music/RULINGS.md
Canon parent — T1_CVD_Creative_Vision_Document (the constitutional foundation every ruling
here is folded into) and the built spine at docs/spine/. This ledger RECORDS rulings; it does
not outrank the canon they were folded into. Read the canon node first, then this. (GATE 39 D9.)
The durable record of the whole decision session (open-decisions batch + the AAA systems deep-dives). Read this first after compaction. Design docs: docs/proposals/systems/*.md.
Everything below is RULED. This session LANDED the recalibration constitutionally (canon-correction b27da74 + J10 loosening e00051d, gates 11/11), designed the RAG layer (sqlite-vec DECIDED) + reviewed the Continuo sibling (shared brain-kernel = licensable asset), built the build-lifecycle gate (harness/build_lifecycle.py — commit-before-critic now structurally impossible), and started the re-cascade (Ch 18 flagship, spine/ch-18-rc — D-DRAGON-18 applied + reveal/care re-verified). The re-cascade is now GATED behind the foundation — the DRIVER is docs/FOUNDATION_COMPLETION_PLAN.md: Section 1 harness hardening (lifecycle DONE; entailment-verify + guarded reveal/thread/Corr post-passes NEXT) → Section 2 design-layer (FK tidy, they→she note, layer-model-v2 remap, WS7 systems wiring + MG_/VH_ registries) → Section 3 resume the dragon lineage (Ch 15/17/19…75) + Tier-2 + 13C → Section 4 RAG/book → Section 5 Josh-final-yes numericals (Fable-5). New rulings folded below: violence-is-core, protagonist-capture REVERSED, companion-loyalty, reputation/Nemesis, Pillar-13 adopted, the attackability model.
1. Decision & flag handling — never a bare question; every decision/flag auto-runs fan-out-alternatives + deep-dive + adversarial + options/reasoning/recommendation before surfacing. Creative-within-vision → apply + show; cardinal → full brief.
2. Content bar = rated-R (17+) mature AAA, do NOT defang — a myth's own monster is a boss; deities are real/portrayable/usable (quest-givers, rescuers); §17.1 protects living peoples + defamatory tropes + real revered figures, NOT monsters-from-being-fought. Violence is CORE, not banned (Josh, 2026-07-13): lethal violence vs HUMAN NPCs is core (thieves/bandits/factions/war/gladiators/contracts/integrity-gated + emergent GTA-style sandbox killing is PERMITTED); gladiator arena is a real killing venue with an easter-egg sneak-out path; NPCs carry persona + consequence (killing ripples + is remembered) but it NEVER hard-gates progression (no-dead-end). §17.1 REPRESENT_WITH_CARE is COLLECTIVE not individual — protect the culture-as-a-whole from villain-framing/defamation/extermination (route the STORY antagonist through the complicit broker/institution), do NOT make individual humans in that culture unkillable. The narrow line: no genocide-of-a-living-culture as an encouraged/enabled goal + no banned-content (§17 hard lines + sexual violence / child harm / real-world targeted hate). Memory: [[violence-allowed-r17-no-genocide]] + [[rated-r-aaa-dont-defang-monsters]].
All ratified YES + go-deep. Design docs hold the full design; the numerical/naming bits are flagged Josh-final-yes or Fable-5.
creature-system.md): 3-strata population + Chao-garden husbandry + persona/history/relationships + the collectibility ontology map (BOND/TAME/DOCUMENT/EARN/FIGHT/CONTAIN/NEVER) + the Hollow (negative-vril blight, CONTAIN-verb, "the Hollow" name, OBSERVE-class outside the numerology, Cassius=cassus=hollow). Firewall: 22 slots + 33 legendary + 3 evolutions inviolate; offspring always ordinary; sacred set structurally uncapturable. EARN lane = ~6-12 curated discovery quests. Josh-final-yes: admit the Hollow OBSERVE-class + its prestige-tributary tie.minigame-galaxy.md): MG_ registry, bar-gated / no fixed count, two-class + bronze/silver/gold + achievements, easter-egg arcade room, wager economy (slave-trade-waters firewall), fused game-bosses count (win-verb "outplay"; the Xibalba ballgame vs the Lords of Death = the capstone). RULED yes.vehicles-fleets.md): the mothership-hub — one transforming vril-flagship + Soldier-Dock deploying collectible LOCAL-only sub-craft tenders (submarine/skiff/rover/Ch-55+ flyer); Vimana docks as a peer; fleets = dispatch + set-piece, capped. Firewalls: no-flight-before-Ch-55, sub-craft local-only, Vimana docks-not-carried, never "Vessel". Josh-final-yes/authors: the tender/berth count (ceiling), the Vimana §6.5 flying-home-base parameters (touches T1_Vril §6).base-building.md): three layers — 10 rooted trade home-bases (supply-chain + market-monopoly, Evil-gated + consequence-mirrored), free-placed dwelling-homes (No-Man's-Sky/Minecraft, a THIRD category so HL_0033's 10x2 is untouched), the unbounded integrity-visible Personal Dimension; fast-travel network. Trade-10 modern home = Ch 56 Arctic (+ one-line §7 label fix). Josh-final-yes: dwelling-home count/caps (system canon).combat-and-spellcraft.md): Option A + C. CORRECTED 2026-07-13 (canon-grounded, wf_ca0359f6, doc §C1-C5): vril IS a depletable life-energy POOL (spent per cast, recharged via the §5 network + rest) — T1_Vril §1 forbids only the spell-hotbar UI + "arbitrary mana," NOT a resource pool (retracts my earlier "no mana pool" error). Base casting of the 185 = runeless + mastery-channeled, paid from the pool. Four resource bars Health/Vril/Stamina/Rage (Rage+Stamina+Vril canon; Health implicit), MAX grows via progression AND Zelda-style exploration (canon for vril via the Ch-3 ritual; NEW for the others — flagged). THREE rune lanes, no grind: (1) WORN inscription = permanent, never consumed; (2) spell-creation catalyst = a rare/epic rune consumed ONCE into a learned custom spell (A1 merge of a few of the 185, carries the vril-signature); (3) ENCHANTMENT runes = a Borderlands-style re-rollable "innocent RNG" affix lane on gear+consumables (weapons/grenades/bombs/potions/poisons). Consumables = Engineering (Trade 8, bombs) + Alchemy (Trade 5, potions/poisons, Herbalism-fed) — NOT Inscription. Behavioral-novelty strategy-token, deterministic-first / 3B-7B only if needed (C1); spellcraft rides Trade-9. Josh-final-yes (numerical): the 4-bar-vs-canon's-5-archetype-keyed-systems reconciliation (rec: 4 universal bars + Runes/Ammunition as sorcery/ranged overlays); exploration-grows-max for non-vril bars; rune-operator count (~12-16) + 4 rarity tiers + split-N caps; enchantment-rune source/slots/re-roll curve.Option D — "ten grades you BECOME, twelve gates you CROSS." 10 named grades (Neophyte Tier1..Magus Tier10, numbering PRESERVED) + 12 gates (10 grade-gates + Gate 6 = the Portal Grade [Outer->Inner] + Gate 10 = the Crossing of the Abyss [Inner->Third]); Magus = Gate 12. Every gate is a mastery-questline (numerical alone never advances). Keeps the "twelve-tier" §17.5 string; 120 = 12x10 stays clean; fixes the live T0_Trade_Registry mis-numbering vs CVD/ABIL. Josh-final-yes (it edits ACTIVE tier-ids in the registry while preserving every "Tier 6 Adeptus Minor" string).
Do NOT unseed. Pay the origin (why Ntala chose at nine to witness the whole life) — land at Ch 16 primary + a one-line Ch 38 echo, and spend the P5 single spoken line on this payoff. Authoring goes to Fable-5 per the targeted brief in healers-child-fable5.md (design space + the §17.9 firewall + acceptance criteria). Josh confirms: pay-via-Fable-5 + the Ch-16 landing.
The whole-arc 79-chapter (Prologue->Epilogue) connections + opportunities pass (memory: [[whole-arc-79-chapter-connections-pass]]) — recurring monsters/deities as bosses+quest-givers (Litan recurring, the dragon lineage literal), L3 links made literal, era-rhymes, callbacks, missed set-pieces — proposal-first then re-cascade. PLUS the WS7 systems wiring (the 5 systems into registries + spine seeds, once the Josh-final-yes numerical bits land) + the aku-aku C apply + the creative-within-vision applies (P5/gender/remap/FK) + finishing 13C (chunks 3-6). Then Task #15 final verification -> Fable-5 handoff.
1. Vril-altered physics — the game runs REAL physics/chemistry/biology/statics AND real magic; magic is the manipulation of that real science (native to vril = mathematical/physical/substrate); they compose emergently *for better AND worse*; player, enemies, AND allies all wield both for good/bad intent. (memory: vril-altered-physics-real-physics-and-magic)
2. Real-science systemic immersive-sim that rewards intelligence — rewards learning real chemistry/physics/biology/statics; "knowing what to combine" + "think on your feet"; structured freedom (strongly directed, hugely emergent within, balanced *because* real rules constrain it — never aimless-dumb, never exam-rigid). The three sciences map to trades: Alchemy=chemistry, Engineering=physics/statics, Herbalism=biology; vril amplifies all. (memory: rewards-intelligence-real-science-immersive-sim)
docs/proposals/CVD_PILLAR_REAL_SCIENCE_IMMERSIVE_SIM.md — a proposed CVD design-philosophy pillar (rec: a new "Pillar 13"). Josh-final-yes: adopt + placement.environment-terrain-alteration.md): intention-remembers / incidental-forgets; three diegetic-refusal registers — "someone will see" (concealment/cover cost, override at a scaling identity-cost), "I shouldn't do that here" (§17.1 respect; sacred/protected/Ch-57 HARD-blocked, non-sacred community ground defaceable only at an Evil-band cost the community remembers), "the road must stay open / it heals over" (non-gating; critical terrain self-heals) — never invisible walls; integrity skin verdant/grey/scar on YOUR structures + wild ground you altered, NEVER a living culture's fabric; Good restores / Evil scars (hollowed not monstrous). Josh-final-yes (§17.1 + numerical): the soft-respect override ceiling, concealment-override punishment, Evil-scar redemption, persistence/decay budgets.environment-combat.md): terrain a first-class combatant on ONE physical_properties_array grammar shared with abilities; (A) spatial vril-density power field + birthright asymmetry (you degrade gracefully in deadzones, pure-vril enemies degrade hard → deadzones a player tool); (B) elemental affinity = free material+state (never flat damage inflation); (C) 6 tactical affordance classes (player/enemy/hazard faces); (D) 11 attack-with-environment verbs on a leverage economy (release/redirect stored force, real physics); enemies use the same closed grammar via a deterministic Σ-bounded selector; exposure clocks for environment-impacts-player; rides combat mode #4, NO new mode, zero locked counts touched. Josh-final-yes: altitude→vril question, WS_024 [0,2] intra-arena density authority, the tuning set (→ Fable-5).attackability-and-consequence-model.md: the anti-GTA violence architecture. Freedom near-total (minus the banned line) + TOTAL persistent integrity-and-world-reshaping consequence. Two axes: attackability (5 tiers: hostile / bystander / bonded / protected-collective / shielded) and node-persistence (content NEVER destroyed, only reassigned). Node-succession: murder the lawful holder → a dark faction inherits the node + re-skins its quests. Three community classes: STORY-ANCHOR (spine load-bearers survive diegetically, beats integrity-adapt, can't be murder-gated), TRANSFERABLE (content transfers), PROTECTED (collective/sacred/revered/banned). Completion is integrity/faction-relative (evil run completes the dark mirror; mutual-exclusivity = replay, not lockout). Wires to T1_Integrity_Paths + persona + no-dead-end.
The R-17+ recalibration is now IN the CVD + tier docs + registries (gates green, baseline refreshed), not just proposal docs. Change-set: docs/proposals/CANON_CORRECTION_CHANGESET.md. Now constitutional: CVD §1 rated-R genre line; §17.16 Content maturity (NEW hard line); §17.1 collective-not-individual; Pillar 3 collective clause; Component 7 monster-boss+deities; Component 6 anti-fringe; §12.3 Ch69 real boss; Pillar 13 "The Real-Systems Immersive-Sim" (§5 12→13, Josh "yes proceed") + Pillar 9/§14 trades-science; §17.3 vril depletable-pool + vril-altered-physics law; Pillar 12 layer disambiguation (J12). T0_Hard_Lines: HL_0003 collective rewrite, HL_0080 scope, +malevolent-beings +honored-adversary/Louhi +violence-is-core (J1), HL_0074/0075 four-bar (J13). Tier docs aligned (depletable pool, 4-bar HUD, no-grind runes, collective care, violence-core, env-boss-playable). Registries: BE_0018_S1 Litan fought recurring dragon, BE_0063_S2 taniwha self-willed (J11), BE_0063_S3 aku-aku self-willed, BE_0065_S1 both dropped from menagerie, CH_18 framing, Trade_Registry tier_N_→gate_N_ (J6 Option D mech-i) (grade/gate landmine killed; twelve-tier string + grade numbers untouched; Gate-10 = "Babe of the Abyss" registry / "Crossing of the Abyss" synonym).
companion-loyalty-integrity-system memory): companions travel WITH you (invested ones join); some come-and-go, some for-life, some LEAVE when your integrity/actions oppose their beliefs, others are DRAWN by your integrity/actions; invested = sticky but not immune (complete opposition forces them out). Wires to attackability Tier-3 bonded + T1_Integrity_Paths worldstates + persona/no-dead-end. SUPERSEDES the mistaken whole-arc "Ch-70 best-friend reunion" flag (that flag was an error — dropped).reputation-prestige-nemesis.md): a WoW-Exalted reputation ladder (completionist Exalted-all-cultures rewards); the INTENDED trade-off-faction ordering optimization (rewards intelligence, not an exploit to patch); hidden enemy/antagonist-Exalted → easter-egg epilogue endings (REVEAL-FIREWALLED: legible only post-Ch-76/post-game); prestige + NG+ (prestige is LOAD-BEARING for the harder NG+); a memory-driven adaptive Nemesis AI (learns between deaths — remembers near-wins + your openers, forces playstyle variation) with a HARD ANTI-TILT FLOOR (Σ-bounded fair grammar, variety-not-inflation, a mercy floor so it's never an unwinnable spiral). Composes with [[generative-entity-system-vision]] + completionist L2.