split nimmerworld architecture: phase 1 of 3 — vertical-by-domain directories Create 9 domain directories under nimmerworld/, each owning an architecture.md that will eventually sit alongside server/client/schema/test code for that domain (vertical-by-domain rather than horizontal-by-language).
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authority-and-decision/architecture.md
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authority-and-decision/architecture.md
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# Authority and Decision
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> *How authority flows operationally: the four-channel information flow at districts; the hierarchy from imperium through GM through factions through district-directors and overseers down to zones and slots; the bidirectional cascade of policy descending and outcome-signal ascending; the task cascade of bounded-agency tools at every tier; the District-Director's decomposed decision-surface architecture (~90% rule-based, structured LLM-escalation only on ambiguity); the rings-as-structural-pattern recurring shape of graduated authority.*
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>
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> *Companion to: `architecture-broad.md` (executive summary + global meta-lists), `political-register/architecture.md` (the political claim that authority flows through these tiers), `narrative-composition/architecture.md` (Compositor consumes outcome-signals). Sections in this file were split from the monolithic architecture-broad.md v0.7 on 2026-04-26.*
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## The regime of visibility: four-channel information flow at districts
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| Channel | Direction | Source | Cadence |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| **Dispatch** | DOWN | gamemaster → directors | day-boundary + event |
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| **Shift assignment** | DOWN | director → NPCs | day-boundary |
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| **Audit reports** | UP (objective, observed) | audit-overseers → **directly to imperium** | shift-phase cadence |
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| **Emergent-signals** | UP (relational, observed) | zones → director | event-driven (gate-transitions) |
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| **Cyclic needs** | UP (interior, self-reported) | NPCs → director | slow tick + threshold-triggered |
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| **District reports** | UP (aggregate) | director → GM → imperium | per-cycle |
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**The critical asymmetry: NPCs do not self-report *output*.** Audit-overseers observe and report (to imperium directly). NPCs only self-report *needs*. Output is objective; need is interior. The subjective-objective gap is where drama lives, where heresy hides, where the surveillance regime's epistemology is compressed as a schema.
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**Audit-overseers are politically-critical NPCs**, not degenerate. Each has a trait-vector, relationship-gates with observed districts, lifeforce account (vulnerable to bribery). High-Dikaiosyne overseers report honestly; corruptible overseers can be turned. They are high-stakes targets for both regime (loyalty-maintenance) and resistance (compromise).
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## Hierarchy
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```
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IMPERIUM (policy-issuer; budget-holder; recipient of overseer-direct-intel)
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▲ ↓ formulates to
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│ aggregate reports + faction outcomes ↓
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│ ↓
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GAMEMASTER (middle-management; allocator; imperial-policy-translator)
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▲ ↓
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│ ← faction broadcasts ↓
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│ ↓
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FACTIONS: ↓
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hivemind-enforcement · scavengers · memorialists ·
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aletheia-wakers · clasp-underground · caste-preachers ·
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weather · scarcity · solar-storm · anthropic · ...
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+ emergent inter-NPC micro-factions
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│ ← gamemaster dispatches ↓
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▼ ▼
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┌──────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
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│ DISTRICT │ DISTRICT │
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│ DIRECTORS │ DIRECTORS │
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└────────┬─────────┴──────────┬──────────┘
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│ │
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┌─────┴──────┐ ┌─────┴──────┐
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│ │ │ │
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▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
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┌──────┐ ┌────────┐ ┌────────┐ ┌────────┐
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│ENFORCE│ │AUDIT-OV│ │DIRECTORS│ │AUDIT-OV│
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│OVERSEE│ │(REPORT │ │(macro- │ │(REPORT │
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│ patrol│ │ DIRECT │ │ life) │ │ DIRECT │
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│ raid │ │ TO │ │ │ │ TO │
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│ │ │IMPERIUM│ │ │ │IMPERIUM│
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└───┬───┘ └────────┘ └────┬───┘ └────────┘
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│ │
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└────────────┬──────────┘
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▼
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ZONES (bounded, slot-indexed, register-tagged)
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│
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▼
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SLOT OCCUPANCY (NPCs + player)
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│
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▼
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NPC / PLAYER MINDS
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```
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**Three executor types at the zone-spawning layer:** enforcement-overseers (regime-action zones), audit-overseers (pure observers, report DIRECTLY upward to imperium), zone-directors (macro-life zones). The district director integrates the four-channel information flow; the imperium has its independent intelligence-flow from audit-overseers bypassing the GM.
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### Overseers as imperially-deployed routines (not district-owned)
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Both audit-overseers and enforcement-overseers are **imperially-owned, imperially-deployed routines** — not district-resident standing entities under the director's authority. The chain-of-command and chain-of-payment for intelligence both bypass district-director authority by design:
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- **Imperium owns the overseer-role** — defines mission-spec, sets enforcement-rules, owns the policy that triggers deployment
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- **Gamemaster handles deployment-logistics only** — picks which overseer-NPC from the standing pool, routes them to the target district, transfers imperial-budget allocation for the deployment-window. *The GM is FedEx, not the customer or recipient.*
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- **District contains-but-does-not-control** — the deployed overseer operates IN the district, subscribes to the district's NATS bus for observations, but the district director has *no* authority: cannot direct, redirect, terminate, or instruct; cannot read the overseer's reports (which flow directly to imperium)
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- **Time-bounded deployments** — overseers run on imperial-budget allocations for `[start_tick, end_tick]` windows. At deployment-end they return to the standing overseer-pool (npcs vocation = `audit_overseer` or `enforcement_overseer`), available for redeployment elsewhere
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- **Visible vs. covert** — most overseer-presences are visibly-known (regime-signal as deterrent); some are covert (regime gathers evidence quietly before acting). Detection of *covert* overseers is a piercing of the regime-veil — an Aletheia-progression-eligible insight
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This matches real authoritarian intelligence structures (NKVD, KGB, Stasi, modern MSS): the chain-of-payment and chain-of-command for intelligence must both bypass middle-management for intelligence to remain honest. **Even if the GM wanted to corrupt the audit-flow, they have no levers** — they don't pay the overseer, don't direct the overseer, don't read the overseer's reports. *Intelligence-honesty is structural, not procedural.*
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The director-vs-overseer tension is therefore **mechanically structured, not narrative-flavored**: a director with active corruption cannot tell the overseer to leave, cannot observe what they report, can only conceal-better, attempt-bribe, petition-recall (rare; expensive in political-capital), or outwait the deployment-end-tick. Each is a gameplay surface. The same audit-overseer-NPC may serve in District 3 this cycle, District 7 the next, accumulating their own faction-relationships across districts; their trait-drift over many deployments becomes a long-arc story available to both regime-stability and resistance-recruitment.
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The schema for `overseer_deployments` (deployment-binding, mission-spec, imperial-budget, status, visible_to_district flag) is sketched in `findings.md` §23.
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## The bidirectional cascade
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```
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DOWN — demand + policy propagation
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imperium policy → GM allocation + enforcement → districts
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factions broadcast (under policy-weights) → GM arbitrates → districts
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districts assign shifts → NPCs execute
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UP — outcome signal (multi-channel)
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NPC cyclic-needs ─────────────────────┐
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audit-overseer reports ───► IMPERIUM ├─► district-director aggregates
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zone emergent-signals ─────────────────┘ │
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▼
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district report (lifeforce signal)
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│
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▼
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GM aggregates → imperial_report
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│
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▼
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IMPERIUM cross-references
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(Flow 1 vs. Flow 2)
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│
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▼
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policy adjustment → cycle
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```
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**The clean signal up the pyramid IS the training surface for the four-tier Dream-process.** Every epoch closes on (broadcasts, allocations, outcomes, faction-satisfaction) tuples at each tier.
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## Task cascade and bounded agency
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Three levels with tool-calling interfaces. Higher levels do not know lower levels' implementations.
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### Imperium's tools
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- `set_quota_per_district(targets)`
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- `issue_enforcement_rule(rule_spec, scope)`
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- `set_faction_priority_weights(weights)`
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- `authorize_crisis_tool(tool_class, target_district)`
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- `formulate_to_gm(intelligence_subset, framing)`
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- `commit_imperial_expenditure(category, amount, target)`
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- `redistribute_minds(from_pool, to_district, count)`
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- `formalize_ruin(district)`
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### Gamemaster's tools (against imperial-policy + district-reports)
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- `assign_district_task`, `set_local_faction_priority` (within imperial-frame)
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- `spawn_global_event`, `request_district_report`, `arbitrate_conflicting_demands`
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- `dispatch_audit_op` (costs lifeforce; cross-checks overseer-reports for own purposes)
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- `escalate_to_imperium` (when discretion exceeded)
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- `spawn_migration_event`, `enable_exodus_conditions`
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### District Director's tools (against gamemaster-assigned tasks + signals)
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Standard:
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- `spawn_zone`, `close_zone`, `promote_zone`
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- `assign_npc_task`, `allocate_shift`, `update_shift`, `close_shift`
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- `request_resources`, `designate_meeting_point`, `trigger_ambient_event`
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- `report_to_gamemaster`
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- `ack_emergent_signal` / `defer_emergent_signal` / `drop_emergent_signal` (with reason)
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- `dispatch_overseer`, `query_district_state`, `log_decision`, `escalate_to_llm`
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**Cheat-tools (extractive; punishable if detected):**
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- `spawn_drug_ring`, `spawn_illegal_modshop`, `spawn_unlicensed_brothel`
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- `spawn_stolen_parts_fence`, `enable_ghost_shifts`, `falsify_quota_report`
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### NPC's tools
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Standard: `move_to`, `interact`, `occupy_zone_slot`, `consume`, `rest`, `seek_npc`, `write_wall`, `defer_task`, `report_need`.
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Layer-transition: `enter_digital`, `sustain_liminal`, `consume_net`.
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Plug-in (player + NPCs): `plug_into_rail`, `detach_from_rail`, `follow`, `intercept`, `escort`.
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## District Director: Decision Architecture
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**Industry default ("wall-of-text LLM prompt → prose decision parsed downstream") is rejected.** Reasons: cost-per-decision-constant, latency-catastrophic, opacity-kills-training, prompt-injection-vulnerable, philosophically-wrong-for-the-fiction.
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**Decomposition first, cognition-escalation second.** Director's job decomposes into distinct decision surfaces; each gets minimum cognitive substrate.
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| Decision surface | Substrate | Escalation path |
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| **Shift allocation** | Constraint-solver / LP / rule-based | Small-LLM only on ambiguous |
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| **Emergent-signal response** | Priority-weighted dispatch table | Small-LLM for composite/unknown |
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| **Zone-spawn arbitration** | Weighted priority queue, lifeforce-gated | Small-LLM for tie-breakers |
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| **Overseer dispatch** | Round-robin + proximity + availability | None — pure rule |
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| **Resource-request forwarding** | Budget-check + policy | None — pure rule |
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| **District-report composition** | Aggregation query (SQL) | None — pure rule |
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| **Player-anomaly detection** | Classifier (trained on distribution) | Small-LLM for narrative-response |
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| **Cheat-decision (corruption pressure)** | Rule-based with director-trait modulation | Small-LLM rare; lifeforce-budgeted |
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**~90% rule-based.** 5–10% LLM-escalation with **structured input + structured tool-call output**, lifeforce-counted. Industrial-systems discipline (Kubernetes schedulers, ad-auctioneers, trading systems, compilers) transferred to drama-orchestration.
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**Tools as vocabulary**: every drop is explicit (`drop_emergent_signal(signal_id, reason)`); every LLM-escalation is counted; every decision pairs with prediction in `decision_log`. **Every decision leaves a trace.**
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## Rings as structural pattern
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The architecture uses **three-ring gradients** as a recurring shape in multiple decoupled subsystems. Each ring-system uses A/B/C cardinality with a Unix-style trust-gradient grammar — **inner ring** is more constrained, more tightly coupled, more authoritative; **outer rings** progressively relax constraints in exchange for reach and flexibility.
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| Ring-system | Inner (A) | Middle (B) | Outer (C) |
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| **Inference** (§LLM tiering, below) | Local on player hardware | Our hosted vLLM-multi-LoRA farm | External providers (BYOK) |
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| **Importance / attention** | Topics with consistent +1 ternary outcomes; pull NPCs across zones | Topics with stable / mixed outcomes | Topics drifting toward -1 / decay if untouched |
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| **Access** (the three ontological registers) | Imperial net (fully audited, machine-controlled) | Liminal (contested frontier, mini-game-gated) | Gameworld (commons; partly people, partly regime) |
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| **Data sharing** (v0.4.2) | Default opt-out (sovereignty preserved) | Federated gradients (gradient-only, contributor pseudonymous) | Pseudonymous-full uploads (opted-in, rewarded) |
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The ring-pattern is not coincidence — it is the right shape for **graduated authority** in human social systems generally (inner circle / mediated / outer; sovereign / partnership-mediated / captured; tight / mixed / loose). When the architecture needs a graduated authority structure, it should reach for this primitive rather than invent a new one.
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**Three is the right cardinality.** Two collapses to binary (in / out). Four+ adds boundary-thrash without semantic gain. Three carries *commons / mediated / sovereign* (or its inversion) — the irreducible political-tier.
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**Movement between rings is dynamic and outcome-driven.** Ring-of-importance is the most explicit example: topics climb on +1 results, drop on -1, decay if untouched (Aletheia-style "what isn't being attended to atrophies"). But every ring-system has movement-rules — players can change inference-rings between sessions, can change access-rings via mini-game progression, can change sharing-rings via consent-UI re-affirmation. **Ring-membership is never a final assignment.**
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Future architecture additions involving graduated authority should examine whether the ring-pattern fits before introducing new structure.
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---
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**Version:** 0.7.0 | **Created:** 2026-04-26 | **Updated:** 2026-04-26 | **Origin:** Split from architecture-broad.md v0.7 (2026-04-26)
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