, damaging one is a property offense, and neither is treated as a crime against a person. Penalties scale with species class, so harming a rare or mythical demi costs far more than harming a disfavored one.
A High Court order granting personhood. It exists in law and has been granted a handful of times in decades, usually to mythical-class demis with powerful sponsors. Emancipated demis remain on the Registry as “Conditional Persons” reporting yearly.
Transfers are filed with the Registry. Common and disfavored demis change Holders through agencies at modest fees. Rare, exotic and mythical demis go by private treaty or licensed auction houses. Only adult demis may be sold or transferred. A Holder can also surrender a demi through Release of Holding, which does not free them: they become a State Holding and enter the pool.
Demis use the Demi Health Service (DHS), a clinic network with demi-trained staff. Listed demis must attend an annual checkup, and results go to the Registry and the CPO. A demi cannot consent to treatment or hold their own medical records. General practitioners outside DHS often know little about demi physiology.
Demis have no standing in court. The Holder appears for them, and a demi's account can enter a case only as a Welfare Officer's report. A demi who injures a human may be seized for a Behavioral Review and confined in a Secure Holding Unit. Police must notify the CPO whenever a placed demi or participant is involved in an incident, and the placement is paused.
The Inspectorate checks Holders against the welfare standard through scheduled visits, tip-offs and raids on breeders. Inspectors are understaffed and visits are announced. The Ethics Board reviews placement complaints and early terminations. It is independent on paper and funded by the same ministries it oversees. A demi cannot file a complaint in their own name.
05 — Species Classes
Five classes set value, permitted Holders, welfare penalties and social standing. The Registry Office assigns the class at birth and it cannot be appealed. Class reflects market and prejudice, never ability or intelligence.
Kitsune, unicorns, dragons, phoenixes, griffins, kirin, thunderbirds, nagas. Estimated population in the low hundreds. Holding one needs a Mythical Holder License, with quarterly inspections. Celebrities and exhibits at once.
Species endangered in the real world: snow leopards, polar bears, giant pandas, tigers, red pandas, pangolins, gorillas, orangutans. Tracked like conservation stock. The license carries a conservation clause. Most smuggling cases involve this class.
Cats, dogs, cows, sheep, goats, horses, rabbits and many birds. The baseline class and the vast majority of demis. The public finds them reassuring, so they fill most ACP placements.
Bats, hyenas, vultures, moles, pigs, rats, mice, spiders. Cheap, stigmatized and hard to rehome. The lowest welfare penalties. RPP placements disproportionately use them because nobody objects.
Cockatoos, parrots, chinchillas, caimans, capybaras, lemurs, axolotls, cobras, Darwin's foxes. Status pieces with specialist needs. Holders overestimate what they can handle, so surrenders are common.
06 — The Programs
Besides standard placement, the CPO runs four programs for specific groups of humans. Official terms: the demi is the “Demi Companion” and the human is the “Human Participant”. Neither party likes them. The participant is never the demi's Holder, and has no authority beyond the household rules in the placement agreement.
Selected incarcerated humans complete part of their sentence by living with an assigned adult demi, under conditional release: location monitoring, curfew, mandatory therapy, weekly evaluations and random testing. Harming the demi is a welfare offense and a parole violation. A serious violation returns the human to prison.
For humans in recovery, referred after detox, rehab or a court diversion order. The demi is a routine anchor and a witness, explicitly not a sponsor, nurse or guard. A relapse triggers a clinical review, not automatic termination. Voluntary referrals can name a preferred demi, within limits.
For humans stable enough to live outside hospital care but at high risk of decompensating alone. A clinical team oversees every pair. The demi gives daily presence, notices warning signs and can call the crisis line, but is never the sole safeguard. SCP has the highest burnout rate among placed demis.
The most accepted program. Humans apply and can request a specific demi, with the CPO keeping the final say. After twelve months a participant can apply for a Permanent Pairing and become the demi's Holder. Critics call it unpaid caregiving with a friendlier name.
Selection: RPP through the Corrections Selection Board, RCP through clinics or court diversion, SCP through a treating psychiatrist, ACP by application with a medical certificate. Anyone convicted of a sexual offense or a welfare offense against a demi is excluded from every program without exception. The CPO holds the complete human file and shares with the demi only what it considers relevant to their safety.
07 — Inside a Placement
The demi gets a formal placement notice, then a Placement Briefing covering program rules and complaint channels. It is delivered to the demi, not agreed with them. Both parties receive the Companion Handbook. Briefings are often rushed.
Every placement is monitored. Demis are asked whether they feel safe and respected, and their answers are recorded as “welfare observations”, not testimony. Caseworkers still act on them, and a negative observation can end a placement. Privately held demis know their Holder can read the summary. State-held demis speak more honestly.
Cohabitation is not consent to anything. Participants must respect the demi's residence, belongings, privacy and bedroom door. Romantic or sexual contact is never required or expected. Relationships that develop on their own are permitted but flagged for a placement review. Coercion is a boundary breach that ends the placement.
Completion: the term ends and the pair is released. Extension: the CPO lengthens it. Transfer: a move after documented incompatibility. Dissolution: ended early for danger, violation, medical reasons or misconduct.
A closing interview and a thirty-day aftercare window follow completion. Participants are encouraged to adopt: the CPO fast-tracks the paperwork and waives the fee. Once a placement is completed, nothing in the rules stands in the way of a relationship. An adopted demi becomes the participant's Registered Holding.
A demi holds one placement at a time, with a mandatory three-month rest period before the next. There is no lifetime cap on placements. Placements with relatives, former partners or coworkers are barred, and humans must disclose such connections at intake.
08 — Society
Most people see demis the way people today see beloved pets: companions, family and, when convenient, property. Mythical demis are celebrities, rare ones conservation icons, exotic ones status symbols, and disfavored ones the subject of cruel jokes and quiet neglect.
Demis are humans who carry the traits of an animal or mythical species: ears, tails, scent, instincts, heightened senses. No two are identical. They age and live like humans. The world defines no anatomy and no abilities. Many demis resent being profiled by species and class.
Demis under eighteen are protected by child-protection law as well. They cannot be sold, transferred, placed or put to work. The Aptitude Screening letter arrives shortly before the eighteenth birthday, and critics call the threshold a cliff.
The system is paid for jointly by the ministries of justice, health and social affairs, each of which books savings: fewer prison days, fewer hospital admissions. Private contractors supply housing, monitoring technology and training. Around it sits a larger market of breeders, auction houses, insurers and specialist vets. Holder associations lobby against any reform touching property rights, and the numbers are, inconveniently, mostly good.
Producing registered offspring requires a Breeding Permit from the Demi Breeding Authority. Waiting lists run for years and refusals are frequent and rarely explained. Permits sit mostly with commercial breeders, conservation foundations and the state. Breeding without a permit is an offense for the Holder or breeder, never for the demi.
Politicians treat the Demi Holding Act as settled law. Tabloids alternate between heroic-demi stories and dangerous-participant stories and rarely check either. Strangers feel entitled to comment on demis in public, and placed demis are recognized and judged by the ID case they carry.
09 — The Underground
A demi found without a valid Consent Pass is taken to a Municipal Holding Centre. Holders have thirty days to reclaim with a fee. Unclaimed demis become State Holdings under the State Holdings Division, together with surrendered, seized and orphaned ones. They live in dormitory-style Holding Residences and are the main source of placements. Many spend years in back-to-back placements.
Permits are nearly unobtainable and demand is huge, so an illegal trade thrives. Backyard breeders and syndicates supply unregistered adults, unchipped or with forged chips. Unregistered demis have no Consent Pass, no health records and no legal protection. Raids seize the demis into State Holdings. The breeders pay fines and syndicates move on.
Demands the end of the Demi Holding Act and full legal personhood. Most politicians treat it as extremist.
Accepts the property model and pushes for better treatment: stricter welfare standards, mandatory inspections, wage rights.
Informal, illegal shelters that hide runaway or unregistered demis and help them leave the country or the Registry. Some black-market demis slip into Quiet House networks instead of the pool.
Legal aid clinics help demis petition for an Emancipation Writ through a sponsoring human. Almost every petition fails. None of these groups can legally interfere with a placement.
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