This page defines how REAF personnel (and supporting nobles) may spend personal funds on equipment, ammunition, fuel, and capabilities during wartime without breaking logistics.

It is intentionally simple:

• The Crown guarantees what it issues.
• Everything else is optional, payable, and accountable.
• If it’s supported and authorized, the system’s default answer is: “How are you paying?”

• The Crown: State provisioning authority. Guarantees only what it issues.
• Emberstone Minimum: Crown-issued baseline kit and baseline sustainment. (See Universal Kit page.)
• Crown Contractor: A private supplier approved to sell into Crown/REAF channels.
• Supported Item: An item that REAF can inspect, record, maintain, and supply (parts/consumables) inside existing channels.
• QM (Quartermaster): Custodian of unit supply, ordering, issue, and recordkeeping. Has influence and discretion; not a bank.

• The Crown guarantees Emberstone Minimum and maintains that stock during war.
• There is no guarantee the Crown will support anything beyond what it issues.
• If you want more than the issued baseline (extra ammo, extra magazines, extra fuel, additional weapons/vehicles, specialized kit), you may obtain it with personal funds through approved channels—subject to authorization and supportability.

REAF uses one supported catalog. Access differs only by ordering channel.

• Patrons/Matrons (and peers who maintain forces) already contract in peacetime to sustain their minimum formations.
• Many such nobles are also officers; cutting off that lane in wartime would be irrational.
• Captains and above may also use this lane for larger/formation-scale buys.

Direct purchases still enter military accountability if intended for service use:

• inspected / recorded / serialized where applicable
• compatibility confirmed
• integrated without breaking supply standards

• Below Captain, purchases route through the QM using the same supported catalog.
• This is fairness and order discipline: everyone can buy supported kit; the QM keeps the paperwork sane.

Important: The QM does not gatekeep doctrine. If it’s supported and authorized, the QM sells it.

The QM says “no” only when one of these applies:

1. Not authorized (training gate / role restriction / prohibited on duty)
2. Not supportable (breaks logistics; unique ammo/parts; cannot be maintained)
3. Front priority conflict (selling it would impair Emberstone Minimum sustainment or immediate operational need)

If none apply, the QM’s posture is:

• “Okay. X dollars. Paying now or by deduction?”

Common items (when in stock) are issued immediately upon payment.

Special orders are paid in full, up front.

Reason:

• The Crown does not front money for private projects.
• Contractors do not build/allocate production slots without payment.
• Refund pools do not exist at the unit level.

• Pay now (cash/draft/etc.)
• Deduct from pay (only against earned pay; no negative balance)

(If the money is not earned, it cannot be spent.)

• You buy it.
• You get it the same day.
• The QM simply increases the reorder quantity (“tacks another unit onto the next order”).

• QM completes the order form.
• Takes full payment (special order rule).
• Provides a rough ETA.
• Issues upon arrival.

At purchase, the buyer chooses the destination:

• Home / named recipient (common for gifts, including firearms), OR
• Front / unit delivery (through the QM channel)

The item goes where you send it.

If you send it home, it is not part of front disposition decisions. If you send it to the front, it enters front custody and front practicality rules apply.

There are no refunds. The money is spent and the item has arrived where it was addressed (the front).

The Crown will not pay to ship privately purchased goods back home.

The QM must choose the best course of action at the front:

This is the least disruptive and matches cultural expectation:

• “If they ordered it to the front during war, they meant it to help their people fight.”

If the family/estate wants the item:

• they may request release
• they pay extraction/shipping/handling

If:

• the unit cannot reasonably use it, AND
• the family does not want it / will not pay extraction,

then the QM may hold it and use it to solve front friction (see QM Discretion).

Guardrail: The QM must not be seen as personally profiting from dead soldiers. Expediency use is for readiness outcomes only.

Hard Example (the one people argue about):

• A truck ordered to the front arrives after the buyer is killed.
• The Crown will not ship it home.
• The unit uses it by default.
• If the family wants it, they pay to extract it from the front.

If you are not being “hooked up,” you can still buy normally. Discretion is extra, not a requirement.

The QM has limited discretionary leeway because:

• they are respected as operational enablers,
• they see real usage and outcomes,
• they can move friction out of the way when it improves the front.

Discretion may include:

• modest extra allocation (within reason)
• expedited access
• favorable pricing on depot-rebuilt items
• small support inputs

Discretion is judged by results:

• If someone complains “QM gave them extra,” the response is:
  1. “Okay. Then what happened?”
• Effective units earn flexibility. Waste closes the tap.

Small personal purchases rarely matter to logistics.

Large purchases can change consumption and transport (ammo burn, spares, maintenance hours, fuel use, vehicle security).

Rule:

• If your project increases demand beyond baseline, you own the delta by default.
• The Crown sustains what it issues. Your extra capability is your responsibility unless the QM elects limited support based on demonstrated results and front priorities.

This prevents one enthusiastic officer/noble from choking the supply that feeds Emberstone Minimum.

For military-channel purchases during war:

• Price is total cost + 1% (contractor margin cap).

This exists to enable field capability expansion without price-gouging.

Shipping/handling is still real and follows the destination chosen by the buyer.

• If it’s addressed to the front, it arrives to the front.
• If someone wants it moved back home later, that extraction cost is not paid by the Crown.

Anything intended for service use must be:

• inspected for safety and compatibility
• recorded/serialized where applicable
• assigned or registered appropriately

This policy enables innovation and private spend. It does not authorize untracked weapons, unsafe modifications, or logistics-breaking eccentricities.