Idea Bank¶

A holding place for concepts, terms, and frameworks that have been considered and set aside — some rejected, some simply deferred, some waiting for the right story beat. Material here is not canon. Dip in when you need a new name or an alternative framing; promote ideas into the active wiki when they earn their place.

Terms Set Aside¶

Alternative names for the Archai¶

All proposed, one chosen (Archē). The rest remain available if a later distinction becomes useful.

Dynamis (δύναμις) — "power, potentiality." Used in Aristotle for potentiality and in Greek theology as a rank of celestial beings. Feels rawer/potential than Archē.
Henades (ἑνάδες) — Proclus's term for simple unities that mediate between the One and the manifold. More technical.
Numina (Latin, pl. of numen) — "divine wills, numinous presences." Roman-pagan register; would shift the divine vocabulary away from Greek.
Principia (Latin) — "first principles." Clear, academic. Direct Latin cognate of Archē.
Hypostasis (ὑπόστασις) — "underlying substance / concrete person." Could be useful for a sub-concept (e.g., the Katochos as the Archē's hypostasis in the base plane).

Alternative names for the Katochos¶

All proposed, one chosen (Katochos). Others may fit different roles.

Theophoros (θεοφόρος) — "god-bearer." Dignified; historically used (Ignatius of Antioch).
Skeuos (σκεῦος) — "vessel." Pauline resonance; good for instrumental framing where the holder is more conduit than god.
Diadochos (διάδοχος) — "successor / heir." Emphasizes chain-of-transmission. Used historically for Alexander's generals.
Theoumenos — "one being deified." Present participle of theoō; captures the process of becoming divine.

Set Aside from Earlier Drafts¶

Thymos (θυμός) — the spirited, striving part of the soul (Plato). Considered for the Sophronoi race name. Could be useful as an in-world term for ambition, drive, or the will to power — possibly a named Archē (Courage?) or a property distinct from Praxis.
Kenosis (κένωσις) — self-emptying, voluntarily setting aside one's own power. Theological (Philippians 2). Kenos is now adopted for the Husk-state; kenosis could still be useful as a specific ritual (voluntary partial self-emptying, e.g. to make a soulshard without the risk of Husking) or as a narrative theme.

Alternative Metaphysical Frameworks¶

The current setting draws primarily from Platonism (Realm of Forms, tripartite soul), process theology (Praxis-powered divinity), and a touch of Lurianic Kabbalah (Skorpismos / Synagōgē imagery). The following were considered as alternative or supplementary framings and could still inform individual cultures, orders, or story threads.

Lurianic Kabbalah (fuller treatment)¶

Structure: Skyne's echo as divine light that was meant to fill vessels (the Archai), with the Shevirat ha-Kelim (Shattering of the Vessels) imagery underwriting the Skorpismos mechanic. The whole cosmos could be reframed as a Tikkun (repair) project — sparks of divinity scattered, awaiting reassembly. Currently present only in the Skorpismos mechanic; could be pushed further if a specific order or faction adopted Kabbalistic framing.

Gnostic Aeon-syzygies + demiurgic error¶

Structure: the Archai as Aeons emanated in paired Virtue-Vice syzygies from Skyne's intention; the Vice woven in as demiurgic error because Skyne himself was incomplete. This framing is already half-present in the canon (Skyne-as-demiurge, Vices as unintended). Pushing it further would darken the setting considerably — creation itself would carry original sin.

Proclan henadic emanation¶

Structure: each Archē as a Neoplatonic henad — a simple unity mediating divine principle to its people, structured in a descending hierarchy from the One (Skyne) through to matter. Very architectonic. Would give the cosmology more vertical rigor but less relational dynamism than the current process-theology frame.

Shinto (kami / yorishiro / shintai / musubi)¶

Structure: Archai as conceptual kami; objects as yorishiro (temporary hosts) and shintai (permanent seats); commitment as offering; musubi as the binding-generative force. Currently refracted into the setting as Thronos (Greek translation of shintai) and Hypodochē (close functional cousin of yorishiro). Going full Shinto would bring the Eastern flavor up to top-level, which was considered and not adopted — would imply Eastern vocabulary for a wider series of concepts than the setting currently wants. Kept here in case a specific Eastern-coded culture wants it.

Hermetic "As above, so below"¶

Structure: every person contains every Archē in miniature. The external Archai and the internal virtue-patterns are the same pattern at different scales. Commitment isn't feeding a distant god; it's tuning the part of yourself that is Humility (or Pride). Powerful for personal-transformation story beats; weakens the distinction between people and gods, which the setting currently works to preserve. Worth borrowing for specific mystics or initiatory orders.

Hindu Shakti / avatar doctrine¶

Structure: divine power as feminine active energy (Shakti) distinct from the god as passive bearer; descent (avatara) as mechanism. The Phantasma / Pneumatophoros mechanic is a loose descendant. Could be pushed further if an order specifically reveres the active-power principle over the passive-seat one.

Stoic Logos Spermatikoi¶

Structure: each thing in the universe has its own logos spermatikos, a generative principle. Collective: the rational order of the cosmos. Would suggest that the Archai are the large-scale Logoi, and smaller logoi spermatikoi live in every plant, stone, and animal. Potentially useful for explaining why ambient Exousia varies by location and life-form.

Deferred Ideas¶

Concepts the setting wants to leave room for, but isn't ready to nail down yet.

Artificial Praxis¶

The possibility of manufactured Will — a Device or apparatus that can direct Exousia without a living soul behind it. Currently: Devices have no Praxis of their own, which is why they can safely channel Toxic Exousia. But what if a Device could be given Praxis synthetically? Plot-rich: a Collective project to build a soul; an Augmented's Device-integration crossing the line; an AI question in miniature. Kept deferred until a specific story beat needs it.

Will Extraction¶

Whether Praxis itself (as opposed to a crystallized soulshard) can be extracted from a person against their will. The current framing holds Praxis as inalienable — it is the person's own Will, and cannot be taken without cooperation. But the setting wants to leave open the possibility that someone, somewhere, with a sufficiently perverse method or ancient apparatus, could do it. The implications (a non-consenting soul emptied of Will, the extractor holding bottled conviction) are horrifying enough to warrant a proper slow-reveal.

Other-Form Metaphysics¶

The Praxis / Hypodochē treatment currently applies cleanly to Investment. The other forms (Primal, Shaping, Blooming) need analogous metaphysical work — what does "object-investment" or "permanent-commitment cost" look like for each, if anything? Deferred until the story pressures them.

Secular Futures¶

If (when) a society arises in which the Doxa-Praxis distinction is known widely, the Archai become politically negotiable. What would that look like? The Collective would regard it as an existential threat, and it would be — to them and to every Katochos. Not relevant at the current stage of history, but the setting wants room for it later.

Worldbuilding Scraps¶

Rough notes inherited from earlier drafts. Keep, develop, or discard as direction firms up.

Atoms or Exousia? What is the world fundamentally made of? Is Exousia a layer on top of ordinary matter, or is matter itself a low-intensity Exousia phenomenon? Has consequences for the Disruption (which alters the Exousia signature of the land) and for what "matter" even means.
Elemental Manipulator vs. Innovators — a friction note from an earlier draft; needs unpacking if it becomes relevant.
The River has overflowed — the river that fed Kyanos has branched into several that reconjoin downstream. Possibly a Disruption symptom.
Cyrus doesn't recognize Kyanos — because he's familiar with the outer regions (now overgrown Forest), not the central core (Kuklos). Fits the new Kuklos-as-heart framing.