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Nimmerworld — Style Index
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.
Companion to:
../architecture-index.md. Sub-guides live alongside this file innimmerworld/style/.
Spine rule — the achromatic / chromatic discipline
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:
| Palette | Reserved for |
|---|---|
| 8 saturated chromatic hues (the trait-wheel) | The 8 traits — and only the 8 traits |
| White | Text and pure-light UI overlay |
| Black | Shadows, voids, the imperial-net's deep-strip |
| Greys | Neutral defaults — NPCs without active trait-pulse, ambient surfaces |
| Browns / earth tones | Aged surfaces, decayed materials, the rust-and-patina layer |
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.
This rule propagates everywhere. Any new visual element must respect it:
- A new mod-class CANNOT introduce a saturated chromatic accent unrelated to a trait-coordinate
- A new faction's heraldry CANNOT use a chromatic color outside the trait-palette
- A new shader register CANNOT use saturated chromatic tones for environmental fidelity
- Decorative environmental color MUST be muted (browns / greys / desaturated tones) to keep the trait-wheel's meaning intact
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.
Sub-guides
| Sub-guide | What it covers | Status |
|---|---|---|
trait-palette.md |
The 8 traits on the color wheel, 4 oppositional pairs at 180°, schoolchild-descriptions, motion-signatures | ✓ canonical (v0.1) |
typography.md |
Text rendering, hierarchy, no-textbox commitment, the white-as-text-only semantic-slot | TODO |
shaders-by-register.md |
Three-shader philosophy: gameworld PBR / liminal blur / imperial-net emission; clasp candlelight-in-fog override; clasp color-merge | TODO |
body-feedback.md |
NPC body-pulse rules during gesture-alignment; trait-flash event-vocabulary; cross-cycle trait-drift rendering | TODO |
ui-elements.md |
Gesture-circle UI styling, universal-translator tokenizer-view, profile-switch indicator, hardstop visual-distinct treatment | TODO |
relays.md |
Diegetic-relay visual vocabulary, pulse-pattern lexicon (slow / fast / irregular / cross-district shimmer / dark) | TODO |
asset-aesthetic.md |
Base-limb texture rules, mod aesthetic registers per faction, muted-melancholic environmental treatment | TODO |
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.
Cross-references into architecture domain files
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):
| What | Where it's referenced architecturally |
|---|---|
| Trait-color rendering on NPC bodies | ../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md §Color-language |
| Trait-color flashes on gesture-alignment | ../runtime-engine/architecture.md §Phase-locked overlay-loop ladder + §Gesture-alignment as recursive-lemniscate |
| Gesture-circle UI placement of trait-sectors | ../player-experience/architecture.md §The trait-circle as gestural primary modality |
| Color-coding of mod-classes | ../identity-and-personhood/architecture.md §Mods as trait-bearers |
| Color-coding in three-shader philosophy | ../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md §Visual rendering |
| Faction color-politics | ../topology-and-rendering/architecture.md §Color-language → Faction color-politics table |
Version: 0.1 | Created: 2026-04-26 | Updated: 2026-04-26