docs(skills): repoint world-building off Duncarrow (specimen + cosmology); rewrite evals

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HuHRPE7VfppUJEaoGBEUqZ
This commit is contained in:
2026-07-12 15:39:41 -05:00
parent ac8da4e6da
commit 602edbf257
4 changed files with 34 additions and 29 deletions

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@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ A bible file is Markdown. Prose between blocks is for human authors — the buil
tool ignores it. Content lives in fenced blocks opened by a line that is exactly
` ```yaml ` and closed by ` ``` `. Each block is one YAML **mapping** = one entry.
Organize a file with `##` headings and `>` notes like `content/lore/duncarrow.md`.
Organize a file with `##` headings and `>` notes like `content/lore/specimen.md`.
Every `*.md` in `content/lore/` is parsed; a new region/storyline can be its own
file (e.g. `content/lore/the-tallow-reach.md`).
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ Namespaces `town`, `place`, `region`, `faction`, `person`, `rule`.
- `body` is public description.
- The special entry `rule.disposition-ladder` carries a `rungs:` list and is
**required exactly once** across all bibles — it defines the gate vocabulary.
Don't duplicate or remove it; it already lives in `duncarrow.md`.
Don't duplicate or remove it; it lives in `mechanics.md`.
### Knowledge — the atoms NPCs reveal
@@ -96,7 +96,8 @@ lever. It answers "how sensitive is this text, where may it live?"
| 4 | The core secret. | Server-only. |
Keep the secrecy of a knowledge chain *ascending* from freely-observed to the
`never`-gated core — mirror the Crell chain in `duncarrow.md` (1→2→2→3→4).
`never`-gated core — a chain climbs by secrecy, e.g. 1→2→2→3→4 from an
observable rumor to the core secret.
## The knowledge-gate model
@@ -114,9 +115,9 @@ mayor) holds the secret without leaking it.
Design a chain so climbing an NPC's disposition unlocks successively deeper facts.
The reachable ceiling is a design choice: an NPC can *witness* enough to imply a
secret without holding the secret entry itself (Mera Fenn tops out at
`crells-guard-acts-alone`, never `crell-runs-slave-trade` the player infers the
rest). Understanding earned beats understanding handed over.
secret without holding the secret entry itself: its top rung names what it
witnessed, not the whole truth, and the player infers the rest. Understanding
earned beats understanding handed over.
## Client vs server routing
@@ -145,7 +146,7 @@ id: person.old-teague
type: person
status: canon
secrecy: 0
related: [town.duncarrow]
related: [place.specimen-wharf]
body: >
Teague, oldest hand on the Greywater wharf. Mends nets he no longer sails with.
Watches everything off the water and says almost none of it.
@@ -156,7 +157,7 @@ id: fact.foreign-coin-on-the-docks
type: fact
status: canon
secrecy: 2
related: [town.duncarrow, person.old-teague]
related: [place.specimen-wharf, person.old-teague]
body: >
The dock hands are paid in pass-country coin, not town mint. Someone outside the
charter is buying the wharf's silence, a little at a time.

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@@ -32,9 +32,9 @@ Dry. Economical. Observational. States what is, lets the reader feel the weight.
It never editorializes, never reassures, never jokes. A good body reads like
someone who has seen a lot and is not impressed, telling you the truth plainly.
Look at the `duncarrow.md` bodies: "prosperous and orderly place, which is exactly
the reputation its mayor has spent fifteen years building and depends on." The
menace is in the plain statement, not in adjectives.
Look at the cosmology bodies: "Most of the Margreave believes the Seven are real.
Most of the Margreave is right." The weight is in the plain statement, not in
adjectives.
## NPCs: hard by default, warm when earned
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ own troubles and no reason to spend them on you. Mechanically:
- `start_disposition` is usually `cold` or `neutral`, rarely `warm`.
- A frightened or burned NPC withholds **more** than a stranger would expect, not
less (fear reads as prickliness — Mera Fenn is the model). `hostile` is a
less (fear reads as prickliness). `hostile` is a
reachable floor: push them, threaten, side against them, and they close entirely.
- What they reveal is gated. Low rungs get you surface; the personal and the
dangerous sit higher up.
@@ -61,7 +61,8 @@ When the player climbs the ladder, two things change together:
1. **They reveal more** — deeper `knows` gates unlock.
2. **Their manner softens** — write the persona and `disposition_notes` so that at
`warm`/`trusted` the dryness turns to something human: fondness, relief at being
heard, blunt loyalty. Old Teague's "dryness turns to something almost fond."
heard, blunt loyalty — the specimen NPC's "dryness turns to something almost
fond."
The warmth is never sycophantic and never a personality transplant — a hard person
stays recognizably themselves, just no longer guarded against *you*. That's more