world-generation.md authored: top-down L0-L4 cascade + cell-arch

New content-canon doc at political-register/world-generation.md (~200
lines). Sibling-file pattern parallel to imperial-cult/cosmology.md and
identity-and-personhood/bodies.md: this file holds the content-rules of
world generation; the engineering mechanism (Compositor-at-design-time)
lives in narrative-composition/architecture.md.

Substantive content:

The cascade is top-down by design. Three load-bearing reasons:
- Diegetically-correct: the world IS what the imperium made; generation-
  direction must mirror the worldbuilding-thesis. Bottom-up makes the
  imperium one-structure-among-others; top-down makes it the world's
  organizing-principle.
- Composes with existing canon: the three-tier policy loop already runs
  top-down at runtime (imperium -> GM -> districts). World-gen mirrors
  runtime per the existing key-move "World-gen as init-function: same
  primitive at design-time and runtime."
- Imperial-budget-mortality requires it: the insolvency-spiral endgame
  only works with a demand-vs-supply ledger - which only exists if
  districts were derived from imperial demand. Top-down means the world
  itself shrinks as the imperium fails.

The L0-L4 cascade:
- L0: Imperial demand-set (designer-authored: cognitive-labor units,
  waifu-output, surveillance-coverage, ceremonial-throughput, mod-
  fabrication, basic-flow-vs-T4 mix).
- L1: World ruleset derived from L0 - district-counts per category, pipe-
  network, rail-budget, total-population, bifurcated-economy allocation.
  Himalayan-rich elite seat is L1 placement.
- L2: District ruleset - cells-per-district, room-types-and-counts, NPC-
  roster, lifeforce-budget, audit-density.
- L3: Room ruleset - cells-per-room, cell-categories-and-counts, slot-
  inventory (zones). Cells x interiors confirmed orthogonal: zones are
  activity-anchors, cells are spatial-data.
- L4: Cell ruleset - asset-selection (one per cell, hard limit), per-
  register content (gameworld/liminal/imperial-net), initial checksum,
  container/wall-hook/debris discipline.

Closed-orbit constraint as the cascade's ceiling:
- Total L0 demand <= planetary-substrate / efficiency-coefficients
- Kessler caps the imperial appetite at planetary scale
- The deferred-moksha doctrine is structurally entailed by L0's closed-
  orbit ceiling - if the orbit had not closed, Lenin's outward-imperial
  expansion could deliver real material gains and the deferred-moksha
  lie would be unnecessary; the closed orbit forces the lie into
  existence.

Imperial-budget-mortality runs the cascade in reverse:
- L0 demand-set shrinks
- L1 districts close (lowest-L0-contribution first)
- L2 NPC-roster contracts; rooms vacate
- L3 vacated rooms collapse; cells return to debris-state
- L4 orphaned assets despawn or downgrade to debris (shader residue)
- The world itself shrinks as the imperium fails

The cell-arch piece (from this Sunday's discovery arc):
- 1x1x1m cells with one-asset hard limit per cell (predictable per-cell
  rendering cost; asset-budget operationalized at cell-level; junk-pile
  aesthetic emerges from cell-count not per-cell stacking)
- Procedural cell-gen via rule-categorization at district-init (existing
  "World-gen as init-function" key-move applied at the cell layer)
- Checksum-based discovery inverting the perception-bubble pattern (NPC
  enters cell -> O(1) hash compare -> 99% no-op, 1% discovery fires;
  textbook content-addressing pattern - Merkle / ETag / Git-blob-hash;
  audit-overseer reads checksums not eyes; resistance becomes
  cryptographic - forge a checksum to hide a heretical wheel)
- Container/wall-hook/debris-as-shader (eliminates orphan-object
  simulation cost; bounded item-slots; debris-shader-trick for free
  visual density)

Locked-in conventions reflected throughout:
- Total-yoke discipline (Option B)
- Imperial Yoke / clasp terminology
- Asset-budget-aware (rendering targets per rule-catalogue when
  established)
- Collision-check-aware (load-bearing collision = static world geometry
  + zone-transition triggers, not body-on-body in MMO arch)
- Schema decisions deferred until pgnats first-test (Monday queue)

Files:
- political-register/world-generation.md (new): ~200 lines, structured
  as cosmology.md / bodies.md sibling, with cascade table, per-layer
  outputs, closed-orbit constraint, reverse-cascade endgame, cross-
  references, and substantial Open questions section flagging schema-
  deferred + L0 specific-numbers + cell-categorization-taxonomy + rule-
  format + cell-mutation-permissions + cell-room-aggregation + LOD-
  strategy + insolvency-trigger-thresholds + per-cell-category asset-
  budget.
- README.md: political-register/ project-structure entry extended to
  surface world-generation.md as sibling content-canon. Version bumped
  0.6 -> 0.7.
- architecture-index.md: project-structure tree extended (world-
  generation.md as sibling under political-register/); quick-reference
  row added; v0.15 history entry added marking cell-arch discovery +
  top-down cascade lock-in + world-generation.md authoring + schema
  deferral. Version bumped 0.14 -> 0.15.

Authored 2026-04-26 same Sunday continuing - dafit + chrysalis.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

political-register/world-generation.md

@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+# World Generation — The Top-Down Cascade
+
+> *The content-canon for nimmerworld's generation pipeline. Top-down cascade: imperial demand-set → world-level ruleset → district ruleset → room ruleset → cell ruleset. Each layer derives from the layer above. The Compositor-at-design-time (per `../narrative-composition/architecture.md` §World-gen as init-function) executes this cascade at world-init; runtime extends it via the same primitive. Closed-orbit Kessler-cascade caps the imperial-demand budget at planetary scale. Imperial-budget-mortality threads through every layer — when the imperium contracts, the cascade runs in reverse: districts close, rooms vacate, cells return to debris-state.*
+> *v0.1 initial draft 2026-04-26 — content-canon sibling to `architecture.md`; cascade design from the post-bodies.md cell-arch discovery arc — dafit + chrysalis.*
+
+---
+
+## What this is
+
+This document is the **content-canon for world generation** in nimmerworld — the rules that determine *what* gets generated, *where*, *why*, and in *what proportion*. It complements the *engineering substrate* in this directory's [`architecture.md`](./architecture.md) (three-tier policy loop, imperial-budget mortality, insolvency-spiral, faction-broadcast structure) and the design-time-Compositor mechanism in [`../narrative-composition/architecture.md`](../narrative-composition/architecture.md) §World-gen as init-function.
+
+The cascade is **top-down** by design — generation begins from the imperium's demand-set and ripples down through districts, rooms, and cells. The world is *what the imperium needs it to be*, nothing more. Bottom-up generation is rejected because it would make the imperium *one structure among others*; top-down generation makes the imperium *the world's organizing principle*, which is the worldbuilding-thesis the cosmology requires.
+
+This document covers the **content-rules** of the cascade. The **engineering mechanism** that runs the cascade (Compositor-at-design-time emitting canon-rows in the same schema as runtime) lives in `../narrative-composition/architecture.md`.
+
+## Why top-down
+
+Three load-bearing reasons:
+
+1. **Diegetically-correct.** The world IS what the imperium made (per [`../README.md`](../README.md): *"the slum does bound cognitive labor for an imperial machine"*). Generation-direction must mirror the worldbuilding-thesis. Bottom-up generation makes the imperium *one structure among others*; top-down generation makes the imperium *the world's organizing principle*. The latter matches the cosmology in [`../imperial-cult/cosmology.md`](../imperial-cult/cosmology.md).
+2. **Composes with existing canon.** The three-tier policy loop already runs top-down at *runtime* (imperium → GM → districts → reports up → imperium). World-gen mirrors runtime per the existing key-move in [`../architecture-index.md`](../architecture-index.md): *"World-gen as init-function (Compositor-at-design-time): same primitive at design-time and runtime; no cold-start; data-flywheel runs retroactively."*
+3. **Imperial-budget-mortality requires it.** The *"insolvency-spiral as endgame"* key-move only works with a demand-vs-supply ledger — and that ledger only exists if districts were *derived from* imperial demand. Top-down means **the world itself shrinks as the imperium fails**: districts close, rooms vacate, cells return to debris-state as the imperial budget contracts. Bottom-up cannot deliver that mechanic.
+
+## The cascade
+
+Five layers; each derives from the layer above. *Static-unless-modified* after initial generation; runtime modifications create deltas; Compositor-at-runtime extends the same primitive.
+
+| Layer | What it provides | Derives from |
+|---|---|---|
+| **L0 — Imperial demand-set** | The imperium's resource appetite: cognitive-labor units, waifu-output, surveillance-coverage, ceremonial-throughput, basic-flow-vs-T4 mix, etc. Designer-authored. | Closed-orbit ceiling (planetary substrate ÷ efficiency-coefficients) |
+| **L1 — World ruleset** | District allocation: N slum + M industrial + K ceremonial + L residential + pipe-network + rail-budget + total-population. Bifurcated economy from v0.10 allocated here. | L0 (each district-count satisfies a quota of L0's demand) |
+| **L2 — District ruleset** | Per-district-type rules: cells-per-district, room-types-and-counts, NPC-roster (vocations + counts to meet that district's L0-contribution), lifeforce-budget allocated. | L1 (this district's L0-quota commitment) |
+| **L3 — Room ruleset** | Per-room-type rules: cells-per-room, cell-categories-and-counts, slot-inventory (zones — the existing `interior-as-zone` primitive). | L2 (this room's contribution to its district's quota) |
+| **L4 — Cell ruleset** | Per-cell-category rules: asset-selection (one per cell, hard limit), per-register content (gameworld / liminal / imperial-net), initial checksum, container/wall-hook/debris discipline. | L3 (this cell's role in its room) |
+
+Generation runs L0 → L4 at world-init. Each layer's output becomes the next layer's input-constraint.
+
+## L0 — Imperial demand-set
+
+Designer-authored. The imperium's resource appetite expressed as quantities. *This is the seed from which the entire world derives.*
+
+Demand categories (initial sketch; final taxonomy per §Open questions):
+
+- **Cognitive-labor units** — what the slum extracts (per [`../README.md`](../README.md): *"bound cognitive labor for an imperial machine"*); total-monthly-units the imperium consumes
+- **Waifu-output / memory-pattern-extraction** — necrocommerce throughput (per [`./architecture.md`](./architecture.md) §The vocation-substrate of the imperial-net market)
+- **Surveillance-coverage** — overseer-deployment density across districts; relay-density per ring (per [`../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`](../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md) §Diegetic relays)
+- **Ceremonial-throughput** — Imperial-Cult ritual cycles per period; caste-preacher density; festival-frequency
+- **Mod-fabrication** — vat-output per caste-tier (per [`../identity-and-personhood/bodies.md`](../identity-and-personhood/bodies.md) §Sumptuary fabrication: caste is born-into)
+- **Basic-flow vs. T4 mix** — proportion of basic-flow-T1-T3 districts vs. T4-digital / T4-physical / T4-blackmarket districts (per v0.10 chill-design-talk in `../architecture-index.md` §Key moves)
+
+Each demand-quantity is bounded by the **closed-orbit ceiling**: *total demand ≤ planetary substrate ÷ efficiency-coefficients*. Kessler caps the imperial appetite at planetary scale. **The imperium cannot grow beyond what one closed planet sustains.**
+
+## L1 — World ruleset
+
+Derives district-counts from L0 quotas, plus the connective infrastructure between them.
+
+Outputs:
+
+- **District-counts per category**: N slum, M industrial, K ceremonial, L residential, plus specialty (mod-fabrication-vat hubs, deva-pinnacle citadels, asura-priesthood seats, etc.). Counts derived so total district-output meets total L0 demand at expected efficiency-coefficients.
+- **Pipe-network**: rail-segments connecting districts; per-segment metadata (heterotopia-class, overseer-density, traversal-cost) per [`../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`](../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md) §Rail-segment metadata.
+- **Rail-budget**: total rail-segments; capacity (3-way co-walking support per topology canon).
+- **Total-population**: NPC count derived from total-cognitive-labor-demand at expected per-NPC productivity.
+- **Bifurcated-economy allocation** (per v0.10): how many basic-flow districts vs. T4-digital / T4-physical / T4-blackmarket districts, per L0's basic-flow-vs-T4 mix-ratio.
+
+The Himalayan-rich elite seat (per [`../README.md`](../README.md): *"Reproduction is a caste privilege held by the Himalayan rich"*) is an L1 placement-decision: the deva-vats live there; the asura-priesthood seats live somewhere accessible to the slum-districts; the slum-districts spread across the lower-altitude infrastructure where the imperial machine extracts from them.
+
+## L2 — District ruleset
+
+Per-district-type rules. Each district's L1-allocated L0-quota becomes its generation-target.
+
+Outputs per district:
+
+- **Cells-per-district** (range; derives from L1-allocated population × per-NPC-cell-footprint)
+- **Room-types-and-counts** (e.g., a slum-district has N hovels + M cantinas + K workshops + L corridors + ... per its L0-output-vocation-mix)
+- **NPC-roster**: vocations + counts to meet that district's L0-contribution. (e.g., a slum-district extracting cognitive-labor needs X cognitive-labor-vocation NPCs at expected productivity.)
+- **Lifeforce-budget**: allocated by imperium per [`./architecture.md`](./architecture.md) §Lifeforce four-tier hierarchy. Districts with higher L0-contribution get higher budgets.
+- **Audit-density**: overseer count, relay-density, audit-overseer-deployment-pattern (per [`../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`](../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md) §Diegetic relays Ring A/B/C gradient).
+
+## L3 — Room ruleset
+
+Per-room-type rules. Rooms aggregate cells; each room is an `interior-as-zone` (per `../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`) with slot-inventory.
+
+Outputs per room:
+
+- **Cells-per-room** (range; derives from L2-allocated room-count and total-cells-per-district)
+- **Cell-categories-and-counts** (e.g., a hovel = N wall-cells + 1 sofa-cell + 1 kitchen-cell + 1 bed-cell + ...)
+- **Slot-inventory** (the zone-anchors for activities — sofa, kitchen, bed, shower, wall-writing-spot per existing topology canon). Slots map to specific cells but are *activity-anchors* (zone-layer), distinct from cell-spatial-data. **Cells × interiors = orthogonal layers**: zones are activity-anchors, cells are spatial-data; one sofa lives in *one cell* AND is *one zone-slot for the interior's couch-activity* — two foreign keys, two purposes.
+
+## L4 — Cell ruleset
+
+Per-cell-category rules. Each cell-category has a generator that emits the cell's content.
+
+Outputs per cell:
+
+- **Asset-selection** (one per cell, hard limit; container, wall-hook, or debris-shader-trick per the cell-arch arc in this Sunday's discovery)
+- **Per-register content**: three contents per cell (gameworld / liminal / imperial-net) per [`../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`](../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md) §Three-shader philosophy. Per `cells.wall_content_per_register` (per `../architecture-index.md` §Mapping to phoebe).
+- **Initial checksum**: hash of the cell's content; subsequent NPC-entries compare against this; mismatch fires *"clean signal"* for discovery (per cell-arch arc's checksum-based-discovery design — replaces the perception-bubble pattern).
+- **Container/wall-hook/debris discipline**: items in cells must be in a container OR hooked-on-wall; everything else is debris (shader-trick, no persistent state). **No orphan-objects.** Containers + wall-hooks are zone-slots applied at item-level (the zone primitive scaling one tier deeper).
+
+## Closed-orbit constraint
+
+The Kessler-cascade (per [`../README.md`](../README.md) §Timeline, 2150 *"the last son of Elon attempts the dynasty's old promise"*) closes the outward frontier. There is no off-world inflow. This caps the entire cascade:
+
+> **Total L0 demand ≤ planetary substrate ÷ efficiency-coefficients.**
+
+The imperium's appetite cannot exceed what one closed planet sustains, no matter how cleverly extraction is engineered. The cascade is therefore a **constraint-satisfaction problem rooted in physical-economic facts** — not an open-ended generative procedure. Every generation-run is bounded above by physics.
+
+This is also why the deferred-moksha doctrine (per [`../imperial-cult/cosmology.md`](../imperial-cult/cosmology.md) §The deferred-moksha doctrine) is *necessary*: when the closed-orbit caps real material gains, the imperium has to keep its promises alive *purely through deferral*. **The cosmology is structurally entailed by the planetary-physics constraint.** If the orbit had not closed, Lenin's outward-imperial expansion could deliver real material gains and the deferred-moksha lie would be unnecessary; the closed orbit forces the lie into existence.
+
+## Imperial-budget-mortality and the cascade — running it in reverse
+
+Generation runs L0 → L4 at world-init. After init, the cascade is *static-unless-modified*.
+
+But the imperium is mortal. Per the existing key-move *"Imperial budget makes the regime mortal. Insolvency-spiral as endgame"* (per `../architecture-index.md`):
+
+When the imperial budget contracts (insolvency-spiral threshold crossed), the cascade **runs in reverse**:
+
+1. **L0** demand-set shrinks (the imperium can no longer afford its own appetite).
+2. **L1** reallocates: districts close (lowest-L0-contribution first); pipe-network thins; rail-budget contracts.
+3. **L2** reallocates: per-district NPC-roster contracts; rooms vacate; lifeforce-budget shrinks.
+4. **L3** reallocates: vacated rooms collapse; cells return to debris-state.
+5. **L4** reallocates: orphaned assets despawn or downgrade to debris (shader-trick visual residue).
+
+**The world itself shrinks as the imperium fails.** The player living through the contraction sees districts close, neighbors disappear, formerly-busy plazas empty, the relay-network go dim, the silence at Ring C extending into former-Ring-B and former-Ring-A territory. *The imperium consuming itself, unable to maintain even the world it generated.* This is the structural-cosmological endgame the cosmology gestures at.
+
+This is why top-down generation matters mechanically, not just diegetically: bottom-up generation has nothing to retract. Top-down generation has a **demand-vs-supply ledger** the insolvency-spiral can act on.
+
+## Cross-references
+
+| Reference | What it provides |
+|---|---|
+| [`./architecture.md`](./architecture.md) | Engineering substrate: imperium-as-meta-faction, three-tier policy loop, imperial budget, insolvency-spiral, lifeforce hierarchy, vocation-substrate of the imperial-net market |
+| [`../narrative-composition/architecture.md`](../narrative-composition/architecture.md) §World-gen as init-function | The Compositor-at-design-time mechanism that *runs* the cascade; emits canon-rows in same schema as runtime |
+| [`../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`](../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md) | Rail-segment metadata (L1 inputs); interior-as-zone primitive (L3); `cells.wall_content_per_register` and three-shader philosophy (L4); diegetic relays (L2 audit-density); base-limb palette + trait-textured variance (L4 asset-selection) |
+| [`../identity-and-personhood/bodies.md`](../identity-and-personhood/bodies.md) | Sumptuary fabrication-vat-class (L4 mod-fabrication outputs); body-tier caste ratios drive L1 deva/asura/manusya/tiryak/preta district-mix |
+| [`../imperial-cult/cosmology.md`](../imperial-cult/cosmology.md) | The cosmology that justifies top-down generation; the cascade's diegetic legitimacy comes from the cosmology's claim that the imperium is the world's organizing principle; the deferred-moksha doctrine is structurally entailed by L0's closed-orbit ceiling |
+| [`../README.md`](../README.md) §Timeline | The 2150 Kessler-cascade and the closed-orbit constraint that caps L0 |
+
+## Open questions
+
+- **Schema for cell / room / district tables.** *Deferred until the pgnats first-test* (per Monday's queue: *"pgnats install + document + first-test on phoebe-dev"*). The eval-result determines whether checksum-broadcast goes via PG NOTIFY (lower-latency, transactional, in-band) or NATS subject (higher-throughput, multi-consumer, durable-replay), which determines whether per-cell or per-cell-per-register checksum is affordable, which decides cell-table column shape.
+- **Specific L0 demand-set numbers.** What are the cognitive-labor-units / waifu-output / surveillance-coverage / ceremonial-throughput / etc. quantities? Pending: imperial-economy balance pass; can be tuned via designer-spreadsheet once Compositor-at-design-time runs.
+- **Cell-category taxonomy.** *Start simple, grow out* (per dafit's call). Initial small base-set: interior / corridor / public-space / ruin / specialty. Extended per-district-class as world-gen test-runs surface needs. *"One ape and one imperial machine can dream up alot."*
+- **Generation-rule format.** What does a *"ruleset for hovel-cell"* look like as a data-structure? Inputs: district-class + room-context + occupant-profile. Outputs: asset-pick + register-content + initial-checksum. Format probably emerges from the L4 schema once pgnats lands.
+- **Cell-mutation write-permissions.** Who can write to a cell post-generation? Player carving a heretical-wheel into a wall = direct mutation, system event, or overlay row? Heresy-detection via checksum-divergence (per cell-arch arc's discovery-pattern). Pending: schema + write-permission policy.
+- **Cell-room aggregation.** When do cells form a "room"? Connectivity-graph at generation-time, pre-tagged `room_id`, or both? Likely both, with the connectivity-graph used for runtime queries and `room_id` used for generation-bookkeeping.
+- **Streaming/LOD strategy.** When does a cell load/unload? Per shift (NPCs on rails through cells), per player-proximity, per district-active-flag? Likely a hybrid: district-active-flag for coarse load, player-proximity for fine LOD, shift-schedule for NPC-traversal preload.
+- **Reverse-cascade (insolvency-spiral) trigger thresholds.** What lifeforce-deficit threshold triggers L1 district-closures? What's the closure-priority-ordering? Pending: imperial-budget balance pass.
+- **Asset-budget per cell-category.** Vertex-caps + texture-res + collision-mesh-complexity per cell-category. Pending: rule catalogue (likely `../style/asset-budget.md` when authored).
+
+---
+
+**Version:** 0.1 | **Created:** 2026-04-26 | **Updated:** 2026-04-26