diff --git a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-12-cosmology-and-worldbuilding-theme-design.md b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-12-cosmology-and-worldbuilding-theme-design.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a5c5bd --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-12-cosmology-and-worldbuilding-theme-design.md @@ -0,0 +1,150 @@ +# Cosmology — the Warden and the Seven + +**Status:** approved design, ready for implementation plan +**Date:** 2026-07-12 +**Scope:** Establish the game's overarching content/playthrough theme as canon, and +bake it into the world-building skill so all future authoring reconciles against it. + +--- + +## 1. The idea + +The Margreave sits inside a hidden cosmic war, and every future storyline hangs off it: + +- **The Warden** — a genuinely good god who loves the races of the world. He is + **distant**: he answers worship with blessing and otherwise does not intervene. + His true name is unknown/unspoken — nameless **by design**, not a TBD to fill. +- **The Sent** — his angels. His hand reaches mortals only *indirectly*: a Sent one + asks a mortal to do a deed "in his name," and the doing earns blessing. This is + the cosmic-flavored quest-giver engine. Rare — most people never see one. +- **The Seven** — seven demon kings, each commanding an army, each craving a + **distinct kind of blood**. They work against the Warden: they want every race + dead or enslaved, and they want **blood as sacrifice** to fuel their power. +- **Possession & influence** — the Seven reach mortals by *influence* first and, more + rarely, by *seizing the body*. This is the primary way the war touches the world. + +## 2. Tone reconciliation (load-bearing — the design lives or dies here) + +The charter tone is **gritty, not grim; the world does not care about you** (§3), with a +**dry narrator who never winks**. A straight cosmic good-vs-evil epic would break that. +The reconciliation, chosen during brainstorming, is **"distant & contested":** + +- The god is real but **silent/absent to most.** Blessings are rare; the Sent are + seldom seen. +- Demons are felt as **wreckage and bad people**, not manifesting monsters in the + square. They work *through* mortals. Possession is rare and quiet, not spectacle. +- Ordinary folk **argue whether any of it is true.** Whether the Warden is good, + absent, or dead is a thing mortals dispute — a future `rumor`/`secret` layer, never + confirmed by the narrator. +- Day-to-day the world stays indifferent (taxes, mud, bad men). **The cosmic war is + the hidden engine under the local grime**, not the surface text. +- The narrator **never preaches, never confirms the god, never goes epic.** + +## 3. The Luck hook (grounds the theology in the existing signature system) + +The war is already legible through **§7 Luck** without touching numbers: + +- A Warden's blessing reads as **fortune**; demonic taint reads as **the trap door + opening under you.** +- A cursed item (**+STR / −LCK**, the charter's "most interesting item") is a small + bargain with the Seven. +- Luck stays **visible in prose, never in numbers** (§7). It becomes the *fingerprint* + of which side has hold of you. No new mechanic — a reinterpretation of Luck's flavor. + +## 4. How it maps onto the content schema + +The cosmology is **public, believed world-furniture**, so it authors as **canon +entities** (secrecy 0, bodies ship to client) — same machinery as everything else. The +*hidden specifics* (who is possessed, which cult bleeds which road) are authored later +as gated `rumor`/`fact`/`secret` knowledge, per-town. The frame never names victims; it +gives future authors the hooks. + +### New file: `content/lore/cosmology.md` + +| id | type | secrecy | notes | +|---|---|---|---| +| `person.the-warden` | person | 0 | The good god. Titled only; name unspoken by design. | +| `faction.the-sent` | faction | 0 | The angels; his indirect hand; the deed-for-blessing engine. | +| `faction.the-seven` | faction | 0 | The demonic host as a whole; the seven armies. | +| `rule.the-pact` | rule | 0 | Worship → the Warden's blessing. The good economy. | +| `rule.blood-price` | rule | 0 | Blood sacrifice → the Seven's power. The dark economy. | +| `rule.possession` | rule | 0 | How the Seven reach mortals: influence, then rarely seizing the body. | + +### New file: `content/lore/the-seven.md` — the roster + +Each is a `person.*`, secrecy 0, `related: [faction.the-seven]`. Each body is a tight +sketch (a paragraph, not a questline): **king/title · the blood it craves · its army · +how it corrupts mortals.** Gritty, not cartoonish — each is a *way mortals actually bleed.* + +| id | King / title | Blood it craves | Corrupts through | +|---|---|---|---| +| `person.kareth-the-red-king` | Kareth, the Red King | slaughter, the battlefield | rage, feud, the promise of victory | +| `person.vael-the-quiet-knife` | Vael, the Quiet Knife | the trusted killed by the trusted | grudge, the easy solution | +| `person.morren-the-grey-mother` | Morren, the Grey Mother | the fevered, the dying | despair, the mercy-kill | +| `person.ghaul-the-yoke` | Ghaul, the Yoke | chattel worked to death | profit, the slaver's ledger | +| `person.ishri-the-open-mouth` | Ishri, the Open Mouth | ruin by appetite | wanting — flesh, drink, more | +| `person.nuun-the-hollow-choir` | Nuun, the Hollow Choir | the self-slain | madness, whispers — **the chief possessor** | +| `person.draeth-the-crowned-worm` | Draeth, the Crowned Worm | a ruler's own people, spent for power | ambition, tyranny | + +`faction.the-seven` relates to all seven; each lord relates back. `rule.possession` +names Nuun as the chief possessor (all seven can, Nuun is the specialist). + +## 5. World-building skill changes (the explicit ask: "the skill should include this") + +Every future author must reconcile new content against this backdrop, so: + +- **New `references/cosmology.md`** in the skill — the canonical backdrop authors read + before writing: the Warden/Sent/Seven, the two economies, possession, and the + **authoring rules** that keep it in tone: + - Keep it **distant** — cosmology is the hidden engine, not the surface text. + - Demons work **through people**; possession is rare and quiet, never spectacle. + - **Don't go epic** — no manifesting monsters, no preaching narrator, god unconfirmed. + - **Blessing/curse ↔ Luck** — express the war through Luck's flavor, never numbers. + - Victims/cults are authored as **gated secrets** per-town, not stated in the open. +- **`SKILL.md`** — add cosmology to **step 2 (reconcile against existing canon)**: new + content must slot against the Warden/Seven backdrop; and a one-line pointer in the + reference list to `references/cosmology.md`. +- **`references/tone.md`** — add a short "**The cosmic backdrop**" section: how the + good/evil war colors tone *without* breaking the world's indifference (the three + rules above, in tone language). + +## 6. Old Duncarrow canon — decoupled now, purged later + +The user confirmed the Duncarrow/Crell/White-Antlers content was scaffolding to build +the schema + skill, not tied to the story, and **may be removed.** + +**This pass does NOT remove it.** Duncarrow currently: +- is the world-building skill's **format/disposition-gate specimen** (SKILL.md and + schema.md point authors at `duncarrow.md`), +- **hosts `rule.disposition-ladder`**, which the build requires **exactly once**, and +- backs the `content_build` **tests/fixtures**. + +Ripping it out in the same pass as the new theme risks breaking the build alongside new +work. **Plan:** this pass is **additive** (cosmology + skill). A **follow-up spec** +purges Duncarrow, reparents `rule.disposition-ladder` into `cosmology.md`, and stands up +a **cosmology-native town** as the new specimen. The build stays green throughout. + +Roadmap note: `content/lore/canon-roadmap.md` gets an entry recording that Duncarrow is +non-canonical scaffolding slated for removal, and that the Warden/Seven cosmology is the +new spine. + +## 7. Acceptance criteria + +- `content/lore/cosmology.md` and `content/lore/the-seven.md` author the entries in §4, + in tone (dry, distant, gritty; §2/§3 respected), every `related` id resolving. +- `PYTHONPATH=tools python -m content_build` regenerates cleanly; `--check` exits 0 + (fresh, valid, no orphans, no secrecy leaks); `pytest tools/content_build/tests -q` + green. +- The world-building skill carries `references/cosmology.md`, and `SKILL.md` + + `references/tone.md` reference/enforce the backdrop. +- `content/lore/canon-roadmap.md` updated (Warden/Seven authored; Duncarrow flagged + scaffolding). +- Existing Duncarrow content and the build remain intact (no removal this pass). + +## 8. Out of scope (explicitly deferred) + +- Removing Duncarrow / reparenting the ladder / new specimen town — **follow-up spec.** +- Naming victims, cults, possessed NPCs, or blood-harvest sites — **per-town knowledge + layers**, authored as the world grows. +- Any engine/UI/prompt/combat change — this is content + skill only. +- A true name for the Warden — nameless by design; not a deferred TBD.