diff --git a/.claude/skills/world-building/references/schema.md b/.claude/skills/world-building/references/schema.md
index 276c63c..4d58b5b 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/world-building/references/schema.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/world-building/references/schema.md
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ build failure.
 A guarded fisherman who warms up and, if trusted, names who really owns the boats.
 
 ```yaml
-id: person.old-teague
+id: person.specimen-teague
 type: person
 status: canon
 secrecy: 0
@@ -153,37 +153,37 @@ body: >
 ```
 
 ```yaml
-id: fact.foreign-coin-on-the-docks
+id: fact.specimen-foreign-coin
 type: fact
 status: canon
 secrecy: 2
-related: [place.specimen-wharf, person.old-teague]
+related: [place.specimen-wharf, person.specimen-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.
 ```
 
 ```yaml
-id: npc.old-teague
+id: npc.specimen-teague
 type: person
 status: canon
 start_disposition: cold
-related: [person.old-teague, fact.foreign-coin-on-the-docks]
+related: [person.specimen-teague, fact.specimen-foreign-coin]
 body: >
-  Same man as person.old-teague; his interactive layer. Curt with strangers, not
+  Same man as person.specimen-teague; his interactive layer. Curt with strangers, not
   from malice but from a lifetime of watching talkers end up face-down in the
   river. Warms slowly, and when he does the dryness turns to something almost
   fond.
 
 knows:
-  - {fact: fact.foreign-coin-on-the-docks, gate: warm}
+  - {fact: fact.specimen-foreign-coin, gate: warm}
 
 disposition_notes: >
   Starts cold. Buying his catch, not his story, is what moves him. At warm he
   names the coin; he never speculates aloud about who mints it.
 ```
 
-Note: `person.old-teague` (secrecy 0, public) and `npc.old-teague` (the layer,
+Note: `person.specimen-teague` (secrecy 0, public) and `npc.specimen-teague` (the layer,
 persona server-only) are two entries. The fact is secrecy 2, gated at `warm`.
 
 ## Hand-authored JSON
diff --git a/client/scripts/content/content_db.gd b/client/scripts/content/content_db.gd
index afa2e07..6752e4c 100644
--- a/client/scripts/content/content_db.gd
+++ b/client/scripts/content/content_db.gd
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ func _load_dir(dir_path: String) -> Dictionary:
 	var out: Dictionary = {}
 	var dir := DirAccess.open(dir_path)
 	if dir == null:
-		push_error("content dir not found: %s" % dir_path)
+		# A missing content dir means "no content of this kind authored yet",
+		# not an error — e.g. content/world/topics/ before any gated content exists.
 		return out
 	for file in dir.get_files():
 		if not file.ends_with(".json"):
diff --git a/client/tests/unit/test_content_db.gd b/client/tests/unit/test_content_db.gd
index 19eed5a..a1b3c42 100644
--- a/client/tests/unit/test_content_db.gd
+++ b/client/tests/unit/test_content_db.gd
@@ -52,17 +52,25 @@ func test_null_quest_ref_resolves():
 	assert_eq(db.unresolved_refs(o), [])
 
 
-func test_loads_canon_and_topics():
-	assert_true(db.has_canon("town.duncarrow"))
-	assert_true(db.has_canon("place.the-white-antlers"))
-	assert_true(db.has_topic("rumor.travelers-go-missing"))
+func test_loads_canon():
+	assert_true(db.has_canon("faction.the-seven"))
+	assert_true(db.has_canon("person.the-warden"))
+	assert_true(db.has_canon("rule.disposition-ladder"))
 
 
-func test_topic_skeleton_has_no_body():
-	var t: Dictionary = db.topic("secret.crell-runs-slave-trade")
-	assert_false(t.has("body"))  # bodies are server-only
+func test_no_loaded_topic_has_a_body():
+	# Bodies are server-only (secrecy≥1 knowledge routes to content/server/topics,
+	# never the client). Structural, so it stays a real guard even when the
+	# topic set is empty (as it is now — the last authored topics were purged)
+	# and automatically starts testing something the moment a topic exists.
+	# One assertion, always executed (not per-loop-item), so an empty topic
+	# set still exercises the check instead of asserting zero times.
+	var leaked: Array = []
+	for id in db.topics:
+		if db.topics[id].has("body"):
+			leaked.append(id)
+	assert_eq(leaked, [], "topic(s) leaked a body to the client")
 
 
 func test_legacy_npcs_still_load():
 	assert_true(db.has_npc("fenn"))
-	assert_true(db.has_npc("npc.mera-fenn"))
diff --git a/content/lore/canon-roadmap.md b/content/lore/canon-roadmap.md
index acf8ebf..2e9d168 100644
--- a/content/lore/canon-roadmap.md
+++ b/content/lore/canon-roadmap.md
@@ -25,6 +25,14 @@ order the Margreave is being written. Source of truth is `content/lore/*.md`;
   example. Not game canon. The Duncarrow scaffolding (Crell chain, Mera Fenn) is
   deleted.
 
+## Lesson from the Duncarrow purge
+
+Generated content under `content/world/` has a client-side consumer:
+`client/scripts/content/content_db.gd` (loaded via `client/scripts/harness/npc_harness.gd`)
+and its GUT tests in `client/tests/unit/test_content_db.gd`. Deleting generated
+content — a whole namespace of topics/npcs/canon — is a **client change**, not
+just a content change; check `client/` before purging.
+
 ## Pending (not yet authored)
 
 - Per-town knowledge that grounds the cosmology: possessed NPCs, blood-harvest
diff --git a/tools/content_build/tests/test_real_content.py b/tools/content_build/tests/test_real_content.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2efe07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/content_build/tests/test_real_content.py
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+"""Smoke gate: the real Margreave bible builds clean. Local mirror of the CI
+content-build workflow's `--check` step — asserts freshness/validity only,
+never specific entities (that's what made the old Duncarrow-era test brittle)."""
+
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from content_build.__main__ import check
+
+REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).parents[3]
+
+
+def test_real_bible_check_is_clean():
+    lore = REPO_ROOT / "content" / "lore"
+    world = REPO_ROOT / "content" / "world"
+    server = REPO_ROOT / "content" / "server"  # absent today — check() must tolerate that
+    assert check(lore, world, server) == 0