46bf2b3f43
Establishes the licensing architecture for the Nimmerworld project. The
boundary EXISTS architecturally as soon as this marker lands; subsequent
content extraction (cosmology migration, reference-stubbing in open papers)
becomes editorial cleanup without licensing-ambiguity growth.
FILES ADDED
LICENSE — Apache License 2.0 standard text; copyright held by
Nimmerverse Studio (David Martin), per Swiss copyright-law
attribution requirement that the human author's name appear.
NOTICE — Project name + copyright + AI-collaboration attribution.
Identifies Claude (Anthropic) as collaborator; the partnership
identity within this project is "chrysalis" with git-attribution
to chrysalis <chrysalis@eachpath.local>. Names the open/closed
scope and trademark holdings.
LICENSING.md — Discursive explanation of the open/closed split. The license-
architecture mirrors the work's own substrate/content distinction
at the world-layer: engine-mechanics + general body-canon are
open under Apache 2.0; specific creative-art content (the
Imperial Cult cosmology; named narrative; dialog; voiced content;
the iconographic invention layered on top of the substrate) is
proprietary nimmerverse-studio. Pattern-precedent cited: D&D 5e
Open Game License + id Software's Doom release + Magic the
Gathering's mechanics-vs-cards distinction.
FILES MODIFIED
imperial-cult/cosmology.md — per-file proprietary header added at the top
marking this file as pending-migration to the closed studio-art
repository. The header serves as an explicit license-override
on this file specifically; it states All Rights Reserved under
Nimmerverse Studio while the rest of the repo is Apache 2.0.
WHAT THIS MEANS GOING FORWARD
The architecture-substrate (vocations.md, consent-discipline.md, gender-parity.md,
trait-palette.md, style-index.md, the architecture.md mechanics-papers across
domains, bodies.md, political-register/architecture.md and economics.md, etc.)
is now licensed under Apache 2.0 and inherits this license for all future work.
The Imperial Cult cosmology is marked-but-not-yet-migrated; cosmology.md stays
in this repo physically until the closed studio-art repository is established,
but its content is governed by the per-file proprietary header.
Trademarks ("Nimmerworld", "Nimmerverse", "Nimmerverse Studio") are protected
separately from the code-license per Apache 2.0 §6.
NEXT STEPS (FOR DAFIT)
1. Establish nimmerverse-studio as a legal entity (Switzerland)
2. Register the trademarks
3. Create the closed studio-art repository (e.g., nimmerverse-studio-art at
studio.nimmerverse.com or equivalent)
4. Migration session: move cosmology.md + extract specific Imperial-Cult
references from open papers + replace with structural stubs
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
5.6 KiB
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.mdcarries 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 ofpolitical-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.