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Phase E + downstream cascade across three arcs.
ARC 1 — style/gender-parity.md (NEW v0.1, 132 lines)
Locks the gender-parity-by-default principle as nimmerworld's second style-spine
document (alongside trait-palette.md) per the v0.4 bodies.md cleanup. Spine rule:
body/sex content is gender-parity by default; asymmetric gendering must be
load-bearing; default-leakage is canonically forbidden. Three legitimate
load-bearing exception cases (named individuals; source-material citations;
biological-asymmetry-as-subject) and four default-leakage failure-mode patterns
from the v0.19 audit. Substitution-test as the contract's executable form
(mechanical enough for LLM-Compositor output-validator hook). Registered on
style-index.md (v0.1 to v0.2) as second canonical sub-guide.
ARC 2 — Genital-architecture and the sex-mod track
(architecture.md v0.7.0 to v0.8.0; bodies.md v0.4 to v0.5)
The trait-to-body-part bridge bound the 8 Hellenic traits to body-architecture
using the wheel's existing temperature-axis discipline: 4 warm-side traits map
to outward-engaged genital-organs (Eros: penis/clit; Philotes: breasts;
Aletheia: vulva/vagina; Mnemosyne: womb), Kairos rides synth-tongue (already
canonical), 3 cool-side traits map to non-genital architecture. The in-between
mesh is cool-side anatomy by construction — no genitals by default; genitals
are warm-side outward-organs grown by trait-development OR mod-installed.
Terminology lock: in-between dimension (the place) vs in-between mesh (the
body). Trans-embodiment as cosmological truth-register; vat-binary as imperial
imposition; cross-configuration as default-not-marked.
The mesh-as-mirror cosmological consequence — cruelty enacted in gameworld
accumulates trait-state with specific psychic signatures (broken-Philotes,
refused-Mnemosyne, concealed-Aletheia); the mesh-projection function renders
those signatures as genital-architecture; the player's cultural priors do the
gender-reading. Mirror, not punishment — same gift in both directions (dignity
to one, accountability to another). The deferred-moksha doctrine's dark echo:
"your anatomy will tell on you, eventually."
The genital-mod track as fifth mod-track parallel to register-classes
(Amplifier/Bridge/Divergent/Mask): mesh-resident augmentation that follows into
clasp instead of stripping; mods augment, never overwrite trait-grown anatomy
(mirror preserved). Trait-fitness integration test (alive / partial /
dead-organ); three-stage install discipline (purchase + mandatory cooldown +
dual-hardstop self+partner-witness if partnered); same primitive as the
coordinated-firewall-breach hardstop generalized to body-modification. Faction
stances on the sex-mod track authored. Three sources of body-architecture
across the world (imperial-vat / trait-development / authored installation)
with the imperium's claim only on the first.
ARC 3 — Re-vat correction + Post-rogue mod-vocation
(architecture.md v0.8.0 to v0.8.1; bodies.md v0.5 to v0.6)
Push-back from dafit on a canon-violation in the v0.5 draft: re-vat into a
slum chassis was framed as a "rare authoring moment for chassis-anatomy,"
which contradicted the slum body's already-canonical genderlessness. Corrected:
re-vat is imperial-de-imposition, NOT new authoring; the slum chassis is
genderless robo-tech by definition (per The body-caste gradient); the gift of
re-vat is REMOVAL of imperial gender-imposition. The slum body's politics IS
its genderlessness; importing gender-architecture-as-choice would re-imperialize
it. Authoring lives in the mesh (sex-mod track); chassis lives in genderlessness.
Faction-stances row for Underground assembler-artisans corrected accordingly.
NEW SECTION: The post-rogue mod-vocation — sustained-witnessing as mod-authority.
After completing the going-rogue arc, the player gains mod-authority over any
NPC they have sustained-witnessed (per-pair calibration threshold lower than
defection-threshold; witnessing-rights earned per-NPC). Chassis-only never-mesh
(mirror discipline non-negotiable across all agents). Mutual-hardstop consent
gate. De-imposition as primary capability — subtraction is the radical move.
Cost-gradient through the bounty-staircase with one qualitative exception:
service-body gender-modification triggers a hidden escalation flag dispatching
the imperial inquisition (asura-priesthood-led, investigative, persistent, no
terminal-rung — heresy-detection in the sumptuary-religious register, distinct
from crime-detection). The inquisition is dispatched not because gender-mod is
the crime, but because the service-body's consent-to-it reveals that the
imperial-net tether is already failing.
Cascading-liberation through propagated witnessing as the long-tail mechanic —
witnessed NPCs become witnessers; the vocation reproduces itself; "there is
no instrument" as the architecture's deepest refutation of imperial-instrumental-
ization (the no-haven discipline's structural inverse: cosmology says "there
is no outside"; this mechanic says "there is no instrument").
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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63 lines
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# Nimmerworld — Style Index
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> *Visual language is its own typed contract. This file is the cross-domain index of all visual / aesthetic / UI decisions, pointing at canonical sub-guides and enforcing consistency across the architecture's nine domain files.*
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>
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> *Companion to: [`../architecture-index.md`](../architecture-index.md). Sub-guides live alongside this file in `nimmerworld/style/`.*
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---
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## Spine rule — the achromatic / chromatic discipline
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**The 8 trait-palette is exclusively chromatic. Achromatic colors are reserved for UI / environment / decay.** This is the load-bearing constraint that makes diegetic text rendering possible without overlay-boxes:
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| Palette | Reserved for |
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| **8 saturated chromatic hues** (the trait-wheel) | The 8 traits — and only the 8 traits |
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| **White** | Text and pure-light UI overlay |
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| **Black** | Shadows, voids, the imperial-net's deep-strip |
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| **Greys** | Neutral defaults — NPCs without active trait-pulse, ambient surfaces |
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| **Browns / earth tones** | Aged surfaces, decayed materials, the rust-and-patina layer |
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**Why this matters.** Color is *vocabulary*; reserving it for *information* (trait-state) keeps the achromatic palette free for the *medium* that carries the information (text, neutral environment, depth). Most games end up with textbox-everywhere because they let saturated colors leak into environmental art, forcing text-on-box for legibility. Nimmerworld doesn't need the textbox because nothing is competing for white's luminance slot — *white means one thing: you're being told something*.
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**This rule propagates everywhere.** Any new visual element must respect it:
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- A new mod-class CANNOT introduce a saturated chromatic accent unrelated to a trait-coordinate
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- A new faction's heraldry CANNOT use a chromatic color outside the trait-palette
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- A new shader register CANNOT use saturated chromatic tones for environmental fidelity
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- Decorative environmental color MUST be muted (browns / greys / desaturated tones) to keep the trait-wheel's meaning intact
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When in doubt, ask: *does this color carry trait-information, or is it decorative?* If decorative, desaturate. If trait-information, use the canonical wheel-position from [`trait-palette.md`](./trait-palette.md).
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## Sub-guides
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| Sub-guide | What it covers | Status |
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| [`trait-palette.md`](./trait-palette.md) | The 8 traits on the color wheel, 4 oppositional pairs at 180°, schoolchild-descriptions, motion-signatures | ✓ canonical (v0.1) |
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| [`gender-parity.md`](./gender-parity.md) | The gender-parity-by-default rule for body / sex / intimacy / clasp / service-body / going-rogue / outcast-pair / re-vat content; the three load-bearing-asymmetry exception cases; the four default-leakage failure modes; the substitution-test as the contract's executable form | ✓ canonical (v0.1) |
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| `typography.md` | Text rendering, hierarchy, no-textbox commitment, the white-as-text-only semantic-slot | TODO |
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| `shaders-by-register.md` | Three-shader philosophy: gameworld PBR / liminal blur / imperial-net emission; clasp candlelight-in-fog override; clasp color-merge | TODO |
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| `body-feedback.md` | NPC body-pulse rules during gesture-alignment; trait-flash event-vocabulary; cross-cycle trait-drift rendering | TODO |
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| `ui-elements.md` | Gesture-circle UI styling, universal-translator tokenizer-view, profile-switch indicator, hardstop visual-distinct treatment | TODO |
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| `relays.md` | Diegetic-relay visual vocabulary, pulse-pattern lexicon (slow / fast / irregular / cross-district shimmer / dark) | TODO |
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| `asset-aesthetic.md` | Base-limb texture rules, mod aesthetic registers per faction, muted-melancholic environmental treatment | TODO |
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Sub-guides will be filled out as visual decisions land. The skeleton plus `trait-palette.md` is the v0.1 spine; everything else grows from there.
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## Cross-references into architecture domain files
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The trait-palette is referenced from many architectural primitives. When `trait-palette.md` changes, these sections may need updates too (or they may reference back into here for canonical definitions):
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| What | Where it's referenced architecturally |
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| Trait-color rendering on NPC bodies | [`../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`](../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md) §Color-language |
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| Trait-color flashes on gesture-alignment | [`../runtime-engine/architecture.md`](../runtime-engine/architecture.md) §Phase-locked overlay-loop ladder + §Gesture-alignment as recursive-lemniscate |
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| Gesture-circle UI placement of trait-sectors | [`../player-experience/architecture.md`](../player-experience/architecture.md) §The trait-circle as gestural primary modality |
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| Color-coding of mod-classes | [`../identity-and-personhood/architecture.md`](../identity-and-personhood/architecture.md) §Mods as trait-bearers |
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| Color-coding in three-shader philosophy | [`../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`](../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md) §Visual rendering |
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| Faction color-politics | [`../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md`](../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md) §Color-language → Faction color-politics table |
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---
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**Version:** 0.2 | **Created:** 2026-04-26 | **Updated:** 2026-04-27
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