v0.26: event-zones.md authored — interaction-substrate paper-pass

Composes the dialog 2026-04-27 ~21:30-22:00 CEST into canon. Nine
compositional moves consolidated onto one substrate without introducing
new primitives — every claim is a composition of existing canon (cells,
zones, slots, verifier-flags, hardstops, lifeforce budgets, the trait-
palette, the consent-spine, the cosmology's composed wheel).

NEW PAPER: runtime-engine/event-zones.md (~400 lines, v0.1)

Sections:
1. Designer-authored event-zones vs emergent zones (orthogonal; clean
   signals; no overlap routing)
2. Cells + event-zones + events as layered data-model with composite
   UID districtid_cellid_eventid; participants on events not cells
3. The composed wheel from imperial-cult/cosmology.md as universal
   mini-game-surface; verifier-flag patterns differentiate hacking /
   lockpicking / install / clasp / decryption / ritual / drug-grammar /
   eye-pulse-proximity; collapses the long-standing "which mini-game
   mechanic for liminal-maintenance" open question
4. Hardstops as consent-gates between event-states with contextual
   activation; ~8-16 budget is per-moment-active, not overall
5. The four hardstop-pattern variants of consent-discipline.md as the
   event-class taxonomy (self/dual/triple/cooldown-augmented = solo/
   dual/triple/temporally-staged event-class)
6. Boundary-zone-with-inner-zone for plaza-scale mass-presence; sparingly
   applied; caste-tier-gated promotion as default
7. Room-boundary cell-layer + rail-passage + lifeforce-budget-per-room
   (district-shard, four-tier hierarchy intact); insolvency-spiral
   gets its mechanical surface
8. Slot-binding suspends lemniscate routing during events (the NPC-
   stays-put fix at the data-model layer; new slot_locked verifier-flag)
9. Player editor-mode + three-source schema unification (world_gen_init /
   runtime_event / player_authored origin field on cell-rows; same
   schema across all three writers)

UPDATES:

architecture-index.md (v0.20 -> v0.21):
- Tree-line: runtime-engine/ now sibling-paper-pattern (architecture.md
  + event-zones.md)
- Quick-reference table: new row for event-zones.md
- Three new key-moves bullets:
  * "The composed wheel as universal mini-game-substrate"
  * "Event-zones + cells + events as layered interaction substrate"
  * "Three-source schema unification + player editor-mode + room-
    boundary lifeforce"
- Open questions: "The mini-game mechanic for liminal-maintenance"
  RESOLVED — all on one wheel, differentiated by verifier-flag pattern

topology-and-rendering/architecture.md:
- New section "Vertical world topology — simple shapes + ±1 LOD tunnels
  + slum-carve-verb": stacked tunnels with primitive shapes; ±1 LOD
  streaming-radius bounds GPU budget; slum-carve verb-grammar; material-
  vocabulary politically-codes editor-eligibility (imperial-marble can't
  be carved; rusted slum-bedrock yields); Boullée-monumental aesthetic
  on the cheap via vertical-stacking

player-experience/architecture.md (v0.7.0 -> v0.8.0):
- New section "The wheel — composed-iconography UI": the trait-circle
  UI renders the composed wheel from imperial-cult/cosmology.md; inner
  ring = 6 caste-tier hardstops (HARD signals — the WHO); outer ring =
  8 trait-axis soft-slots (SOFT signals — the HOW); 2D gesture-history
  coordinate (caste-target × trait-temperature) as political-position
  reading; contextual hardstop activation; wheel as universal mini-
  game-surface

Three identity layers aligned: chrysalis git-author, chrysalis SSH key,
gitea-chrysalis remote. Pre-push verification gates passed.

This is the largest single-session paper-pass since v0.7's three-body-
system split. All nine compositional moves use existing primitives;
no new substrate introduced; the architecture's signature pattern
(cost-budget asymmetry as architectural style) enacted at the
interaction-substrate scale.

Genesis note: this paper-pass composes the dialog that emerged after
the v0.25 inline-iconography cleanup landed. Key architectural insights
from the dialog were: (1) the wheel collapses the mini-game-mechanic
open question; (2) consent-discipline-Variants = event-class taxonomy;
(3) the cell-arch atomicity makes editor-mode trivial; (4) the
boundary-zone-with-inner-zone pattern is the architecture's signature
pattern at a fourth scale; (5) the architecture's "describe-by-cross-
reference" discipline composes beautifully when there's a load-bearing
canonical reference like the composed wheel.

topology-and-rendering/architecture.md

@@ -57,6 +57,25 @@ Interiors carry a `register` flag too:
 
 Most simulation volume is rail-graph (cheap) or dormant interior (free). Active simulation concentrates exactly where drama happens (active anchors + transit + current-interactions). A 100+ NPC city becomes feasible at single-GPU budgets *because* the topology is rail-based.
 
+## Vertical world topology — simple shapes + ±1 LOD tunnels + slum-carve-verb
+
+The world's outer-topology is **vertical-by-default**. Stacked tunnels with simple primitive shapes; rails traverse both horizontally within tunnel-layers and vertically via lift-shafts / stairs / drop-shafts. The streaming budget is bounded by **±1 LOD tunnel-layer** — the player is always *one tunnel-up and one tunnel-down* in active streaming-radius, deeper layers stub out.
+
+This is the architecture's signature pattern at the world-topology scale: **cost-budget asymmetry as architectural style** — bounded simple substrate, rich emergent behavior. Verticality delivers the Boullée-monumental aesthetic (per [`../imperial-cult/cosmology.md`](../imperial-cult/cosmology.md) §Source materials — *sublime monumental geometry; pure Platonic solids at impossible scale*) at asset-economy-friendly cost; ±1 LOD bounds the rendering-budget; simple-primitive-shapes keep per-cell asset-author-cost low.
+
+| Property | Value | Why |
+|---|---|---|
+| Tunnel-layer streaming radius | ±1 from player | Bounded GPU budget; sublime depth-feeling without unbounded-LOD-fight |
+| Per-cell shape complexity | Simple primitives (boxes, cylinders, ramps, low-poly carves) | Asset-economy preserved; voxel-editor-grammar enabled |
+| Cross-layer connections | Lift-shafts, stairs, drop-shafts (±1 only) | Maintains streaming-bound; player navigates through stack one layer at a time |
+| Dominant-direction | Vertical (over horizontal sprawl) | Sublime monumental scale; the imperium's verticality made literal in topology |
+
+**The slum-carve-verb.** Editor-mode (per [`../runtime-engine/event-zones.md`](../runtime-engine/event-zones.md) §Player editor-mode + three-source schema unification) is enabled in slum/underground tunnel-layers. The verb is **carve, not build** — players knock pieces of wall out, open new cells, extend their hovels and workshops downward or laterally into the tunnel-substrate. The cell-arch's 1×1×1m atomicity (per [`../political-register/world-generation.md`](../political-register/world-generation.md) §L4 Cell ruleset) makes this voxel-grammar trivial: each carve is a discrete cell-state-change; no continuous-geometry math; no LOD-budget thrashing.
+
+**Material-vocabulary politically-codes editor-eligibility.** Imperial districts (deva-pinnacle citadels, asura-priesthood seats, ceremonial halls) are editor-locked — *imperial-marble can't be carved*. Slum/underground districts (slum-tier dwellings, frontier districts, underground workshops, abandoned wilds-shrines) are editor-rich — *rusted slum-bedrock yields*. The aesthetic palette (per [`../imperial-cult/cosmology.md`](../imperial-cult/cosmology.md) §The aesthetic palette — *rust as anti-marble, slum decay; the imperial substrate that has failed to stay clean*) carries through to the editor-verbs. **The architecture's caste-stratified attention-gradient gets its spatial-authoring surface for free.**
+
+**The Boullée-monumental aesthetic on the cheap.** Each tunnel-layer is rendered with simple primitive geometry; the *feeling* of cosmic scale comes from the vertical-stacking-of-layers, not from per-shape complexity. Looking up from a slum-tunnel and seeing the deva-pinnacle citadel-layer above with its golden-stair geometry receding into atmospheric haze — that's the cosmology made walkable, asset-budget preserved.
+
 
 ## Color-language: trait-vocabulary as visual primitive