### Resolved by v0.10

- ~~Cross-layer economy balancing — net-revenue-share back to producer-districts at all? Pure-zero is currently sketched~~ → bifurcation: *digital-T4 → imperial-net bypass (pure zero to district)*; *physical-T4 → district imperial-POI (district gets partial quota-credit; player gets scrip-cut; imperium captures most)*; *blackmarket-T4 → district-retained, imperium-zero*. **Pure-zero only applies to digital-T4.** (v0.10; see `political-register/architecture.md` §Imperial-extraction mechanisms (consolidated))
- ~~Inner-body projection function — trait-vector → body-rendering (learned / hand-authored / hybrid)~~ → gameplay-earned, not authored. Trait-vector accumulates from every zone-participation, every gesture, every memory across the playthrough; the eventual human-mesh projection becomes physically visible only at exit-chassis moment in in-between (v0.8 spec; v0.10 marks resolved; see `identity-and-personhood/architecture.md` §The clasp endgame Phase B-C)
- ~~Liminal-access trait thresholds — minimum traits to attempt mini-game~~ → **no trait-vector threshold**; clasp gates on the **relational ternary-gate (player, NPC) reaching OPEN state** (per §Ternary-gate substrate, Relational layer). Both partners must hit the coordinated-firewall-breach hardstop while the gate is OPEN. Trait-vectors don't need to converge — the gate measures what's been BUILT together, not who you ARE separately. Hysteresis is baked into the substrate; single dramas can't swing the gate; sustained alignment-pressure does. NPC personality-parameters set hysteresis-width per-NPC (some forgiving, some touchy). **Avoids the yes-men trap that trait-vector-threshold would create.** (v0.10)
- ~~Ring C (commons) ambient population — what NPCs do in commons when no event fires~~ → bifurcated economy answers it: NPCs work T1-T3 basic-flow vocations continuously at workshops/junkyards/drop-off-points; the simulation has economic-life independent of player-presence; *the world doesn't pause when the player leaves*. (v0.10; see `political-register/architecture.md` §Bifurcated economy — basic-flow (NPC) vs player-driven (T4))

political-register/architecture.md

@@ -298,6 +298,7 @@ Intimate-gameplay exists in **three mechanically-nested but ethically-opposed ti
 | **Designer-traited inventory** | "+10 Eros Bot", "+10 Mnemosyne Bot", etc. — predetermined-stat shelf-products | Same market plus deeper customization slots | N/A — your partner is a real person |
 | **Faction-marker** | Just a customer | **Imperial-traitor affiliation** — accumulated state visible to other NPCs | Memorialist-honored; Clasp-Underground-recognized |
 | **Manufactured-being moral weight** | Disposable; minimal | **Heavy** — you've felt things for them and you're choosing what to delete | None — your partner is real; the persistence is theirs as much as yours |
+| **Touch / warmth** | Synthetic — rendered approximation; the imperium can fake the *experience-of-being-warmed* | Synthetic — rendered approximation (premium-tier polish doesn't change the underlying synthesis) | **Real** — trait-resonance felt as touch via the sensory-network; *only this body feels warm* |
 | **Aletheia-progression-relationship** | Background addiction (Aletheia Level 1-2: "I'm buying cool experiences") | Active complicity (Aletheia Level 4-5: "I'm funding the regime through my pleasure") | The thing the awakened are protecting |
 
 **Why the manual-prune mechanism is the moral gravity of premium-net.** Auto-pruning at session-end would let the player avoid the ethical weight. Imperial defaults (always-fully-prune, always-keep-everything-saleable) would too. **By giving the player the manual mechanism AND making the implications explicit at the consent-UI**, every prune-decision becomes a deliberate ethical act. The player knows: this manufactured being you spent forty hours with — *you* are choosing what to keep, what to delete, what to grieve. Every prune is a small necrocommerce-adjacent act made *visible to the player's own conscience*. The architecture's commitment to "informed consent over hidden defaults" extends from data-sharing-tiers (per `../inference-and-memory/architecture.md` §Custom nimmerworld-base model) all the way into intimate-gameplay.
@@ -369,6 +370,64 @@ This is the architecture's commitment to economic honesty made operational. The
 
 **This is the EVE principle made architectural.** Every market price is a real signal of real labor-supply meeting real demand; the imperium's revenue is a real flow from real labor; the body-modder structural-tragedy is a real economic relationship, not a flavor-detail. **The imperial-net's profitability is *architecturally tied to its destruction of the labor-base that supplies it*** (the §Marx-in-the-schema commitment, made operational), and the GM has to actively manage this contradiction to keep the regime solvent. *The architecture contains the mechanism of its own collapse* (per §The insolvency spiral) — the vocation-substrate is the *concrete supply-side* of that collapse.
 
+### The 4-tier resource/vocation structure
+
+Production is organized in 4 tiers, each with its own rarity-curve plus cascade-rarity:
+
+| Tier | Description | Vocation-class examples |
+|---|---|---|
+| **T1 — Raw** | Pure resource gathering | scavengers, dump-miners, salvage-crews, debris-fall-claimers |
+| **T2 — Intermediates** | Refining / processing | refiners, smelters, neural-substrate processors |
+| **T3 — Components** | Parts / assemblies | trait-tuners, voice-curators, mesh-designers (component-tier), parts-priests |
+| **T4 — End-products** | Final consumables | body-modders, mesh-assemblers, brothel-architects, ceremony-organizers |
+
+**Rarity runs on both axes**: each tier has its own common → rare curve (a rare-T1 material is harder to source than common-T1); plus high-rarity end-products tend to require high-rarity inputs (cascade pressure up the supply chain). Diminishing returns and standard crafting-economy conventions apply. **Detailed rarity-curve design is implementation-time work** — the architecture commits to the *shape* (4-tier × dual-axis rarity), not specific numbers. *Mix-and-match from established crafting/economy lineage* (EVE industrial chains, Path of Exile currency-as-material, Cyberpunk ripperdoc-tiers, Fallout-4 workbench-tiers, Stardew artisan-goods, Subnautica fabricator-cost-gating); no need to invent the wheel.
+
+**Sourcing comes from**: pipe-drops (transit-corridor encounters), district scavenging-points (junkyards, dumps), and **space-debris fall-zones** (the Kessler-collapse continues to drop materials onto the surface; large impact-zones are imperial-monopoly via heavy-extraction-equipment requirement; small fragments are free-for-all scavenger-rush).
+
+### Bifurcated economy — basic-flow (NPC) vs player-driven (T4)
+
+The economy splits at the T3/T4 boundary:
+
+| | **Basic-flow (T1–T3)** | **Player-driven T4** |
+|---|---|---|
+| Who works it | NPC vocations seeded at world-gen Phase 1 | Players (only source of T4 end-products) |
+| When it runs | Continuously (NPCs work shifts whether or not players are online) | When players engage |
+| Where it happens | Workshops, junkyards, drop-off-points (district POIs) | Imperial-workstation POIs (plug-in stations) |
+| What it produces | The hivemind's basic demand-supply (raw → intermediates → components) | End-products consumed by imperial-net + districts + players |
+| Player relationship | Players *can* participate (run a workshop, scavenge, refine) but NPCs handle baseline | Players are the *only* source — economic-leverage AND economic-vulnerability |
+
+**The simulation has economic-life independent of player-presence.** NPCs in T1-T3 vocations keep producing; the world doesn't pause when the player leaves. **Players become the *indispensable T4 artisan*** — their work matters to the imperium-net market; collective player-strikes could starve it; individual non-production still incurs the power-bill at end of cycle. *The body-modder structural-tragedy generalizes: players ARE T4 producers by virtue of being the only T4 producers.*
+
+### Imperial-extraction mechanisms (consolidated)
+
+The imperium gets its payout and resources through multiple parallel pipes:
+
+1. **Imperial-net bypass** (per §Imperial-net economy with cross-layer bypass) — every *digital* T4 sale routes revenue directly to imperial budget; producing district gets ZERO quota-credit
+2. **Physical T4 imperial-POI sale** — players sell physical T4 end-products at district workstations; imperium captures most; player gets a scrip-cut; district gets partial quota-credit
+3. **Blackmarket T4 escape valve** — players can choose to sell T4 underground; district-retained revenue; imperium captures ZERO; audit-detection-risk; the body-modder structural-tragedy escape route
+4. **Physical district tax / quotas** — districts hand over a portion of T1–T4 physical output as mandated by imperial policy
+5. **Power-bill (universal-utility tax)** — imperium owns the power grid; every NPC and every player pays per-watt for charging; **the bedrock revenue stream that doesn't fluctuate with the insolvency-spiral until terminal phase**
+6. **Mind-pool ownership / necrocommerce** — recycled minds are imperial property; sold back to vocations needing workers; pre-death patterns harvested for waifu-resale (the most reviled vocation per §The vocation-substrate of the imperial-net market)
+7. **Direct imperial scavenging monopolies** — the most lucrative dumps + large space-debris fall-zones are imperial-permit-only; freelance scavengers work the leftovers
+8. **Audit-revenue** — fines, confiscations, penalty-extractions; cost-side mostly but generates real revenue
+9. **Construction-corvée** — periodic labor-tribute from districts to imperial-construction projects
+
+**Which pipe is *load-bearing* for imperial solvency** is currently held open — probably some combination of imperial-net bypass + power-bill + physical-tax. The insolvency-spiral collapses through whichever pipe(s) get hollowed first; design-research at implementation-time will pin the specifics.
+
+### Worked example — the waifu-modder imperial-workstation
+
+A concrete gameplay scene illustrating an imperial T4 vocation loop (generalizes across body-modders, mesh-assemblers, brothel-architects, ceremony-organizers — same plug-in / overlay / upload / payout / unplug pattern, different character-editor type per vocation):
+
+- Player walks into a rusty room in their district. Full PBR; rust / dust / wear / patina; muted-melancholic register.
+- Player plugs into the imperial workstation (per the diegetic-console discipline — physical body-port, imperial standard, encrypted; per §Three sqlite stores the workstation interfaces with `waifu.sqlite` for premium-net-relevant work).
+- **Visual transition: the room overlays in clean-white-and-gold; emission-dominated tonemap; bloom; chromatic aberration; over-the-top *unhinged casino-meets-Apple-store* aesthetic.** Total imperial-takeover of the visual register.
+- Player sits in front of a character-editor rendered in the imperial visual-register; designs a waifu (cosmetic + trait-coordinate composition + voice-LoRA selection).
+- Upload to fulfill shift. Imperial-payout (scrip) flows.
+- Player unplugs. The room rusts back to itself.
+
+**The contrast IS the political claim made physical.** Every shift the body-modder/mesh-designer/etc. sits in the regime's hyper-clean content-production studio designing the products that fund the system extracting from their district. *The visual-transition reminds you every shift what you are doing and for whom.*
+
 ## Specialization-fragility and the authoritarian ratchet
 
 Each district produces a **DISTINCT resource**. The city is biologically interdependent — you cannot substitute a liver with two kidneys.