The promise, as printed: every question the rules don't already settle is answered publicly on this page — and the page grows as the hunt does. Rulings are final and apply to every solver equally. No ruling will ever reveal her city, or how close you are to it.
Last updated: launch day. Numbered rulings below are seeded from the book's own rules.
Yes — always. Strike lightly: a crossed-out city is cleared, but the clues may still need to see it. A struck name still counts as a name, a page, and a neighbour. Nothing you do with your pencil changes what is printed.
Letters only — spaces don't count. GOLD COAST is nine letters. And a two-word city is one name: its words are set close together in the ledger.
Squeeze the name first. SANTA ANA becomes SANTAANA — the two A's touch, so it fails the doubled-letter clue. The space cannot save a name.
A clue about the name itself (its letters, its initial, its length) clears every copy at once. A clue about a page or a position is tested wherever each copy sits — one copy can fail where another survives.
No. Only the exact printed spelling counts. YORK is YORK. NEW YORK is NEW YORK. They are strangers.
The pair you see when the book lies open: 2 faces 3, 4 faces 5, and so on. Page 1 opens the register alone — it faces no register page, and no clue will ever punish you for that.
Count entries, not pages: up to ten names before her, or up to ten after. The count runs straight across a page break, and straight across a chapter break. The ledger is one long line of names wearing page numbers.
Yes. Same page counts as zero; four pages apart still counts. Five does not.
The Meridian Note at the back is not a list of every eastern city — most of the world is not a close call, and cities far from the line never needed a list. The Note settles only the cities that sit almost on the line itself: those east of it are listed to keep; those west of it are listed to strike. A city on neither list is nowhere near the line — you already know which side it stands on. Still torn? Keep it: every close call in this ledger is settled by the other clues too.
The list wins. For the national-capital clue and the Olympic-host clue, only the names on the printed lists at the back of the book count — whatever the atlas, the record books, or the internet says.
The chapter that contains the copy you are testing. Chapters are marked in the register; a chapter clue is tested against everything printed between its title and the next.
Not in the book — that is the point. When exactly two cities are left standing, and not a moment before, go to the final clue.
Found a reading the rules don't settle? Send it to [email protected] with the clue's wording. Real questions get numbered rulings here, verbatim, usually within a few days. Questions that would reveal her city get answered with a polite silence.