A charm-string is what it sounds like: a woven cord, usually cotton or hemp, sometimes silk for ceremonial occasions, with small tokens threaded along its length. Each token is a record of a relationship — a charm from a temple where you’ve apprenticed, a crew sigil from a job that survived contact with the Domain Court, a small carved chip from a fixer you owe, a mother-of-pearl charm from a Harbor procession.
How to read them
To read someone’s strings is to read their obligations. A long string — many charms, many affiliations — is useful for contacts but slow to move; the wearer has too many people to answer to. A short string is fast, hard to predict, and may be either liberated or dangerous depending on context. Charm-clean — wearing nothing — is suspicious almost everywhere.
Threshold members, by tradition, wear no strings. The bare wrists are the polite small advertisement that Threshold does not ask favors of itself.
Faking
Counterfeit charms exist. Faking a House charm, particularly a Threshold or Memory charm, is a Domain Court matter and is prosecuted seriously. Faking a crew charm is a street matter and is prosecuted differently.