Tokens

Agents of the Stability Council refer to special kinds of powerful items that they compete for, guard, trade, steal and occasionally deploy as Tokens.
Natives of Earth Zero might be tempted to think of a Token as akin to a magical object, imbued with hidden powers. This is close to the truth but a Token is more than a magical object. There are a wide variety of magical objects in the world of the Lost Retreat and even more (and more dangerous ones) in the evolution called Magicians' End, yet these are not true Tokens since they can only operate within their own local Laws of Form.
True Tokens are much rarer than traditional magical devices. Technically, a Token is an instrument capable of functioning across multiple realms. The precise nature of the appearace, ostensible purpose and side effects of different Tokens can vary widely, and too there are partial Tokens which may act unreliably within some dimensions but can still be useful in others, if they can be transported between them.
The crafting of all but the simplest Tokens is beyond the power of the Stability Council. Even the Major Powers cannot always make or unmake the Tokens they might profess to control. There are ancient Tokens passing around in the Discontinuum which may not be properly understood by any of their nominal guardians today.
An important class of Tokens consists of items useful in effecting transfers between different realms. These circumvent the natural Barriers in different ways but all of them lower the prohibitive levels of energy that would otherwise be required.
A second type of Token is the "Recorder Token", of which there are known to be many, crafted by some unknown ancient Power. Each Token has the ability to save large segments of memory from willing subjects, and in return for the right to keep a copy, will trade the right to replay other segments from different memories stored within its library. There may be other functions of the Recorder Tokens that have now been lost, but they can act as a simple tracking device under special conditions.
The most powerful category of Token are the so called, Binding Rules. These encapsulate a seed of some specific configuration of the Laws of Form which, under the right circumstances, may be released to spread or reinforce those Laws. Binding Rules are sometimes used as defensive resources in stable evolutions. It is believed they are also deployed as weapons in realms far beyond the archetypes in those regions sometimes referred to as the "deep discontinuum" where open warfare between Major Powers is understood to take place.
The whereabouts and movements of known Binding Rule Tokens are always of extreme interest to the Stability Council.