REVEAL_WINDOW_REALIGNMENT.md

decisions/spine/REVEAL_WINDOW_REALIGNMENT.md

Reveal-window realignment — a game-wide living-source staleness (discovered 2026-07-13, Task #48 CH_44 re-verify)

Status: MODERN/ANCIENT DONE (2026-07-13); the CH_66-69 endgame remainder folds into the endgame re-cascade. Grounded (a ratified re-cascade), GAME-WIDE, CARDINAL-ADJACENT (reveal-window architecture). Executed as a dedicated per-file-reviewed atomic pass with verification (per-file agent Workflows, not a blind number-swap).

✅ EXECUTED (2026-07-13) — the modern/ancient layer

The fact

The endgame re-cascade (Task #56, commit 369d82c, ratified) re-homed the primary-antagonist reveal:

(a Realm-Road crossing, no reveal); Ch 76 = "The Two Courts" (Cassius Phase 1 + the Father Phase 2).

Confirmed against the canonical sources: docs/spine/CH_74.md (the reveal "RE-HOMES to Ch 76"),

docs/spine/CH_76.md ("Cassius Velheim is NAMED for the first time … the ultimate THESIS and the

Grand Sage stay HELD to Ch 77"), docs/spine/CH_77.md, docs/proposals/BOSS_PERSONAS.md ("Cassius

held dark to Ch 76 … thesis/Grand-Sage Ch 77"), and T4. The Antagonist_Network registry was already

aligned to Ch 76/77 in Task #57.

The staleness

The spine ENTRIES built BEFORE the re-cascade still carry the OLD windows: **"Cassius/patriarch held

for Ch 74" and "the thesis / the Ch 76 Grand Sage."** This is stale in:

CH_39–58 — the re-flesh additions across the whole modern-arc chunk faithfully copied the existing

74/76 convention to keep the arc uniform, incl. the hard-line CH_55 whose CH_55 re-verify coherence

lens flagged the 9× "Ch 74" / 6× "Ch 76" as a NO_GO — a KNOWN-DEFERRED item, kept stale by design per

"Why not done piecemeal" below, not a per-chapter fix).

ALREADY CORRECT and must be EXCLUDED from any auto-sweep.

The fix (for the dedicated pass)

Realign every STALE reference: Cassius/patriarch "Ch 74" → "Ch 76", and **thesis / Grand-Sage

"Ch 76" → "Ch 77"** (and paired forms: "Ch-74/76 confrontation" → "Ch-76/77"; "Ch 74/76" → "Ch 76/77").

Method notes:

the Cassius "Ch 74"→"Ch 76" replacements, so a newly-created "Ch 76" from a "Ch 74" is not re-caught

and chained to "Ch 77".

references in the endgame files (CH_70–77, EPILOGUE) — verify those are already correct.

(the reveal stays correctly HELD either way), so no §17.9 content changes.

Why not done piecemeal in Task #48

Fixing it per-chapter during the re-flesh would leave the arc internally inconsistent (some chapters

76/77, others 74/76) mid-sweep — worse than the current uniform-but-stale state. The re-flesh

therefore KEEPS the existing 74/76 convention until this atomic pass runs, so the modern-arc files

stay uniform. [SRC: docs/spine/CH_74.md; docs/spine/CH_76.md; docs/proposals/BOSS_PERSONAS.md; Task #56 commit 369d82c]

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Related deferral — Chapter_Index narrative free-text lags the WS4 re-flesh (discovered 2026-07-13, Task #48 CH_60 re-verify)

Status: OPEN batch item — mechanical, low-risk, but MODERN-ARC-WIDE (CH_39–CH_65). Same class as the

reveal-window above: a coarse-layer free-text mirror that lags the re-flesh.

The fact

The Task-#48 WS4 re-flesh updates each chapter's Boss-structure block (spine) and the Chapter_Index

BOSS-ID columns (primary_boss_id, secondary_boss_ids) to the WS4 champion re-tops (Factor / Verderer /

Blind-Spot / Ledger-Hand / Corr), the materialized-argument → forced-construct net-reduce demotions, and

the new win-shapes (front-not-fully-break / delegated / personal-cost / siege / magic-duel). But the

Chapter_Index NARRATIVE free-text cells — combat_framing (col 10), cultural_depiction_compliance

(col 46), dual_track_compliance (col 47) — were NOT refreshed per-chapter, so they still describe the

PRE-WS4 design (the old chapter-topping desk-director as the boss, "MATERIALIZED CONSTRUCT", the "EXPOSE"

win-verb, etc.). The CH_60 coherence re-verify surfaced this (MINOR).

The staleness / what is stale where

on CH_59, whose combat_framing still reads the old Kannbrandt-social design though its spine is the

Verderer re-top; these chapters landed GO on that within-chapter lag, matching this deferral).

contradiction with the freshly-rebound spine — BE_0060 = the Factor main, BE_0060_S1 = the Hollow

Retainer sub). CH_60 is therefore the one modern-arc node whose narrative free-text is already current.

The fix (for the batch pass)

Refresh the CH_39–CH_59 combat_framing / cultural_depiction_compliance / dual_track_compliance

cells to their WS4 spine design (champion re-top + demoted desk-director + forced-construct net-reduce +

the node's win-shape + STRIKE/RESTRAIN/FREE-style verbs where the old EXPOSE stood). The AUTHORITATIVE

boss data is the Boss_Encounter registry + the spine Boss-structure blocks + the Chapter_Index boss-ID

columns; the narrative free-text is the lagging mirror. A registry edit → refresh docs/fidelity_baseline.json

via --emit-baseline in the same commit. Can be folded into the reveal-window atomic pass (same files,

same class). [SRC: T0_Chapter_Index cols 10/46/47; docs/spine/CH_*.md Boss structure; Task #48]

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