# 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. Callings & the war (the FTH axis) The settled races/classes spec (`2026-07-11-races-and-classes-design.md`) explicitly leaves calling **lore/flavor to "a separate canon/worldbuilding effort"** and marks two calling names `[CANON-TBD]` for the canon session. This pass resolves that seam **for the divine axis only** — the two FTH callings draw power from **opposite sides of the war**; every other calling stays **unaligned** (worship-for-everyone dilutes the divine specialness and pushes the world toward the epic register we deliberately avoided in §2). | Calling | Stat | War stance | |---|---|---| | **Bonesetter** (Cleric) | FTH | channels **the Warden** — divine casting *is* the good god's blessing, worked through a mortal | | **Bloodsworn** (Warlock, was `[CANON-TBD]` 🔥) | FTH | **pacted to one of the Seven** — the "Pact Mark" talent lends the party a sliver of a lord's blood-price power | | **Hedge-Mage** (Wizard) | MAG | **outsider** — arcane is *studied*, not worshipped; serves neither side (the deliberate contrast: knowledge vs devotion) | | martials (Sellsword / Trapper / Barbarian) | STR/DEX | **unaligned** — the war only *echoes* (e.g. the rage-calling resonates with **Kareth**), never a pact | **Warlock name resolved: `Bloodsworn`.** A gritty village folk-name (matching Cutpurse / Trapper / Hedge-Mage / Bonesetter) that encodes `rule.blood-price` directly. This closes **one** of the two `[CANON-TBD]` calling names in the races/classes spec; the **Barbarian ⚔** was out of scope for this pass (FTH axis only) and closed at the same canon session as **Reaver** — *all seven callings are now named.* Applying the names to the calling data is an **M4** task; here it becomes canon flavor. **How it lands in content (no new schema):** there is no "class" namespace in the bible, and callings are **code-owned state** (races/classes spec) — the bible must not invent a class entity. The alignment is carried as **prose inside the two rule entries**: `rule.the-pact` notes that a devout mortal (the Bonesetter) can channel the Warden's blessing; `rule.blood-price` notes that the Bloodsworn borrow a lord's power through the pact (the Pact Mark). Callings are named in prose, never entities. **Creation hook (flag, M4 — not decided here):** a Bloodsworn may choose **which of the Seven** is patron, flavoring the Pact Mark. Optional; belongs to the M4 creation brainstorm, not this content pass. **The Luck-immunity — the §7-sensitive flag (NOT built here):** the user's intent — *"the Seven do not spend misfortune on their own sworn"* — is **safe to state as lore flavor** and will appear in `rule.blood-price` / the Bloodsworn's flavor. But any **mechanical** Luck carve-out is **deferred and must be reconciled**, because: - the settled resolution model states **"LCK is the only randomizer… cannot leak onto the character sheet as a number,"** and §7 forbids the player ever being able to *calculate* they are cursed. A hard "immune to bad luck" toggle bumps both. - The **§7-safe route** (to be designed at the combat/Improviser brainstorm, ~M5): the effect lives in the **Improviser** — allegiance *weights* boon-vs-humiliation selection (prose, not combat numbers) — and it **costs a blood-price** (the pact is never free). - **Decision:** author the flavor now; build no Luck mechanic. Flag it for M5/Improviser. **§2 accounting:** callings remain state (code owns them). This pass adds only *text the AI narrates from* (rule bodies, flavor) — no AI system mutates a calling or a Luck value. Consistent with §2. ## 8. 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; FTH-axis calling mapping + `Bloodsworn` name recorded). - `rule.the-pact` / `rule.blood-price` bodies carry the FTH-axis power sources (Bonesetter channels the Warden; Bloodsworn borrow a lord's power) — in prose, with no new "class" entity or schema change. - Existing Duncarrow content and the build remain intact (no removal this pass). ## 9. Out of scope (explicitly deferred) - Removing Duncarrow / reparenting the ladder / new specimen town — **follow-up spec.** - Applying `Bloodsworn` to the calling data, and a Bloodsworn's **patron choice** at creation — **M4** (character creation). - ~~The Barbarian ⚔ `[CANON-TBD]` calling name~~ — **settled 2026-07-12: Reaver.** This pass handled only the FTH axis; the STR axis closed at the same canon session. All seven callings are now named ([races/classes spec](2026-07-11-races-and-classes-design.md) §4 *Naming*). - Any **mechanical** Luck carve-out for the Bloodsworn — **M5 / Improviser** reconcile (§7-sensitive; flavor only, this pass). - 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.