From 6c542e366922e9b152c2588f65b323ef9fbdefd6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Phillip Tarrant Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2026 13:26:08 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] feat(skills): world-building carries the cosmology backdrop Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HuHRPE7VfppUJEaoGBEUqZ --- .claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md | 10 ++++ .../world-building/references/cosmology.md | 57 +++++++++++++++++++ .../skills/world-building/references/tone.md | 16 ++++++ 3 files changed, 83 insertions(+) create mode 100644 .claude/skills/world-building/references/cosmology.md diff --git a/.claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md index 848c3a0..47ea721 100644 --- a/.claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md +++ b/.claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md @@ -86,6 +86,13 @@ body, a disposition, who knows what — **STOP.** Do not edit. Present the exact before/after change and the reason, and get explicit approval first. New files and new entries need no approval; edits to existing canon always do. +New content must also slot against the world's overarching cosmology — the good +god (the Warden), his angels (the Sent), and the seven demon kings who work +against him through influence, possession, and blood sacrifice. Read +`references/cosmology.md` before authoring; it is the backdrop nothing may +contradict, and it carries the authoring rules that keep the war in tone +(distant, worked through people, never epic, blessing/curse read through Luck). + ### 3. Draft in the correct format - **Bible entries:** see `references/schema.md` for the full field-by-field @@ -130,6 +137,9 @@ added a new bible file or closed out a pending thread. ## Reference files +- `references/cosmology.md` — the overarching theme (the Warden and the Seven) + every piece of content reconciles against, plus the rules that keep it in tone. + Read before authoring any lore, NPC, quest, or item. - `references/schema.md` — the complete bible + JSON schema, all validation rules, the secrecy scale, the knowledge-gate model, worked examples. Read before authoring bible entries. diff --git a/.claude/skills/world-building/references/cosmology.md b/.claude/skills/world-building/references/cosmology.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0017687 --- /dev/null +++ b/.claude/skills/world-building/references/cosmology.md @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +# Cosmology — the Warden and the Seven + +The overarching theme of the Margreave. Every new piece of content sits inside +this hidden war and must not contradict it. The canon lives in +`content/lore/cosmology.md` and `content/lore/the-seven.md`; this file is the +author-facing summary + the rules that keep it in tone. Read it before writing +lore, NPCs, quests, or items. + +## The frame + +- **The Warden** (`person.the-warden`) — a genuinely good, *distant* god. Made + the races, loves them, wards the world against the Seven. Answers worship with + rare blessing and does not otherwise intervene. **Nameless by design** — no one + living speaks his name; never invent one. Whether he is good, absent, or dead + is the world's oldest argument, never settled by the narrator. +- **The Sent** (`faction.the-sent`) — his angels. Indirect: a Sent one *asks* a + mortal to do a deed in his name; blessing follows the deed. Rare — most people + never meet one. This is the cosmic-flavored quest-giver vein. +- **The Seven** (`faction.the-seven`) — seven demon kings + armies, the Warden's + enemy. Want the races dead or enslaved. Run on **blood** (`rule.blood-price`): + sacrifice buys their power. The roster (`content/lore/the-seven.md`): Kareth + (slaughter), Vael (betrayal), Morren (plague/mercy-kill), Ghaul (bondage), + Ishri (appetite), Nuun (madness — chief possessor), Draeth (tyranny). +- **Possession** (`rule.possession`) — how the Seven reach mortals: mostly + *influence* (a hand on the scale of what a person already wants), rarely + outright seizing a body (Nuun's specialty). A possessed mortal is a victim; the + thing inside is the enemy. +- **The two economies** — worship→blessing (`rule.the-pact`) vs + blood→power (`rule.blood-price`). Both express through Luck's *flavor*, never + numbers (see below). + +## The FTH-axis callings (from the races/classes spec) + +The two divine callings draw power from opposite sides; the rest are unaligned. +- **Bonesetter** (Cleric, FTH) — channels the Warden; healing *is* his blessing. +- **Bloodsworn** (Warlock, FTH) — pacted to one of the Seven; the "Pact Mark" + talent spends a thread of a lord's blood-price power. +- **Hedge-Mage** (Wizard, MAG) — outsider; arcane is *studied*, serves neither. +- Martials (Sellsword/Trapper/Barbarian) — unaligned; the war only echoes. +Callings are code-owned state — reference them in prose, never author a "class" +entity. (A Bloodsworn's patron choice and any Luck effect are M4/M5, not content.) + +## Authoring rules — keep it in tone + +1. **Distant.** The cosmology is the hidden engine under local grime, not the + surface text. A corrupt mayor can just be a corrupt mayor. +2. **Through people.** Demons work by influence; possession is rare and quiet. + No manifesting monsters in the square, no preaching narrator, god unconfirmed. +3. **Not epic.** Keep the gritty, indifferent register (see `tone.md`). Cosmic + stakes stay implied, argued-over, never announced. +4. **Blessing/curse ↔ Luck.** Express which side has hold of someone through + Luck's *flavor* ("fortune spits on you") — never a number, never something the + player can calculate. A cursed item (+STR / −LCK) is a small bargain with the + Seven. +5. **Victims are gated secrets.** WHO is possessed, WHICH road is bled, WHICH + shrine is a front — author as per-town `rumor`/`fact`/`secret` with disposition + gates, not stated in the open. The frame gives you hooks; you place the wounds. diff --git a/.claude/skills/world-building/references/tone.md b/.claude/skills/world-building/references/tone.md index 80dda56..6146489 100644 --- a/.claude/skills/world-building/references/tone.md +++ b/.claude/skills/world-building/references/tone.md @@ -86,6 +86,22 @@ If you write companion content, hold these exactly — they carry the register: - The pair dislike each other mildly and permanently, and neither will leave the other. Cadwyn generates, Brannoc annotates. Don't add a third to the loop. +## The cosmic backdrop (the Warden and the Seven) + +The world sits inside a hidden war — a distant good god and seven demon kings +(see `references/cosmology.md`). It colors tone but must never break the world's +indifference: + +- The cosmology is the **hidden engine**, not the surface text. Day-to-day the + world is still taxes, mud, and bad men; the war is what's *underneath* them. +- Demons work **through people** — influence, rarely possession. Write the + wreckage and the person going wrong, not a monster in the square. The narrator + never confirms the god, never preaches, never goes epic. +- Which side has hold of someone reads through **Luck's flavor, never a number** + (a blessing is a run of fortune; a curse is the trap door opening under you). +- The good/evil is real but **argued-over** — most folk dispute whether any of it + is true. Certainty is the enemy of this tone as much as of §7's Luck. + ## Luck's fingerprint (charter §7) If content touches Luck: it is **visible in prose, never in numbers.** Never state