Rank is what one sees before anyone speaks. – House Rules, § 4
Six steps, from the bottom up: Aspirant, Attachée, Registrar, Prefect, First Prefect, Director. At any time the House holds exactly one Director and exactly one First Prefect; the other ranks are open, but not empty. By day the pin at the standing collar shows the rank: gold for the Director, silver with a red stone for the First Prefect, silver for the Prefect, steel for the Registrar, brass for the Attachée. The Aspirant wears no pin, and everyone in the House sees the emptiness at her collar before they see her face. In the evening, after the dressing room, the pin is laid aside and the collar takes its place: narrow leather, in the colour that belongs to the woman and not to the rank. The colour is chosen on entering the House and never changed again. Ottilie von Asch wears black, Konstanze Aurich oxblood, Helene Marwitz white, Sibylle Ahrend a dark petrol, Ruth Adlershof silver-grey, Ilse Vandenberg pale rose, Nora Kessling emerald, Mathilde Feyn cream, the colour before the col...
From the lore of Das Haus am Kanal.