SANJIESAN LORE / Institutions
Separate a fictional office from the person holding it
A project can accidentally give an institution a new history whenever its leader changes. World Anvil offers different worldbuilding templates for different kinds of subjects. In your own notes, distinguish the person, the office and the organisation before deciding how a change of occupant affects an ordinary scene.
Give the office a continuing task
Invent a harbour office responsible for opening a public storehouse. State what the office does and which organisation maintains it. Then name the current holder separately. A private preference, such as opening the shutters before speaking, belongs to that person unless the setting deliberately makes it a required procedure. Keeping those details apart allows a successor to behave differently without making the institution unintelligible.
Change the holder in a small scene
Write the same delivery arriving before and after a handover. Decide which permission, key or responsibility transfers with the office and which personal relationship does not. Someone trusted by the previous holder may need an introduction to the new one. Avoid assuming that every favour is an institutional entitlement. Equally, do not erase an established public duty merely because the new character is less friendly.
Check the references after the handover
Read a later scene mentioning the harbour official. Make clear whether the phrase refers to the current occupant, a named predecessor or the continuing role. If an old portrait remains on the wall, it need not mean the predecessor still governs. Preserve an established character identity when updating the office entry; a promotion changes a relationship to a role, not the identity of the person who receives it.