book3: update worldbuilding for ruin backstory revision

- kingdom-of-corvel.md: Holven as debt-acquirer pattern
- pip.md: rewrite as true dragon from Mine 1 earth-magic mutation,
  add growth mechanics section
- supporting-cast.md: Sable as returning forensics scout,
  add Holven row

Ref: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-04-19-book3-ruin-backstory-revision-design.md

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

characters/pip.md

@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 # Pip — Character Bible
 
-*Pixie Dragon / Living Magic Detector / Mere's Comfort Creature*
+*True Dragon (Mine 1) / Living Magic Detector / Mere's Comfort Creature*
 
 ---
 
 ## Core Identity
 
 - **Name:** Pip (named for the sound it makes when it detects a new magical signature)
-- **Species:** Pixie dragon — a magical symbiote that feeds on ambient magical residue
+- **Species:** True dragon — mutated lizard lineage from earth-magic-saturated Mine 1 on Duchess Pamira's territory. Growth gated by sustained ambient magical residue intake.
 - **Size:** Hand-sized
 - **First Appearance:** Book 3 Ch09 ("The Living Archive")
 - **Primary Bond:** Mere Fields
@@ -27,11 +27,26 @@
 
 ## Species & Biology
 
-- **Magical symbiote.** Pixie dragons feed on ambient magical residue — the same energy source as ghostveil moss. Where significant magical workings have left traces, pixie dragons can survive; in magically empty spaces they wither or migrate
-- **Not sapient.** Pip is a creature, not a person. It responds to stimuli, forms bonds, recognises its handler, reacts to threats — the intelligence of a smart animal rather than a conversational mind. Do not write it with internal monologue or comprehension of speech beyond tone
-- **Calm-sensitive bonding.** Pixie dragons approach handlers whose energy doesn't register as a threat. Calm, systematic presence reads as safe. Anxious or aggressive presence reads as predator
-- **Living instrument.** Reacts visibly — colour, wing vibration, body orientation, posture — to different types and intensities of magical energy. Combined with a pattern-recognising handler, becomes a calibration instrument
-- **Discovery context:** Found near the Athel Repository entrance during Mere's surface survey, feeding on the ruin's ambient residue (Ch09). Pre-Compact ruins leave exactly the kind of residue pixie dragons thrive on
+- **True dragon.** Dragons in the Corvel world are magical reptilian creatures whose form and mass are gated by sustained ambient magical residue intake. In the wild, they only survive in magic-saturated environments. Outside those environments, they either migrate to find residue density or starve within days of flight. Pip is not a symbiote, not a "pixie dragon," and not a new species — she is a juvenile of a species that has always existed where the conditions supported it.
+- **Origin — Mine 1.** Pamira's eastern-coastal territory includes three mines in the cliff face. One of them (Mine 1) has been concentrating earth-magic residue for centuries (unusual ore vein, pre-Compact-era disruption, or similar — specific cause Book 4+). The saturation is high enough to have mutated the native lizard population into dragons over many generations. A wild colony of 5–10 individuals lives inside the mine, wolf-to-pony-sized at maturity. The colony is geographically stable because the mine's residue density is what keeps the adults alive — outside it, a matriarch starves.
+- **Why Pip left the mine.** A hatchling / young adult drawn out of the mine by three signals combining during Mere's surface survey: Mere's calm presence, Mere's Moonswell trays in the estate room, and Phelan's ambient working residue from the ruin. Pip did not migrate — she followed a gradient.
+- **Not sapient.** Pip is a creature, not a person. Smart-animal intelligence: recognises her handler, forms bonds, reacts to threats, reads stimuli. Do not write internal monologue or comprehension of speech beyond tone.
+- **Calm-sensitive bonding.** Approaches handlers whose magical field does not register as a threat. Calm, systematic presence reads as safe. Anxious or aggressive presence reads as predator.
+- **Living instrument.** Reacts visibly — colour, wing vibration, body orientation, posture — to different types and intensities of magical energy. Combined with a pattern-recognising handler, becomes a calibration instrument.
+- **Discovery context (Ch09):** found during Mere's surface survey of the walled compound and mines, drawn out of Mine 1. The team does not engage the colony in Book 3 — claw marks, distant shapes, Pip reacts when Mere carries her near the mine entrance. Future-book territory.
+
+## Growth Mechanics
+
+- **Body mass is a function of sustained ambient residue intake.** A dragon fed rich residue grows. A dragon fed trace residue stabilises at a lower mass.
+- **Pip at Chandler's Row.** Residue intake there is trace-to-moderate — bracelet, Phelan's workings, the occasional visit from higher-residue objects. Pip will stabilise at hand-sized for the foreseeable future.
+- **Growth gate gives three future-book levers:**
+  1. Extended stays in magic-dense environments (another ruin, prolonged proximity to a major working).
+  2. A deliberate feeding program — Mere could construct a magical hothouse around Pip, with all the practical and ethical complications of raising a predator at scale.
+  3. A catastrophic residue event (Book 5+) that accidentally triggers growth — reframes Pip from "Mere's companion" to "Mere has a problem."
+
+## Ch18 Tactical Role
+
+Earth-magic attunement means pre-Compact stone architecture reads as native signal to Pip. Cass moving through the repository lights up like a fish in a pond. The Ch18 tactical-intelligence beats (Pip + Mere tracking Cass's position from the surface) work identically to previous outline canon — cleaner, because signal sensitivity now has a concrete physical basis instead of "reacts to ambient residue" as an abstraction.
 
 ---
 
@@ -87,7 +102,7 @@
 
 | Chapter | Development | Category |
 |---------|-------------|----------|
-| Ch09 | **First appearance.** Found by Mere during surface survey near the Athel Repository entrance, feeding on ambient residue. Approaches her calm energy. Lands on her shoulder and stays. Mere names it without ceremony — "Pip," after the sound it makes when it detects a new magical signature | Introduction / bond |
+| Ch09 | **First appearance.** Found by Mere during a surface survey of the walled compound and mines. Pip has been drawn out of Mine 1 by Mere's calm, the Moonswell trays in the estate room, and Phelan's ambient working residue from the ruin. Approaches Mere's calm energy. Lands on her shoulder and stays. Mere names her without ceremony — "Pip," after the sound she makes when she detects a new magical signature. Pip reacts near Mine 1's entrance (Book 4+ seed). | Introduction / bond |
 | Ch11 | **The calibration partnership.** Mere uses Pip's reactions to catalogue inscriptions — different notation patterns produce different colour and wing responses. Brilliant, methodical cataloguing work. Pip is clearly a research instrument now, not just a pet | Tool |
 | Ch13 | Fifth chamber (research workshop). Pip vibrating at colours Mere hasn't seen before. High ambient residue signals something unusual about the workshop — it foreshadows the sealed door at the back | Signal |
 | Ch16 | **Sleeps on Mere's shoulder** during the quiet night-before scene at the estate. Pip's presence is the domestic texture of Mere's pregnancy — a calm creature, a calm woman, a calm room before the storm | Atmosphere |
@@ -95,7 +110,7 @@
 | Ch22 | **On the windowsill at Chandler's Row.** Final image of the book: Pip on the windowsill, Mere asleep, Kimbra cleaning up dinner, Phelan updating the house plans. Pip made the journey home with them. Bonded for the duration | Home |
 
 ### Book 4+
-<!-- Pip continues as Mere's companion and as a living magical instrument. Questions about pixie dragon lifespan, whether more pixie dragons exist, whether Pip would bond with Sera after birth. -->
+<!-- Pip continues as Mere's companion and as a living magical instrument. See Open Questions for lifespan, colony distribution, and growth-lever questions. -->
 
 ---
 
@@ -105,7 +120,7 @@ Pip does not speak. When it "communicates" it is through colour, wing frequency,
 
 Examples of Pip-prose to use or adapt:
 - *Pip shifted three shades toward blue and sat up on Mere's shoulder. A new signature.*
-- *The pixie dragon's wings stopped vibrating. Whatever the inscription was, it wasn't like the others.*
+- *Pip's wings stopped vibrating. Whatever the inscription was, it wasn't like the others.*
 - *Pip chirped once — soft, interrogative — and Mere wrote something in her notebook.*
 - *It had retreated behind Mere's collar. That meant the ambient field had just done something it didn't like.*
 
@@ -128,9 +143,14 @@ Do NOT write Pip with:
 
 ## Open Questions
 
-- [ ] Lifespan? How long do pixie dragons live? Is Pip going to be a single-book companion or a multi-book fixture?
-- [ ] How rare are pixie dragons? Are they wild-only, or do some people have bonded ones already?
-- [ ] Does Pip get along with Sniff? Chandler's Row becomes a two-animal household at the end of Book 3
-- [ ] Could another pixie dragon be found, or is Pip a one-of-a-kind discovery tied to the Athel Repository's ambient residue?
-- [ ] Does Pip react to Phelan's bracelet (pre-Compact artifact with ambient field presence)? Could be a nice beat early in Book 3 when Pip first arrives at Chandler's Row
-- [ ] Does Pip react to Sera once she's born? A calm infant, a calm creature, Mere's calm centre — potentially a lovely Book 4 beat
+- [ ] Lifespan? How long do true dragons live? Is Pip a single-book companion or a multi-book fixture?
+- [ ] How widespread are true dragons outside Mine 1's colony? Other residue-saturated sites might have colonies; the Corvel map does not rule it out. Book 4+ question.
+- [ ] Does Pip get along with Sniff? Chandler's Row becomes a two-animal household at the end of Book 3.
+- [ ] Does Pip react to Phelan's bracelet (pre-Compact artifact with ambient field presence)? Could be a nice beat early in Book 3 when Pip first arrives at Chandler's Row.
+- [ ] Does Pip react to Sera once she's born? A calm infant, a calm creature, Mere's calm centre — potentially a lovely Book 4 beat.
+- [ ] **Growth levers (deferred to later books):**
+  - Extended stays in magic-dense environments (a second ruin visit, prolonged proximity to a major working)
+  - A deliberate feeding program under Mere's construction
+  - A catastrophic residue event that triggers accidental growth (Book 5+)
+- [ ] What is the specific cause of Mine 1's long-term earth-magic saturation? Ore vein, pre-Compact-era disruption, something else? Book 4+ worldbuilding.
+- [ ] Does the Mine 1 colony have an underground connection to the lower levels of the Athel Repository? Pip reacts strongly at a specific rock face during a surface survey; the team does not investigate. Seeded for Book 4+.