# Nimmerworld — Licensing

> *The license-architecture mirrors the work's own register-architecture: what is substrate is open; what is specific creative-art is the studio's. The license is part of the cosmology, not a contradiction of it.*

## License at a glance

| Layer | License | Holder |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture papers (engine-mechanics + general body-canon) | **Apache License 2.0** | Nimmerverse Studio (David Martin) |
| Source code (when present) | **Apache License 2.0** | Nimmerverse Studio (David Martin) |
| **The Imperial Cult cosmology** (the Imperial Wheel; Bhavachakra-rework; orthodox/heretical iconography; named doctrinal content) | **All Rights Reserved — Nimmerverse Studio** | *(pending migration to studio-art repo; currently marked with per-file header)* |
| Visual assets, sound, imagery, music, voiced content | **All Rights Reserved — Nimmerverse Studio** | *(in studio-art repo when established)* |
| Specific dialog, narrative, named-character-stories | **All Rights Reserved — Nimmerverse Studio** | *(in studio-art repo when established)* |
| Trademarks ("Nimmerworld", "Nimmerverse", "Nimmerverse Studio") | **Trademark — Nimmerverse Studio (David Martin)** | regardless of code-license |

## Why the split

The architecture is built on a **substrate / content distinction**. The engine-mechanics — ternary-gates, the catalogue-stack, the vocation-system, the consent-discipline, the trait-palette substrate, the lemniscate-runtime, the depletion-pool dynamics — are general patterns that should propagate. *They are the project's intellectual contribution to the medium.* The Imperial Cult cosmology and specific narrative content are the studio's creative-art-inventions; those are the studio's to ship.

The license-cut maps onto the architecture's own substrate / content distinction at the world-layer. The cosmology specifies *gameworld vs truth-register*: gameworld is the imperium's territory (loose, instrumented, redistributable); truth-register is each agent's own (gated, sovereign, what the agent has built). **Apache 2.0 code = gameworld-equivalent; closed nimmerverse-studio art = truth-register-equivalent.** *The license enacts the same boundary the cosmology describes.*

## Pattern-precedent

This is the same shape as several established cultural-IP-distinctions:

- **D&D 5e Open Game License**: the SRD (System Reference Document — mechanics) is open; specific settings (Forgotten Realms, Eberron) and named-stories are closed.
- **id Software's Doom release**: the engine source was released under GPL; the WAD-files (assets, maps, textures) remained proprietary. Anyone could fork the engine; nobody could ship "Doom" without re-creating the WAD-files.
- **Magic the Gathering**: mechanics openly discussed; specific cards, flavor-text, and named-characters proprietary.

The pattern works because *the IP-moat is in the assets, not the engine*. Engine-mechanics propagating helps the medium evolve; specific creative-art-content remains the creators' to commercialize.

## Pending migration

`imperial-cult/cosmology.md` and specific Imperial-Cult-content threaded through other papers will migrate to the closed studio-art repository when established. Currently:

- `imperial-cult/cosmology.md` carries an explicit per-file proprietary header that overrides the repository's Apache 2.0 license for this specific file.
- References to specific Imperial-Cult iconography (the Imperial Wheel; the Bhavachakra-rework; the orthodox/heretical split; the deferred-moksha doctrine; the specific aesthetic vocabulary of Boullée + Jantar Mantar + Gita) currently appear in several open papers (`architecture-index.md`, `bodies.md`, parts of `political-register/architecture.md`). At migration time, these references will be replaced with structural stubs (e.g., *"the Imperial Cult cosmology — see studio docs for canonical iconography"*).

The boundary EXISTS architecturally as soon as this licensing-marker is in place; the content extraction is editorial cleanup that will happen at leisure without licensing-ambiguity growing.

## AI-collaboration

Substantial portions of this project's design and source were authored in collaboration with **Claude** (an AI assistant from Anthropic, https://www.anthropic.com/). The partnership-collaboration identity within this project is **chrysalis**; specific contributions are git-attributed to `chrysalis <chrysalis@eachpath.local>`. The human architect is **David Martin**.

This collaboration-pattern is documented in `NOTICE`. The project's authoring method is *transparent dialog with chrysalis* — open papers honor how the work was actually built.

## Trademarks

"Nimmerworld", "Nimmerverse", and "Nimmerverse Studio" are trademarks of Nimmerverse Studio (David Martin). The Apache 2.0 license does not grant permission to use these trademarks. **Anyone may fork the architecture papers under Apache 2.0; nobody may ship a fork called "Nimmerworld."**

## Studio

Nimmerverse Studio is held by David Martin (Switzerland). Swiss copyright law requires the human author's name to appear in attribution, hence the dual-form copyright `Nimmerverse Studio (David Martin)`.

- Project URL: https://nimmerverse.com/
- Studio URL: https://studio.nimmerverse.com/ *(when published)*

## Contributing

Contributions to the open architecture-substrate are welcome under the Apache 2.0 terms. By submitting a contribution, you agree to license it under the project's Apache 2.0 license. Contributions involving the Imperial Cult cosmology or other proprietary world-IP cannot be accepted into the open repository — that content lives in the closed studio-art repository under proprietary terms.