feat(skills): world-building carries the cosmology backdrop
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HuHRPE7VfppUJEaoGBEUqZ
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# Cosmology — the Warden and the Seven
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The overarching theme of the Margreave. Every new piece of content sits inside
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this hidden war and must not contradict it. The canon lives in
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`content/lore/cosmology.md` and `content/lore/the-seven.md`; this file is the
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author-facing summary + the rules that keep it in tone. Read it before writing
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lore, NPCs, quests, or items.
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## The frame
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- **The Warden** (`person.the-warden`) — a genuinely good, *distant* god. Made
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the races, loves them, wards the world against the Seven. Answers worship with
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rare blessing and does not otherwise intervene. **Nameless by design** — no one
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living speaks his name; never invent one. Whether he is good, absent, or dead
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is the world's oldest argument, never settled by the narrator.
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- **The Sent** (`faction.the-sent`) — his angels. Indirect: a Sent one *asks* a
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mortal to do a deed in his name; blessing follows the deed. Rare — most people
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never meet one. This is the cosmic-flavored quest-giver vein.
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- **The Seven** (`faction.the-seven`) — seven demon kings + armies, the Warden's
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enemy. Want the races dead or enslaved. Run on **blood** (`rule.blood-price`):
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sacrifice buys their power. The roster (`content/lore/the-seven.md`): Kareth
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(slaughter), Vael (betrayal), Morren (plague/mercy-kill), Ghaul (bondage),
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Ishri (appetite), Nuun (madness — chief possessor), Draeth (tyranny).
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- **Possession** (`rule.possession`) — how the Seven reach mortals: mostly
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*influence* (a hand on the scale of what a person already wants), rarely
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outright seizing a body (Nuun's specialty). A possessed mortal is a victim; the
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thing inside is the enemy.
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- **The two economies** — worship→blessing (`rule.the-pact`) vs
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blood→power (`rule.blood-price`). Both express through Luck's *flavor*, never
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numbers (see below).
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## The FTH-axis callings (from the races/classes spec)
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The two divine callings draw power from opposite sides; the rest are unaligned.
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- **Bonesetter** (Cleric, FTH) — channels the Warden; healing *is* his blessing.
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- **Bloodsworn** (Warlock, FTH) — pacted to one of the Seven; the "Pact Mark"
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talent spends a thread of a lord's blood-price power.
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- **Hedge-Mage** (Wizard, MAG) — outsider; arcane is *studied*, serves neither.
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- Martials (Sellsword/Trapper/Barbarian) — unaligned; the war only echoes.
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Callings are code-owned state — reference them in prose, never author a "class"
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entity. (A Bloodsworn's patron choice and any Luck effect are M4/M5, not content.)
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## Authoring rules — keep it in tone
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1. **Distant.** The cosmology is the hidden engine under local grime, not the
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surface text. A corrupt mayor can just be a corrupt mayor.
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2. **Through people.** Demons work by influence; possession is rare and quiet.
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No manifesting monsters in the square, no preaching narrator, god unconfirmed.
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3. **Not epic.** Keep the gritty, indifferent register (see `tone.md`). Cosmic
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stakes stay implied, argued-over, never announced.
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4. **Blessing/curse ↔ Luck.** Express which side has hold of someone through
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Luck's *flavor* ("fortune spits on you") — never a number, never something the
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player can calculate. A cursed item (+STR / −LCK) is a small bargain with the
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Seven.
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5. **Victims are gated secrets.** WHO is possessed, WHICH road is bled, WHICH
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shrine is a front — author as per-town `rumor`/`fact`/`secret` with disposition
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gates, not stated in the open. The frame gives you hooks; you place the wounds.
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