systems/TRANSITION_TREATMENT.md
The base v2.5 spine template handles state continuity at both chapter boundaries (the Continuity-anchor block carries state in; the End-state carry-forward block pins the next chapter's start) but it under-serves movement — the felt experience of the protagonist travelling. This treatment adds two distinct movement layers. They are deliberately separated because in the 3D build they are different kinds of thing (Josh, 2026-07-08).
How the protagonist physically and experientially moves through this chapter's own spaces — the connective spine that turns a set of meaningful moments into a journey through the place.
The connective bridges between chapters — how the protagonist arrives from the previous chapter and departs toward the next. Held separate from the body because in the 3D build these are their own sequences/scenes, not chapter-body prose.
docs/spine/transitions/TRANSITIONS_CH02_21.md — 21 seam entries (the rift-fall lead-in, the 19 internal boundaries, and the Ch 21→22 hand-off), authored at the RR-22 window, gate-enrolled (lint + anchors), indexed in docs/DOC_MAP.md. Each subsequent range gets its own TRANSITIONS_CH<NN>_<MM>.md at its Range Review.Every working name, deferral, and role-forward placeholder in the range is DRIVEN TO A FINAL NAME before the window closes. No name leaves a Range Review deferred — a pending name is a future-hallucination source (a later agent references the deprecated placeholder and re-propagates it), which is the exact failure this pass exists to stop (Josh, 2026-07-09).
docs/NAMING_METHOD.md loop as a deep-dive + adversarial Workflow — per name: deep-dive the culture's real naming conventions + the canon, generate candidates on distinct axes, adversarially screen (hard screens: not a real living/historical person, not a deity proper name or an obvious theophoric echo, not the attested name being reframed off, correct linguistic register for the people, a player parses it), and SET the final name; then sweep it across EVERY carrier (spine + T0_Character_Index + the T3 character docs + BOSS_PERSONAS + harness/enrich.py and any generator docstring — the propagation source, or the name re-seeds) and strike the "pending NAMING_METHOD / constructed working name / final orthography pending" qualifier everywhere.constructed working name, pending the standard NAMING_METHOD, final orthography pending, and role-forward placeholders — the count must be ZERO at RR close (except a name canon forbids, like the undeciphered-Harappan Ch 16 case, which is title-only by hard limit and recorded as such).[DECISION NEEDED - JOSH] only for a name carrying a genuine cardinal fork the method cannot resolve.For each ~10-chapter range: build the range's chapters with Layer 1 traversal in the body → Range Review audit + fixes → the Layer 2 arrival/departure add-on AND the Layer 3 naming-finalization pass (no deferred name survives the window; naming audit → zero deferrals) → a final consistency audit (everything written so far coheres) → a fresh session for the next range. Ch 22+ are born with Layer 1; only the already-built 2–21 range needs the one-time Layer-1 retrofit, folded into the RR-22 window and the transition pass.
The durable order (survives context resets — verify state via git tags + STATUS.md before acting):
1. Golden Ch 6–12 — Layer-1 traversal built in, substrate/malevolent-being focus, each fresh-context-critic-gated, committed + tagged spine/ch-NN. NO Layer-2 here.
2. Retrofit Ch 2–4 — Layer-1 traversal (Ch 5 already carries it as the exemplar).
3. RR-22 — the Ch 2–21 audit + fixes + the post-enrichment weave-coherence re-audit + the Ch 13–21 Layer-1 traversal retrofit. After RR-22, all of Ch 2–21 is Layer-1-complete + audited.
4. Layer-2 transition pass + Layer-3 naming finalization (new session), Ch 2→21 — the dedicated whole-range Layer-2 arrival/departure through-line, PLUS the naming-finalization (the NAMING_METHOD deep-dive + adversarial SETS every deferred name across the range — the 2–21 naming finalization landed 2026-07-09; the Layer-2 pass carries the zero-deferral naming AUDIT to confirm), + a final consistency audit. This is what makes it the golden-standard 2–21 range and the Ch-22 start line.
5. Ch 22 onward — the treatment born-in; ~10 chapters ≈ one session on the RR-every-10 rhythm, each RR bundling Layer-2 + naming finalization.
Resolve grounded / creative-within-vision decisions via deep-dive + adversarial review and APPLY inline; only genuine cardinal-canon forks (chapter/Component/numerical/naming/hard-line/§17) go to docs/spine/DECISIONS_PENDING_JOSH.md.
Once the golden-standard 2–21 range lands, every subsequent range repeats the same shape (each ~10-chapter block a session):
1. Chapter-by-chapter — full enrichment + Layer-1 traversal + gap-fills + per-chapter critic audits (committed + tagged each).
2. Range Review after the range's last chapter's final audit (RR-31, RR-41, …).
3. After the full RR, go back around for the Layer-2 arrival/departure transitions AND the Layer-3 naming finalization across the range — the NAMING_METHOD deep-dive + adversarial SETS every working/deferred name (a RR closes with a zero-deferral naming audit; a pending name is a future-hallucination source).
4. Another audit round (final consistency for everything written so far).
5. New session for the next 10 chapters; repeat.
Endgame exception — the dense final chapters split into two smaller bands: Ch 69–73, then Ch 74–77 (each its own enrich → traversal → audit → RR-style pass). Then full creative focus on the Epilogue, and finally bring that back around to the Prologue and Ch 1 — which should also have landed in the CVD + the tier docs by then.
Design set by Josh (2026-07-08): traversal is light prose + anchor lines within the body ("looks great on what we have but doesn't show well how the protagonist traverses the chapter itself"); arrival/departure are separate (they map to separate 3D sequences) and belong at the Range-Review add-on before a final consistency audit. Indexed in docs/DOC_MAP.md.